[TowerTalk] Need Vertical Advice...Want to use for "spotting"

[Tom Rauch]

I'd have to agree. If you're going to use a vertical no need
to spend a
ridiculous amount of money on the others. I just got done
setting my
father-in-law up with a GAP dummy load.....errr.....I mean
antenna at
his cabin. For half the price he could have had antenna that
works like
it's supposed to. He let some salesperson at one the of the
big
retailers talk him into the GAP.>>

I'd look at QST and other reviews of Gap antennas where they
are compared to trap verticals.

There is a HF Vertical Comparison sold by Champion radio
that agrees with the reviews, and my own measurements found
the Gap really very poor on lower bands compared to a trap
vertical. Of course for receiving that does not matter, but
then the Gap has major issues with common mode on the
feedline and that's bad for receiving.

Since this is just a spotting application, DX Engineering
just released a high quality active receiving antenna. It
has the advantage of being able to be used as a dipole or
vertical, and uses a CB whip(s) for the element.

73 Tom