I have two of the Sigma 5s here in CX land. They are extremely easy to
put together...just a few bolts and wing nuts and I use a cement
umbrella base with a sleeve of pvc about 2ft long and just slide the
base of the vertical into the pvc. No radials as these are vertical
dipoles; 50ft of control wire come with the antenna as it uses factory
tuned coils to change freq. Both Sigma 5s were below 20m cw when I got
them so it was a simple task of sliding off the PVC cover and spreading
the coils on each end. The other coils were set at the factory and no
adjustment required.
My 20m 2:1 points are 14000 and 14270; all other bands are below 2 to 1;
havent checked above 28.600 so dont know about that.
Sooooo, how does it play? CX is a looooong way from major ham
populations, US and EU. The antenna exhibits low angle radiation, as it
should and I believe F12's claim of 90% efficiency as being pretty
accurate. Granted, I have nice call sign that attracts the dx but I also
work almost everything I hear. VQ9JC & 4S7NE on 17m cw are recent examples.
Another vertical that I used when I first got here was the DK9SQ
fiberglass 33ft pole and his single element loop. It also worked very
well on 40-10m but is more of a weekend antenna. My pole finally snapped
in about 40-50kt gusting winds last January; this was after continually
flexing for about 4 months as I had it "permanently" mounted via bungee
cords to the patio support post.
Finally, I recommend going to www.contesting.com and see the reviews of
all the vertical antennas posted on eham by our colleagues..
GL & 73
Tom K6CT/CX7TT
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