[CQ-Contest] Contest Antennas

[Glenn D. O'Donnell]

SRI to waste reflector bandwidth, but my direct reply to ZL2AL failed.
I'm sure it was cockpit error on my part.  It is Monday, you know!
Hopefully this will make it.

73 de Glenn, K3PP (one of Berger's Bandits @ K3II for CQWW Phone)

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I LOVE THEM!

I have three monobanders (EF-420, EF-415, EF-410) in a "Christmas Tree"
arrangement at 68 ft, 76 ft, and 84 ft respectively.  They perform well
and have taken a lot of abuse my Mother Nature.  I get high winds atop
my tower (~10 MPH almost constant, gusts up to 60 MPH), apparently from
the way the air interacts with the valleys surrounding my hilltop QTH.
I've had them ice up to the point that I thought the 20m was beyond
recovery.  Much to my happy surprise, it bounced back when the ice
melted/shook off.  Assembly using the rivets is the best and easiest
I've ever seen.  Any idiot can put them together.  I DID!   :-)

A lot of people rave about their C-3 tribander and its bretheren.  A friend
of mine replaced an A3S with a C-3 and he can't believe the difference.
If I were to buy a tribander, I'd certainly consider the C-4 or C-4X (with
the 40m addition).  The new "mystery" antenna that Bencher has announced
looks like it may be a good contender as do the new X-series from Cushcraft.
Both designs bear a lot of resemblance to the Force-12 C-series open-sleeve
design.  I call the Bencher a "mystery" antenna because little info is
available on it.  They announced it just before Dayton and I think I remember
they had some info at their Dayton booth, but little has been mentioned since.
It looks like a real winner and its designers are icons of the worlds of
antennas and contesting.

At some point, I want to put up another tower, move the 10 & 15 to it,
then add a Force-12 2 or 3 element 40m atop the existing tower.  According
to computer models, my 10 and 15 are a bit too high right now.  I've
been playing with K6BV's YT terrain analysis software from the new ARRL
Antenna Book.  It's a REAL eye opener!

My only complaint about Force-12?   *LONG* lead times!!  I waited about
3 months for mine, so order early!  Fortunately, they were worth the wait.
Maybe their delays are better now.

73 de Glenn, K3PP

> Hi All 
> Anyone have any experience with Force 12 antennas! good, bad,
> indifferent. Your comments would be appreciated
> de Lee ZL2AL

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