re: vertical antenna

[RC-16]

on the <http://www.bencher.com> web site is a very good
article called "Dirty little Secrets" about antennas.
It should be required reading if your considering a
vertical antenna. I've used both the hustler 5btv and
the Butternut 10-80m vertical with excellent results.

RC <http://www.kc5wa.us>
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[Jeff Kinzli N6GQ]

I'll throw one more option into the mix...

Lately I've been using one of Force 12's Sigma 40XK vertical dipoles.
This is about 16 feet tall, and since it's a center-fed dipole, it
supposedly doesn't *require* a counterpoise or radial system, so I've
been using it without one.

This particular antenna is a vertical dipole, but depending on the
band, it has T-bars at the top and bottom, so it looks like a
sideways-H. On 40 and 30M, it uses small loading coils at the
feedpoint with a hairpin match.  On the rest of the bands, it's a
direct-feed system via a supplied balun.

Results have been better than expected. I have it mounted about 3 feet
above ground and am working europe on 40M consistently with 100W from
W6. My previous antenna was a 2L 40M yagi at about 80 feet, and of
course it worked better, but what's interesting is that with the
vertical, I can work guys that are in the noise for me, and sometimes
so much so that I need to use the DSP just to pull them out of the
noise.  Other bands are consistent with the 40M results (10-40M,
including WARC).

The same antenna could very easily be fabricated out of wire or
aluminum and have the same results. The F12 package is nice because
it's a solidly-built antenna that just works out of the box. The one
downside is that it requires manual intervention by the user to change
bands (which means adding/removing the loading coils/hairpin and/or
adjusting the length of the T-bars). There's a few articles on Cebik's
website, as well as others, talking about vertical dipoles, and
shortened vertical dipoles.

For a portable operation, this would make a great antenna, nothing to
go wrong and performance is decent. I'm planning on using it for the
time being until I can get a tower and yagi stack up this spring.

YMMV,

Jeff N6GQ

On 3/2/07, RC kc5wa <[hidden email]> wrote:

> on the <http://www.bencher.com> web site is a very good
> article called "Dirty little Secrets" about antennas.
> It should be required reading if your considering a
> vertical antenna. I've used both the hustler 5btv and
> the Butternut 10-80m vertical with excellent results.
>
> RC <http://www.kc5wa.us>
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[Don Ehrlich-2]

RC is right!  If you have any questions (or interest) at all about verticals
then READ THIS.  It is an island of sanity in a sea of bs.
Don K7FJ

> on the <http://www.bencher.com> web site is a very good article called
> "Dirty little Secrets" about antennas. It should be required reading if
> your considering a vertical antenna. I've used both the hustler 5btv and
> the Butternut 10-80m vertical with excellent results.
>
> RC <http://www.kc5wa.us>

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[Stuart Rohre]

The Force 12 vertical dipoles are Excellent, and do not require radials, as
Cebik notes in his models of vertical dipoles.  A dipole is complete unto
itself as a radiating antenna.  In the far field , good RF earth can help
this one like any antenna with its far reflections, but up close to it, it
does fine with its elevated feeding.

And, it is a good antenna to home brew.

Stuart K5KVH

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