[TowerTalk] (no subject) Vertical Antenna Instead of TowerDecision....

[Barry Merrill]

I had a BigIR vertical, including the 80 meter coil, but after
three separate problems:
 the strip jammed inside the motor housing when I dissassembled and
reassembled
 the motor drive shaft broke, so the strip was not moved by the motor
    (although i was able to manually shove it to the full length and use it
     as a fixed length vertical)
 the 80 meter coil failed completely the first time, the replacement worked,
   but their technical support (and president!) and documenation on the coil
   is still wrong - it does NOT have four frequencies in 80 meter band and
   one on 60 meters, it only has TWO frequencies on 80, which were useless.
 And, technical support was not able to provide an electical schematic of
   their antenna, when I was trying to diagnose the broken drive shaft!

I replaced it with a 43 foot Zero Five antenna.

I had both atennas available last spring, and the Zero Five beat the pants
off the BigIR on 160 thru 10, while the BigIR doesn't even work on 160,
and was poor in comparixon to the Zero Five.  

In fact, I won the 2008 ARRL DX CW European Low Power category 
from Ireland with the Zero Five and an IC756.

www.zerofive-antennas.com


When I gave up on the BigIr vertical after its third failure, I offered
the 80 meter coil (and the modified controller with replaced chip)
in a post on the Contest Reflector to anyone with a BigIR, and received zero
requests from a BigIR owner.

73

Barry, EI/W5GN