[TowerTalk] Vertical antenna comparison.

[David Gilbert]

I had an R5 for quite some time and it was a horribly lossy antenna 
compared to the simple setup I replaced it with (straight piece of 
tubing fed with an efficient antenna tuner), but almost anything that 
pretends to be a vertical is going to work DX if it is mounted over salt 
water.

I used to like to experiment with lot of different homebrew wire 
antennas for Field Day, and one year I tried a long rectangular loop I 
had designed using EZNEC because it gave a decent match on 40m, 20m, and 
15m.  I don't remember the length of the loop off the top of my head but 
it was ten feet high, the bottom was supported about four feet up over 
some pretty lossy ground, and it was fed in the middle of one end.  I 
liked to operate Single Op QRP Battery and usually placed pretty high 
nationwide, but that antenna played horribly that entire weekend.  Worst 
performance I had in years and I never used that antenna again.  But 
guess what ... the night before the contest I worked an FR5 from here in 
Arizona with five watts and good readability.

Anecdotal results are meaningless.

73,
Dave   AB7E



On 4/7/2013 7:39 AM, Robert Serfas wrote:
> 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.
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
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