[UK-CONTEST] Verticals

[Andy Swiffin]

>>> On 31/03/2009 at 14:11, in message <001301c9b202$4507d630$0200a8c0 at G3VAO>,
"Mike Farmer" <G3VAO at ARRL.net> wrote:

> Thanks for all the replies so far I have to correct a typo in my original
> 73 all must get back to digesting the info recieved

Hi
I'd be interested to hear what the collective wisdom of "uk contest" has to say, if you could post a precis to the list.


Maybe I always think too simplistically about verticals, but I never understand how they sell them for hundreds of pounds. 

Surely:

<being simplistic>

The whole point of (most) verticals is to get a resonant 1/4 wave vertically into the air over a ground plane.   Where you want it to do more than one band you either have 

i) traps   or(and?)
ii) an ATU

so it becomes a bit of a compromise.  

As in the MFJ/Hy Gain (sic)  offering it's a 43 foot scaffold pole with an insulated base and a telescopic whip on top which is multiband because you stick an ATU at the bottom.   It's 43 feet because if it was any longer the vertical lobes at high HF would make it almost useless and if it was any shorter the losses at low LF would make it almost useless?

Wouldn't a vertical work just as well if you took one of these long fibreglass poles and stuck some wire up it?  You could even make it a resonant 1/4 wave of wire?

</being simplistic>

I expect the solid 43 foot poles or the Stepp-IR copper strip variable 1/4 wave takes away some of the hassle of making something, it just seems an awful lot of money for 1/4 wave of wire stuck up in the air?  Or am I missing something?

73
Andy
gm8oeg



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