[TowerTalk] HF Vertical Opinions NEEDED...

[K8RI on TowerTalk]

Thanks for the additional information Bob.
As I said the poor results on 20 may be and quite likely are due to my 
installation and in particular the elevated installation.

If I can get it to perform on the other bands like it does on 40 I'd be very 
happy.

> I also have a AV-640 (my only HF antenna currently) and my experience
> with it over the past 5 years is quite different.  I have had good

I've had this one up about 3.  The main rig in the shop is one of the little 
Yaesu FT897Ds which works well although I have to admit I'd much rather have 
a rig out there that is not of the small menu driven type. OTOH the price 
suited the shop. <:-))  I monitor W1AW on 40 to keep my speed up.  I just 
leave the audio turned up while working out there. I really need to put in a 
switch so I can use the wire antennas off the big tower for 75 and 160 as 
I'm usually in the shop well after midnight.

> results from 40-10 (don't do 6) and a contact with 5A7A this morning
> through the pileup on 20 shows that it is definitely not a dummy load
> on that band :^)

It was suggested that I isolate the vertical from the tower and I may give 
that a try. However this is a "cheap" aluminum tower that is not of a 
quality I'd want to climb so I need to do a bit of tree pruning (or 
removing) before I can do much with or to it.


>
> I even loaded it up on 160 and 80 (limiting the power to 100 watts)
> and worked a few in the contest.  I haven't worked anything on 10
> recently (conditions) but have done well in the past on that band
> also.  So far in the CQWW I have 3 mults on 160, 7 on 80, 44 on 40,
> 68 on 20 and 36 on 15 meters.  It's not a beam on a tall tower, but
> I'm certainly satisfied and it was quite a bit less than the similar
> R8, which I also considered.
>
> I don't have it mounted on a 15 ft. pole bolted to an eave of my
> house.  I don't really have enough room for decent radials, but with
> over a foot of  rain in the past week the ground is saturated and
> probably fairly conductive here (I'm <500 feet from salt water, which
> doesn't hurt!)
>
> Back to the contest....
>
> 73 - Bob, N7XY
> Bainbridge Island, WA (NA-065)
>
>
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