[TowerTalk] Gap and others

[Dinsterdog at aol.com]

Wow,

I got a lot of response to my Gap question on noise and 80M.

Now here's the rest of the story......

I moved from my 160 acre ranch in Wyoming where we had a number of low band arrays etc........to a typical urban back yard in Denver.  Being a low bander and 80 meter diehard, I set up my Hustler 6BTV and with it. With around 10 radials and my Alpha Amp, I had a fairly decent 80M season (of what was left of it) working several JA's, and even a RW station zone 19 LP at sunrise.  That was a rush-  All on days where the RF hash was tolerable. It's a lot better in the morning vs evening-

Now I know how to DX on 80M using big antennas, and have had good success with smaller antennas like the HF2V and 6BTV....I don't waste my time on wire wonders, etc....

But the noise level on the Hustler at the new QTH was a lot worse than expected. Ouch as you could hear a pin drop on it at my old QTH and both the HF2V and 6BTV did well DX'ing. At the new QTH, HF2V was no better on noise. Especaily trying to hear EU. 

To make things worse, my 3 year old kept getting tangled up in the radial field......what a mess I was running into trying to work the only band I'm serious about-

In a totally desperate mode, and brain jammed with rose colored glasses and prescribed medications, I did try Martin's 1026 box but let's face the facts.  This box requires a null antenna that can hear as well as what you are using taking up extra room in the yard.  My 6 BTV was on one side of the yard, while my nulling HF2V on the other side Blah- The box had ok effects at first nulling out some noise but it also reduced signal strengths as well nulling them out too....it had poor RF protection and cooked in a week. Good little toy if your are a SWL, but not for DX'ing in my experience-

So how do I get the DX efficiency of a vertical yet hear with it too-  Using receiving loops is a good idea, an excellent idea! But again, room is limited.  And regardless of what vertical antenna I've tried, noise still sucks- (My guess is I'll still try some rx loops some day but..........)

So here I am pondering whats the next step- In the mean time, I go out and get the new Cushcraft MA5V with it's center fed vertical dipole design. (I think thats how some explain it)-

 Guess what?!....it is quiter on rx vs the Hustler 6BTV on ALL band comparisons and works just as well.  Hummmm......too bad you can't run any power with it and darn if they didn't build it for anything but the high bands- 

So looking around, I find that the Gap Titan is a center fed 1/2 wave vertical/dipole design or something to that effect. It's never clear to me but it seems like a good choice for a quiter RF antenna. That is their claim-

So before ordering one, I go to my antenna test book but I'm not encouraged by what's stated for this antenna on 80M. Then I go to Eham and bingo, over 50 reviews and it people love it- A 9V who I've worked from Wyoming uses one and that's the icing on the cake. 

So I order it and I'm almost done finishing up.  Recent emails to me say it's a dummy load on 80M while others say it is not quieter than anything else they've tried.  These emails are from people I know to be great low band ops but I remain encouraged-

I'm looking forward to raising it up- Power limitations and all.  

BTW, I was told that the 500 watt limit applies to full duty cycle and that running legal is ok on CW, SSB, etc....myth or fact I'm about to find out- 

I like pushing antenna's to their limits and I'm watering at the mic to try this puppy out- 

Any other commenets about the Gap Titan or any other Gap for the low bands will be greatly appreciated. Good or bad, I just want to know.  I've already used several suggestions in constructing the antenna found on the Eham review site and Gap has a great webpage......Please feel free to email me here or at dinsterdog at aol.com.

I'll post my results in a few weeks once I have a chance to work some DX somewhere-  I am using the capacitor for 3.500MHz but have ordered the cap for 3.800MHz for later comparisions-

If you see any mushroom clouds over Denver, you know I pushed it a bit too much with the Alpha-

73  Paul  N0AH