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Where to guy

Howard Benham
Unless your guy lines are rocket proof it probably won't make much difference. :-)
Seriously though, near the top and in the middle work well for me in high wind condition.
Howard
KG5AON


Sent from my iPhone
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Re: Where to guy

Vic Rosenthal
I would like to thank everyone for their advice on guying my R8 antenna.
I think I am going to use two sets of guys because, as several people
pointed out, the angle will be somewhat steep and downward pressure will
tend to make the antenna buckle. I will be using either nylon or dacron
because they are UV-resistant. The wind is not too strong here, but I
don't want to take any chances on top of a 10-story building!

No, they will not be rocket proof, but due to their minimal thickness,
the chance of a rocket hitting one will be pretty small.

On 9/7/14 12:49 AM, Howard Benham wrote:
> Unless your guy lines are rocket proof it probably won't make much difference. :-)
> Seriously though, near the top and in the middle work well for me in high wind condition.
> Howard
> KG5AON

--
Vic, K2VCO/4X6GP
Rehovot, Israel
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/
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OT - R8 antenna evaluation

RobertG
In reply to this post by Howard Benham
I've been following the R8 guying discussion with interest, because I
may be in the market for a vertical in the next year or so. While I have
read the reviews for the R8 at eHam Forum, I especially trust the
experience of the hams here on the K3 list. I presently have a SkyHawk
tribander at 60ft. However, an upcoming move to a new home may leave
that combination out of the running with some sort of vertical the only
option. So, I'm not expecting any vertical to equal the SkyHawk, but I
would like to get a general feel for the mechanical quality and general
performance of the R8.
Thanks in advance.
...robert

On 9/6/2014 21:49, Howard Benham wrote:

> Unless your guy lines are rocket proof it probably won't make much difference. :-)
> Seriously though, near the top and in the middle work well for me in high wind condition.
> Howard
> KG5AON
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
> ______________________________________________________________
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--
Robert G Strickland, PhD ABPH - KE2WY
[hidden email]
Syracuse, New York, USA
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Re: OT - R8 antenna evaluation

Jim Brown-10
On Sun,9/7/2014 9:36 AM, Robert G Strickland wrote:
> So, I'm not expecting any vertical to equal the SkyHawk, but I would
> like to get a general feel for the mechanical quality and general
> performance of the R8.

Some things to study. One costs a few bucks, the others are free.

1) Buy the report written by N0AX on the testing of verticals that he
did with K7LXC. Sold by K7LXC's Champion Radio website. Well worth the
money.

2) Study the Power Point slides on my website about Vertical Antenna
Mounting Height and Antenna Planning for Small HF Stations.

73, Jim K9YC
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Re: OT - R8 antenna evaluation

Bill Turner-2
------------ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ------------(may be snipped)


On 9/7/2014 9:53 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
>
> 2) Study the Power Point slides on my website about Vertical Antenna
> Mounting Height and Antenna Planning for Small HF Stations.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC

REPLY:

Jim, I went to your website http://www.audiosystemsgroup.com/K9YC/K9YC.htm
and could not find the presentation. A google search only turned up
broken links.
Could you provide a link please?

Thank you,

73, Bill W6WRT

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Re: OT - R8 antenna evaluation

Merv Schweigert
http://audiosystemsgroup.com/VerticalHeight.pdf




> ------------ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ------------(may be snipped)
>
>
> On 9/7/2014 9:53 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
>>
>> 2) Study the Power Point slides on my website about Vertical Antenna
>> Mounting Height and Antenna Planning for Small HF Stations.
>>
>> 73, Jim K9YC
>
> REPLY:
>
> Jim, I went to your website
> http://www.audiosystemsgroup.com/K9YC/K9YC.htm
> and could not find the presentation. A google search only turned up
> broken links.
> Could you provide a link please?
>
> Thank you,
>
> 73, Bill W6WRT
>
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Re: OT - R8 antenna evaluation

Guy Olinger K2AV
In reply to this post by Jim Brown-10
We need to be careful on evaluation of verticals that we forget to consider
the ground.

In the early 60's living in a top floor row house apartment out Connecticut
Avenue in Washington, DC, I had an early equivalent of an R8 style
multiband vertical. I had a pair of radials each for 40/20/15/10. They were
over a copper roof, pretty much in a sea of copper roofs. It was totally
gangbusters. Worked all over the globe on 40 thru 10 with 35 watts output
from an 807 final.

A bit later, moving to the suburbs and a house for impending parenthood, I
relocated the same antenna to the southeast corner of the new back yard
with the feed just a little above the grass. It was a dummy load, even
though now we were running 65 watts from a 6146. The house version had a
much better SWR than the row house so I was pretty much bumfuzzled why it
wasn't getting out. No good scoop on what was wrong, other than the typical
come back from the PVRC club crowd that "verticals radiate poorly in all
directions." It would be a string of decades before I caught on to what was
going on.

With verticals, first work out what you are going to do for the
counterpoise/ground system and THEN worry about the vertical. The latter
may vary you a dB, maybe even approaching 2. The former deals with one,
two, maybe three S units. Huge losses are possible with poor
ground/counterpoise situations.

73, Guy


On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 12:53 PM, Jim Brown <[hidden email]>
wrote:

> On Sun,9/7/2014 9:36 AM, Robert G Strickland wrote:
>
>> So, I'm not expecting any vertical to equal the SkyHawk, but I would like
>> to get a general feel for the mechanical quality and general performance of
>> the R8.
>>
>
> Some things to study. One costs a few bucks, the others are free.
>
> 1) Buy the report written by N0AX on the testing of verticals that he did
> with K7LXC. Sold by K7LXC's Champion Radio website. Well worth the money.
>
> 2) Study the Power Point slides on my website about Vertical Antenna
> Mounting Height and Antenna Planning for Small HF Stations.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
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Re: OT - R8 antenna evaluation

Jim Brown-10
In reply to this post by Bill Turner-2
On Sun,9/7/2014 10:27 AM, Bill Turner wrote:
> Jim, I went to your website
> http://www.audiosystemsgroup.com/K9YC/K9YC.htm
> and could not find the presentation. A google search only turned up
> broken links.
> Could you provide a link please?

Hmmm. That's a very old link. Try k9yc.com/publish.htm

73, Jim K9YC
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Re: OT - R8 antenna evaluation

Bill Turner-2
In reply to this post by Merv Schweigert
------------ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ------------(may be snipped)


On 9/7/2014 10:33 AM, Merv Schweigert wrote:
> http://audiosystemsgroup.com/VerticalHeight.pdf
>

REPLY:

Excellent, thanks.

73, Bill W6WRT

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Re: OT - R8 antenna evaluation

w7aqk
In reply to this post by RobertG
Hi All,

I would like to compliment Jim Brown's analysis regarding verticals and
height above ground.  Based strictly on personal experience I would agree
with just about everything he said, and now I know why!!!  Hi.

For years I used a Cushcraft R7 vertical, and I soon found that when it was
mounted off the ground somewhat it performed much better.  Of course, these
antennas are compromise antennas, but still you can improve your results
with some experimentation.  Nothing produced better results for me than
elevating the antenna.

A number of years ago I purchased a copy of the study Jim refers to which
was authored by Ward Silver and Steve Morris.  This was published in about
2000, and many of the antennas they analyzed have been replaced or modified
somewhat by newer offerings.  However, the crux of the info is still very
relevant.  I think Jim is suggesting that any of these antennas will work
better if elevated.

Subsequently I acquired a used R8, which is similar to the R7, but an
improvement in some ways.  It is taller, but still uses much the same
matching unit at the base.  It also purportedly covers 6 meters, which the
R7 does not, but my results there have been marginal.  Still, the R8 does
seem to perform somewhat better than the R7.  In the analysyis by Silver and
Morris, I think they more or less conclude that the R8 was the best of the
bunch, at least if you only compare the bands each antenna is capable
of--some of the tested antennas covered 80 meters, which the R8 does not.

My R8, like my R7 previously, is mounted approximately 20 feet off the
ground--just above the top of my roofline.  The performance is much improved
over a simple ground mounted system.

Neither the R7 or the R8 produce very stellar results on 40 meters, but they
do work, and DXing is possible in decent conditions.  Since I favor CW, that
helps too.  SSB results are not so great, which tells me the antenna is
struggling a bit on 40 meters.  Not a big surprise!

Since then I acquired a used Sigma 40XK, which is a vertical dipole.  This
is another NB6T design, while he still owned Force12.  On 40 meters this
antenna works better than my R8, and I have it elevated, but only about 6
feet.  Based on Jim's analysis, I think it should be even a good bit higher.
I actually would have expected that, but Jim makes it obvious.

I also have another N6BT design, the Bravo 7.  This is, according to N6BT,
also a vertical dipole, but it looks more like an ordinary vertical, with
adjustable loading at the base.  I heard N6BT make a presentation about
these newer designs of his, and he reported very good results.  However, I
think his results are substantially based on being mounted over salt water!
Notice the dramatically improved results in Jim's analysis when mounting
over salt water.  My own results using this antenna are not all that good,
at least not on 40 meters.  It does seem to work fairly well on other bands.
On a couple of occasions I've had this antenna somewhat higher, and although
I don't have measurements to confirm it, the results did seem to be better.

So, although my results don't prove much, they do compare favorably to what
Jim says.  I've tried various antennas, and with the same apparent
results--higher is better!

Dave W7AQK

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Re: OT - R8 antenna evaluation

NK7Z
In reply to this post by RobertG
Robert,
I have a band by band breakdown of the GAP Challenger at:
http://nk7z.net/review-of-the-challenger-dx-antenna-by-gap-antenna/
--
Thanks and 73's,
For equipment, and software setups and reviews see:
www.nk7z.net
for MixW support see;
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/mixw/info
for Dopplergram information see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/dopplergram/info
for MM-SSTV see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MM-SSTV/info


On Sun, 2014-09-07 at 16:36 +0000, Robert G Strickland wrote:

> I've been following the R8 guying discussion with interest, because I
> may be in the market for a vertical in the next year or so. While I have
> read the reviews for the R8 at eHam Forum, I especially trust the
> experience of the hams here on the K3 list. I presently have a SkyHawk
> tribander at 60ft. However, an upcoming move to a new home may leave
> that combination out of the running with some sort of vertical the only
> option. So, I'm not expecting any vertical to equal the SkyHawk, but I
> would like to get a general feel for the mechanical quality and general
> performance of the R8.
> Thanks in advance.
> ...robert
>


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Re: OT - R8 antenna evaluation

Elecraft mailing list
In reply to this post by RobertG
Howard,

I have a Hy-Gain AV-620 (20 through 6 meters).  Very much the same as
the AV-640 (40 through 6) meters.  It is mounted about 8 feet off the
ground.  It's SWR characteristics are excellent on all bands. No tuner
required.  Performance, however, is not impressive.  Were I to be
limited to a single vertical, I think any of the various models will get
a signal into the air.  I particularly liked the GAP Titan.  The most
important thing is to get it off the ground. 8 to 10 feet at least.  
Otherwise, go with a regular quarter-wave with ground radials.  
Typically I find the AV-620 to be one S unit lower than a dipole for a
given band.

73, Doug -- K0DXV

On 9/7/2014 10:36 AM, Robert G Strickland wrote:

> I've been following the R8 guying discussion with interest, because I
> may be in the market for a vertical in the next year or so. While I
> have read the reviews for the R8 at eHam Forum, I especially trust the
> experience of the hams here on the K3 list. I presently have a SkyHawk
> tribander at 60ft. However, an upcoming move to a new home may leave
> that combination out of the running with some sort of vertical the
> only option. So, I'm not expecting any vertical to equal the SkyHawk,
> but I would like to get a general feel for the mechanical quality and
> general performance of the R8.
> Thanks in advance.
> ...robert
>
> On 9/6/2014 21:49, Howard Benham wrote:
>> Unless your guy lines are rocket proof it probably won't make much
>> difference. :-)
>> Seriously though, near the top and in the middle work well for me in
>> high wind condition.
>> Howard
>> KG5AON
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>>
>

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