On Nov 26, 2006, at 1:23 PM, K8RI on TowerTalk wrote:
>
>
>
>> Howdy all...
>>
>> I am going to be relocating to a new QTH and was looking at
>> getting a new
>> multiband vertical. I would like to have something that would be
>> for 40 -
>> 15 meters. I know there are lots of options out there, but just
>> not sure
>> which ones are really worth the money. I have been steering more
>> thowards
>> the Hy-Gain. Any help or opinions would greatly be appreciated.
>
>
> I can't really recommend one over another but my experience with
> the Hy Gain
> AV640 (Partiot) has been less than stellar. I will hasten to add
> that the
> performance could easily be my installation.
>
> I have the AV640 mounted on top of a 32 foot Aluminum tower at the
> west end
> of the shop. The shop is all metal and the yard (one square acre) is
> surrounded by tall trees so I didn't figure I had much in the way of
> mounting options.
>
> Matching was not a big problem but tuning requires care as "a
> little goes a
> long ways" when it comes to pruning the band adjustments. The
> antenna meets
> or exceeds the band width on all bads "as far as SWR is
> concerned". Where
> it exceedes it is not by much in the way of band width, but so far
> that was
> a good sign.
>
> The antenna appears to work very well on 40 and as well as could be
> expected
> as a straight vertical on six meters which aint bad when the band
> opens.
> Certainly it's a long way from the 7-L at 115 feet but that is to be
> expected. I've worked a few countries on 40 and caught a few short
> openings
> on six which let me work the East, West, and Gulf coasts as well as
> a few
> spots in between.
>
> Unfortunately it acts like a dummy load on 20. It matches up well,
> the band
> width is about the same as shown on the charts, but it hears very
> little
> while a wire antenna or the beam will show the band to be alive.
> Nor have I
> been able to get an answer to any call. It appears to hear "OK" on
> 10 and
> 15, but I've not caught any band openings while working out in the
> shop.
>
> Maybe I'll get a chance to try it ground mounted in the middle of
> the back
> yard some time in the near future and see how that works.
>
> It isn't much but I hope it's of use.
>
I also have a AV-640 (my only HF antenna currently) and my experience
with it over the past 5 years is quite different. I have had good
results from 40-10 (don't do 6) and a contact with 5A7A this morning
through the pileup on 20 shows that it is definitely not a dummy load
on that band :^)
I even loaded it up on 160 and 80 (limiting the power to 100 watts)
and worked a few in the contest. I haven't worked anything on 10
recently (conditions) but have done well in the past on that band
also. So far in the CQWW I have 3 mults on 160, 7 on 80, 44 on 40,
68 on 20 and 36 on 15 meters. It's not a beam on a tall tower, but
I'm certainly satisfied and it was quite a bit less than the similar
R8, which I also considered.
I don't have it mounted on a 15 ft. pole bolted to an eave of my
house. I don't really have enough room for decent radials, but with
over a foot of rain in the past week the ground is saturated and
probably fairly conductive here (I'm <500 feet from salt water, which
doesn't hurt!)
Back to the contest....
73 - Bob, N7XY
Bainbridge Island, WA (NA-065)
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