[TowerTalk] Fan Dipole

[Jim Brown]

On 10/1/2017 6:15 AM, john at kk9a.com wrote:
> I am surprised that people still do not realize that working DXCC countries
> is no indication of antenna performance. The poor desert ground may be
> helping your inverted V however why would an inverted V be your only option?

That can be the result of resources, real estate (or lack thereof), or 
interest. Some folks take radio far more seriously than others, some of 
us have more resources and real estate than others. In this context, 
resources include money, skyhooks, tools, including launching tools, and 
the ability to build/buy a given antenna; real estate includes size and 
shape of the land where you CAN rig an antenna and any 
permissions/limitations on doing so. Most vertical antennas require some 
sort of counterpoise, while an inverted vee requires only a single 
support. OTOH, smart hams have come up with many ways to skin the 
counterpoise cat, and my applications note on working 160M from a small 
lot includes as many as I learned about.

> I have used various 160m antennas from a number of locations in the US and
> Caribbean and found a low inverted V to be very inferior to a top loaded
> short vertical even without an extensive radial field.

That is really the point of the "which antenna works best" discussion, 
and it's the topic of several slide shows and applications notes on my 
website. All of them are an attempt to present a wide range of options, 
all of which depend on resources and real estate, and help hams choose 
antennas that, given his/her own resources/real estate on the basis of 
which antennas will work the best.  My resources/real estate caused me 
to make very different choices on my Chicago city lot from those I've 
made in my California redwood forest.

73, Jim K9YC