[50mhz] 50 Mhz antennas

[N4ue@aol.com]

George, I have had 3 Cushcraft antennas, A50-5, A50-6, and a redesign of my 
own, I called the A50-7. I lengthened the boom and added an extra director, 
changed the spacing and element lengths. It worked very well. Steve Katz ran 
a description of these changes years ago in his VHF section in CQ. I also own 
an M2 7el JHV. The JHV is a real POS, in my humble opinion. I won't go into 
the details, they can be found on the reviews in E-Ham. I would never, ever 
buy another M2.
I have heard that CC has discontinued the 617 Boomer. I have installed 
several of these and they are very rugged, but were probably getting long in 
the tooth, design wise. Perhaps CC will come out with an 'improved' Boomer 
for 6M. I found a re-design on the www that took a Boomer and reduced it to 5 
elements and then stacked a pair with very good results. 
I wouldn't put a lot of faith in any mfg. claims of gain. I would like to see 
a side by side comparison on an antenna range.

ron

N4UE