Topband: TITANEX

[ragnar otterstad]

KC4MOP:
>What is the mystery or performance advantages of the Titanex vertical


As a happy owner of a V160 let me share one season´s experience with you.

In my opinion the most interesting feature is the ratio of mechanical
strength vs weight.
The whole 27 meters is just 7.5 Kg.  The weak point appeared to be just 3
sets of guys. Under certain wind conds it bent over. I corresponded with
TITANEX about it and they agreed that 4 guys is needed and were going to
change the specs as well as send me extra Kevlar to add the 4th set
at no extra cost.

I have the original remotely controlled ATU but did not get it organised in
time, so I ended up by using an Ameritron ATR-30 designed by our old friend
Tom W8JI. It turned out that there was not enough L to get proper loading on
160 so I added an old surplus QRO coil in series to get a proper match. The
I achieved  SWR 1:1 on 160.   By accident I fired up on 80 CW without
changing the settings on ATR-30. Much to my surprise and enourmous pleasure
the SWR on 80 was 1.5:1. So by accident I had instant bandswitching!  Being
lazy, I decided to try the set-up on 7 and 10 Mhz using an inside ATU to
compensate for the mis-match.  Despite the losses I must have had, the
results were excellent also on 30 and 40 meters.

To complete the picture, I used 4 radials for 40, 6 on 80 and 40 on 160, all
semi-elevated, i.e. about 0.5 meters above ground. Some were burried in snow
during mid-winter.

The ground here is clay and I am very close to the Telemark canal, NB...not
salt water!

I constantly came through early in the pile ups and appeared to copy
DXpeditons others in Europe had problems in hearing.

A big plus for me has been the ease with which I could remove the antenna in
the spring, as it has been on my neighbour´s land.

The most negative thing I found was the inadequate documentation which came
with the antenna.
Perhaps I am less smart than the average ham, but it took me some time to
figure out which parts went into what. The parts were not marked, such as I
found with FORCE 12 when I assembled my Magnum 20-30-40 at my OZ8RO QTH.

BUT, once you have it assembled it is a piece of cake to erect it, as it is
so lightweight.It will bend so you think the whole thing will break any
moment - but is does not!!!!!  After 3 bend overs the elements shows wear,
but nothing breaks!  I am sure those who have used it from
VK9 - D68C etc can tell you how it performs in a tropical climate.

The combination of Titanium and Aluminium is a winner, although still a bit
pricey.

For a visual input take a look on my photo pages:

http://no.photos.yahoo.com/la5he

and click on " Radio "

73
Ragnar Otterstad " RAG"  LA5HE Also JW5HE OZ8RO.



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