[TowerTalk] Force12 420/240 or Cushcraft 40
Pete Smith
n4zr at contesting.com
Thu Feb 19 08:22:51 EST 2004
At 07:14 AM 2/19/04 -0600, Bill wrote:
>Look no further. I have had both antennas up. The EF420 is a fragile
>antenna, prone to mechanical failure. It is hard to tune, I never got mine
>to work right. After three efforts at repair with a 115 foot crane I gave up
>and junked it.
>
>The Cushcraft XM420 is an excellent antenna. I have had it up in the same
>basic configuration as the old EF420. It is well constructed and works like
>a bomb. It is of course a little heavier that the EF420. Force 12 has
>another version of the 2 ele 40 with longer elements. This antenna may be
>fine but I haven't seen one.
I think Bill means the EF-240, as that's the wire-loaded 40m antenna. I
had some mechanical reservations about mine, but after 6 years, it took a
direct lightning strike to sever a loading wire and put it out of service.
>One proviso: If you are going to stack the XM420 near a tribander, expect
>interaction. I have the C3E and the XM420 13' apart and they interacted so
>much that I had to turn them at right angles to correct the problem.
One advantage of the new F12 N series of 40m yagis is that they are
designed to avoid interactions, but they are big (elements 85 percent of
full size). I have also heard that the older Cushcraft 402CD is less prone
to interaction than the new one. I think that if I had to do it over again
I would probably opt for the latter instead of the EF-240S.
73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the World HF Contest Station Database
Updated 9 Jan 04
www.pvrc.org/wcsd/wcsdsearch.htm
More information about the TowerTalk
mailing list