I have a Hy-Gain LP-1009, and have compared it with a 204BA and other
single band antennas.
It does exhibit the broadband SWR, although it would be neat to be able
to optimize it in the ham bands. The gain seems to be about 1 dB less
than the 204BA (7.2 vs. 8.2 dBi, measured by pattern width and confirmed
roughly in operation), and it has somewhat less F/B as expected. But
it has been pretty foolproof in rough environment, and it seems to perform
in pileups just about as the manufacturer's gain figure would indicate.
I've had the experience of wiping out the performance of monobanders that
are too close stacked, and in a single-tower situation this antenna could
easily have better average performance over all the bands.
The thing I like about the LP is that "it just does what it does" very
reliably, so it's a great antenna for a comparison reference. Sure, it
gives up a dB to a monobander of the same boom length, but it covers all
the bands from 20-10. It's hard to get used to not having the SWR rise at
the band edges. I would guess that resonant antennas would generally
outperform the LP, so I'd look also at the TH-11 and the Force-12 C3/C4
series.
73 de Dave, W6QHS
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