[TowerTalk] Antenna opinions/advice

[John Geiger]

I am turning to the fine antenna list here for some opinions on which antenna would be better for overall DX and contesting work.  First, some background:  Last May my Mini Products MQ-1 miniquad was killed in a storm.  I had been using it for 6 years and worked about 250 countries on it, so I liked it. Also made 850 QSOs in a 10 meter contest with it. It also was a good 6 meter antenna.  I have just been running a G5RV since that time,and it does OK but is noisier than the mini quad was, plus the performance isn't quite as good.  One interesting thing about the G5RV was that it had a sharp null on 20m in the direction of KP5.  I couldn't hear K5D on 20 at all, even when everone else in my area was spotting them.  I worked them with no problem on 17m, though.

I have narrowed down my search for a replacement antenna to either a Mosley TA32JR 2 element tribander on a 6 foot boom or a TGM MQ-1 Mini Quad 2 element hibred quagi on a 4 1/2 foot boom.  I don't use an amp and have no plans to, so the power rating of the TA32 isn't a factor.  The Mosley would require an additional coax run, since I had to put up a 3 element 6m yagi to replace that portion of the miniquad.  So, the 2 options would come down to:

1. Mosley TA32JR at about 25 feet.  Would require and extra coax run, but I would have a separate 6m antenna to use.

2. TGM MQ-1 Miniquad at about 30 feet.  I can get it up a little higher due to its smaller size.  It wouldn't require an additional coax run, but also would make it more difficult to listen to 6m on a separate radio.

So, in your opinion, which would be the better performing HF setup?  The Mosley TA32 2 element tribander, or the TGM MQ-1 2 element miniquad?

73s John AA5JG