[Antennas] Verticals

[Brian Cake]

Gentlemen,

    I beg to differ with the arguments that verticals don't work unless you have a good radial field.  Check out my article on ground-independent verticals in the April 2004 issue of QST...and no, it wasn't an April Fool's joke!    The fact is that if you use the ground as a return path for the antenna current then, yes, you need a low loss ground, hence radials.  If the antenna design is such that the return current does not flow in the ground, as in a vertical dipole or a vertical as described in my article, then the ground losses are vastly reduced and radials are not needed.  Multiband antennas such as the R7 inevitably have other losses associated with multibanding that makes them inferior performers.

    73

    Brian   KF2YN