[TowerTalk] Vertical antenna comparison.

[Robert Serfas]

Thinking about the discussion of vertical antennas and their performance, I have had this experience.
Bought an old Hygain trapped vertical a dozen years or so ago, have had it in two separate QTH's in the same city, both times , ground mounted over a radial field.
The vertical has worked well, running barefoot, only 100w, often performing better than various wire antennas, depending on skip distances and other seasonal variables.
Concerning trap losses, I feel they are miniscule as heard from the other end of the path, mostly, the traps limit bandwidth as a problem. I have had one experience with the Cushcraft R-5, that was on a special event station for lighthouse weekend, had the antenna mounted about 40 feet up on a lighthouse railing, no grounding or radials, worked tons of DX, one fella made his first HF DX contact into Katmandu on that set up, again, barefoot, phone. As the saying goes, ymmv!
I actually own that same R-5 though have not put it into use as of yet.
Lately, the Hygain has been giving me problems, it is out of tune and has high SWR, I suspect water in one of the traps, or a loose connection, I will pull it down when the WX gets better to have a look, maybe consider replacing it with the Cushcraft for a while.

Thanks for listening to my rant, and ideas, nice to be back on board.

Bob Serfas / N8PKN,
Marquette, MI.


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