Topband: Suggestions for a tower?

[Tom W8JI]

The best antenna is always the one that makes us feel good, no matter how 
the antenna really works.

The problems with most of the suggestions are:

1.) most are anecdotal "feelings", where there were no lengthy blind A-B 
tests against a known good reference antenna

2.) different paths and locations produce different results

3.) installations are often cluttered with random things that interact with 
antennas. Even 400-500 feet is fairly close spacing for antennas on 160

Without a series of blind A-B tests against a known *good* antenna over a 
period of time, it is all just feelings. I went through all the grief of 
installing a 300ft plus tall tower because I remembered how well a dipole 
300ft high worked. I can't get someone to use a dipole on that tower once 
they use a tall vertical with a good ground system. I can't get someone to 
use the tall vertical once they use a four square. Going back over my logs 
30+ years ago, I realize the high dipole wasn't actually that good in Ohio. 
I just remembered it better than it was, like a 14-15 second car that I 
thought was a rocket ship.

Someplace below the high dipole's performance come the delta loops and 
sloppers.

Of course this can be different for different regional locations. Not only 
does the quality of the installation affect opinions, so does the mental 
attitude of the operator and the world location.

All that said and done, there are very few properly installed 160 meter 
verticals that won't work well, and there are darned few horizontals that 
will work better than good verticals, when looked at over a long period of 
time. I can't even imagine trying to predict results or give advice when a 
wire is stuck in between a bunch of random things, like conductive guylines 
and other antennas.

73 Tom