Back in 1986, FWIW, I went in for the Bermuda Contest. With 20m open in the
afternoon GMT, I found that the 5 ele monobander at 62 feet was FB for the US
West Coast, but a G5RV at 30 feet outperformed it for the East Coast - ONCE
THE BAND WAS OPEN!!! I switched betwen the two, in fact, to keep the frequency,
and run at up to 200 an hour on SSB. But before the band really opened, and
once it began to close, the higher antenna did the better job. And having a 20m
beam at 120 feet has even mnore advantages when the opening is just happening.
Given my 'druthers, I'd have 3 stacked 4 ele Steppirs (or even better,
Monstirs!), ranging from 35 through 70 thru 120 feet.......I suspect there's
lot of people on TowerTalk would be happy with that arrangement....
Similarly, on 28 MHz about 4 years ago, with a 4ele monobander at 68 feet, I
could have real problems with a pile up for central America unless I was there
about the time the band opened. I really needed another beam at about 30 feet.
73
Peter G3RZP
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