Topband: 5/8 vertical

[Dennis OConnor]

Hi Bruce,
Well, it is horses for courses... The biggest problem for the DX oriented ham with a 5/8 wave will be the very high, and very big (only -5dB) secondary lobe, bringing in a ton of monky chatter when you try to listen on it... The second problem is the main lobe centered at 9 degrees... He would be better served by a half wave IMO...
 
I have a half wave 40 meter vertical, bototm fed against a radial field... Its main lobe is centered on 12 degrees with no higher angle responses... It can be a killer antenna for opening the band and closing the band... But it is down from the high dipoles the rest of the evening...  During  CQWW the VK/ZL path was better on the dipole during the early morning hours...  Interestingly, at times I hear better on the vertical because it suppresses the high angle monkey chatter much more than the lower angle DX signal, so I often port the vertical to the sub receiver and use the dipole on the main rx/tx... I also use a quarter wave vertical on 40 and every once in a while that is the best antenna for the propagation...  
 
On 80 I have a two element vertical array with quarter wave elements pointed into Europe...  That has a higher wave angle than my 40 meter half wave... Even then, this is the array to open the band... The rest of the night the high dipoles shine...  But during that 40-60 minute period the verticals really take over...
 
As far as discussing ground radials and elevated radials - completely separate issues, each with their own requirements...
 
I would be interested to hear more details on your 80 array, being I love to mess with antennas...  PM me, if you want...
 
cheers, eh wot.
denny / k8do