Comment by entropicgravity

For sure they do not work the way the "Path Loss Equation" would have you believe they do. The path loss equation violates conservation of energy ie the frequency or wavelength term depending on how it's structured cannot be in the equation. And the receiving antenna does not have any 'gain' other than physically getting bigger or smaller, though the transmitting antenna can have gain depending on shape and size. That is, the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna work very differently. Yes, end to end the path loss equation gives the right answer but in between it's scientifically illiterate.