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 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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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