I prefer stacking tribanders at 32 foot separation. Whatever choice is
made, there is always going to be a compromise for at least two of the
bands.
73, Keith NM5G
-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Brad Pioveson W9FX
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 4:33 PM
To: TowerTalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Stacked KT34XA's vs The Competition?
Greetings, TT'ians. In a conversation held yesterday with a friend who's an
avid contest op, the subject of stacked tri-banders came up. My friend
commented that he has a stack of three KT34XA's on a tower, one each at
120', 80' and, 40', all connected using a StackMatch device and fed with
low-loss line. He mentioned that he's never been impressed with the
performance of the stack vs his 5 ele monoband yagis for 20 and 15 located
on an adjacent tower at 120' and 100', respectively. "Only very rarely," he
said, "will the stack - with the antennas taken singly or in any combination
- display an advantage whatsoever when I compare signals with the 5 ele,
long boom, homebrew, monoband yagis for 14 and 21 MHz. The monobanders
will, in nearly every case, outperform the stack."
That got me to thinking... I don't recall seeing KT34XA's mentioned often
in contest station writeups as the tri-bander-of-choice for stacking. Are
my recollections accurate, and, if so, why is that? I do remember having
heard, worked, and or read about other brands of antennas being used...but,
not KT34's. Is there a reason...does the KT34XA design and pattern
(patterns, considering all three bands) not lend itself well to a stacked
setup? Or, should this stack work better than described? I realize I
haven't given any hard performance data, only the comments of the guy that
built the array, uses it regularly, and is puzzled as to why it doesn't
'work' better than it does.
If my friend's stack of KT34XA's is not performing as well as, say, an
equivalent stack of TH6's, F12's, it also strikes me that now - during the
solar cycle lull - would seem to be an excellent time to start on a long
range plan to swap out the antennas with those that will make better use of
his 120' support, Ring rotors, and associated hardware.
Thoughts, anyone?
73, Brad, W9FX
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