[TowerTalk] Gotham vertical

[David Thompson]

Several companies made that type of verticals where you had a 18 foot piece
of aluminum with a coil (usually 3" B&W stock) with a clip to attached it at
the place denoted in the manual for 80 to 10 (they were single band).  I
have two of the 18VS Hy-gain that are still sold today for about $90.  They
come with a nice 4 pager on how to phase them
in several combinations.

I found that placing one vertical on my 2700 feet of radials worked nicely
on 10 to 40.  Worked on 80 but not as well.

A few years ago I took a Create 3 el 40 apart (a piece of junk with aluminum
windings in the coils) and used the 36 foot boom and put together a W9EGQ
square dipole using 2 of the 42 foot elements and completed the square
(rectangle actually).  I think they were 18 feet apart.   I used a create 56
foot 80 dipole as a reflector and phased the entire affair with 300 ohm
transmitting twin lead with a twist in the middle.  Worked OK but the create
kept falling apart.  So I then put the two 18VS verticals back to back for a
80 meter reflector set to 3700.  Could tell no difference.  Same 1.25 on
3800. With the array at only 71 feet  I worked JA short path and YB0 on long
path.  The best DX was UA9VH/JT1 who also worked K4JPD and I was only 1 S
unit below Steve with his big 2 el at 180 feet.  Worked great but a mighty
wind bent the elements so my experiment with such a big antenna was over.
Guess its true about big antennas.  Its still in my basement...hmm...

Dave K4JRB