[TowerTalk] hf vertical

Rob Atkinson, K5UJ k5uj at hotmail.com
Thu Nov 24 14:36:46 EST 2005


I have a gap titan.   I think it is an okay vertical on 40, 20, 17 and maybe 
15.    I can make contacts on 80 with it but have not made enough to say 
that band is okay because i use another antenna for 80.    however because 
of its physical size i have doubts.    any all-band antenna will have 
compromises.   for good performance all across HF  you really have to have 
at least two antennas--one optimized for 80 (i.e. BIG) and one for the 
higher bands (I'm talking about verticals).    I should say before i forget 
that i have a ground screen under my titan which is elevated about 15 feet 
and that may have improved my experience.   anyway I found the titan kind of 
a pain to put together and get working okay.    i had to fool  around with 
standing the feed off from the mast, to keep from coupling to it and 
detuning, i had to use a line isolator in the feed near the antenna,  and i 
had  to mess around with the "tuning rods" i.e. linear loading rods using a 
swr analyzer to get it right.    It has wound up being okay but if i had it 
to do over NOW, I'd get one of those steppIR  40 - 6 m. verticals that 
adjusts for 1:1 vswr on any freq above 7 mhz.   that is a 1/4 w. ant. and 
with ur tower, i'd put it up there with a cone of various length radials, at 
least 5 or 6 for each band and alternating with each other coming down 45 
deg. out from the tower and equally spaced all around it.

rob / k5uj

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