Topband: GAP VERTICAL QUESTION

[Scott MacKenzie]

I have a Gap Titan.  As the other people indicate it is not as good as a
whole variety of other antennas.  It is only good for 80 and up.  I find
that it works fairly well on 40 and 20M.  Do I get stomped on in a pile-up -
yes I do.  Will I eventually make the contact - probably.  At times my
dipole on 40M does better, at other times it is the Gap Titan.  However, I
didn't buy this antenna to be the top of the pileup.  I bought it to be
maintenance free and a low hassle installation.  It has been up for 10
years, and it has satisfied the goal of having an antenna in the air with
very little maintenance.  I make contacts when I want - I just wont be the
first one to work the rare DX in a pileup.

 Scott aka kb0fhp

-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of DGB
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 6:27 PM
To: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: GAP VERTICAL QUESTION

K7LXC book review was with the Titan. It was a poor performer against the
Challenger, much less my other antennas IMHO of my testing between the two,
Junk!

de ns9i



On 12/11/2012 5:13 PM, Tom W8JI wrote:
>>
>> So my question is.... does anyone have actual experience with these 
>> antennas (especially the voyager) as compared to other antennas for a 
>> specific frequency. Now guys .. I know you cant really compare a 6 
>> element beam to a vertical of this kind but I am talking about a 
>> comparison that is realistic.. like how does it hear, tune, match & 
>> get out compared to something like another vertical or a dipole up 
>> some reasonable distance.
>>
>
> Jim,
>
> Years ago someone purchased and had me measure a GAP vertical. The Gap 
> was terrible on 160 and 80 meters. It was OK on most other bands. On 
> 160 meters, although I have a pretty good mobile antenna, I had about 
> the same field strength from my mobile antenna. The Gap was down about 
> 10 dB from a 1/4 wave on 80 meters, as I recall. My mobile antenna is 
> about 20 dB down from my 1/4 wave 160 meter vertical.
>
> The ARRL reviewed one Gap vertical in an on-the-air A-B test, and a 
> small ground  mounted trap vertical was equal or better.  I'm sure you 
> can search ARRL reviews and find this review.
>
> Also, the HF Verticals test by K7LXC and Ward Silver compared many 
> verticals, and had about the same results on 80 meters as I found and 
> the ARRL found.
>
> All of these completely independent tests were A-B tests against other 
> reference verticals, and all pretty much agreed with each other.
>
> This doesn't mean you can't work DX with a Gap, because I can work VK, 
> JA, and Europe on 160 with my mobile antenna. I've worked several 
> Europeans on 160 SSB while driving down the highway. I can, at times, 
> even beat others in pileups from the mobile on 80 meters. Obviously if 
> the Gap is as good as a better mobile antenna, you can probably work a 
> lot of DX with it.
>
> 73 Tom
> _______________________________________________
> Topband reflector - topband at contesting.com
>

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