Ed is right about not having to spend money to have a big signal.
Although I bought my M2 stuff new, the four Cushcraft antennas are all
used. The A-3 tribander cost me $75. The three high stack of A-3WS antennas
were all second hand and I think the three high stack for 12/17 cost me
around $500 total and that includes the 30 meter adapter kit for the top one.
The signal is second to none on 12 and 17....for $500.
Bottom line, like Ed said...you can spend big bucks for antennas or you
can be resourceful and do it on the cheap, but still have a good signal.
K4XS
In a message dated 4/11/2015 11:08:55 A.M. Coordinated Universal Tim,
sawyered@earthlink.net writes:
I can add some additional color to K4XS commentary. For a few reasons – I
know Bill and he won’t mind and I actually own/owned a few of Bill’s
antennas from his original W4 QTH before moving to KH6.
I bought a 6 el KLM 10M and a 6 el KLM 15 from N4BAA who had bought up many
of Bill’s antennas back then. I think I paid $400 for the 2 of them back 5
years ago or so. They worked as expected and I was very happy with them.
But the design is flimsy and they had road wear so about 2 ½ years ago I
swapped them out with something newer. But the point of that is I was LOUD
for cheap.
Many years back I helped K1TTT with some antenna work and Dave was trying
to
literally “just get rid of” some aluminum. 2 of them – which I received
were a Telrex 4 el 20M and a Telrex 8 el 15M (interesting side note that
these antennas started life on W1AW’s towers in the 1970s and 80s). I also
rounded up some other Telrex elements which ended up being a 3 el 20M beam.
I still use and “own the band” into EU with that 15M beam on a 45 foot
boom.
The 20M is now modified for better bandwidth at a sacrifice of about 0.5dB
of gain but still “kicks tail” on 20M to EU. The 20M 3 el had some rust
issues finally and got replaced with a 3el Home Brew to the south.
A final note on Hygain/Cushcraft. I have purchased these antennas as
“starting points” for large yagis. I bought a 10M 5 el “Long John” beam
and
added some extra aluminum purchased from Texas Towers. The combo is now an
8 el – 44 ft boom 10M “Elephant Gun” fixed on Europe. It “makes a
statement” to say the least.
You don’t have to spend $10k in antennas to put a smile on your face in
pile
ups or contests folks.
73
Ed N1UR
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