Topband: My new 9 Circle works great!

[w5zn at w5zn.org]

The YCCC-9 design by John, W1FV is an outstanding performer. I have had 
one installed at W5ZN for several years now and have documented direct 
comparisons with my HiZ-8 160 and BSEF-8 160 arrays plus my four 580 ft 
Beverages. While the HiZ-8 (200 ft diameter on 160) is the clear top 
performer with the BSEF-160 (350 ft diameter) a close second, the 
performance of the YCCC-9 is third only to those two and is equivalent 
or better than my Beverages. The amazing thing with the YCCC-9 is its 
small footprint, only 120 ft in diameter. As John has noted, the 120 ft 
diameter spacing has only a minor effect on 160 but improves 80 meters. 
It is an amazing performer on 80 meters and is equal in performance to 
my BSEF-8 80 meter array which is 180 ft diameter (I do not have an 80 
meter HiZ-8). For the small footprint plus the ability to use it on 3 
bands it is impressive.

Prior to this year I ran the original combiner board and amplifiers. 
Over the summer I had boards fabricated from Steve, VE6WZ's excellent 
details and assembled a combiner with the Murata chokes on the board in 
order to eliminate the external chokes. I see no difference in 
performance. I also assembled new amplifiers based on Steve's layout.

So, if you do not have room for the top performing HiZ-8 or the BSEF-8 
and 580 ft Beverage but can accommodate a 120 ft diameter circle this IS 
your RX antenna for 360 degree coverage! If you can only spare 120 ft in 
one direction, say to Europe, then utilizing only three verticals will 
fix you up.

Thanks to John, W1FV, for his design and development of this array and 
for Steve, VE6WZ for providing additional info and options. It is also 
good to see the PI4CC folks pick this up and provide components as well.

73 Joel W5ZN