[Elecraft] Verticals

Sat Feb 9 02:16:39 2002

Hi guys... (and gals)

First, I have to admit, I am cheating.  I am buying an already built K2....
so being a future K2 owner that did not build it, I hope I am still welcome
to the list ;-)

However, I will get a K1 someday and cut my teeth on that....

Anyways, on to my point... I wanted to know what kind of performance you can
get with a vertical.  I had a GAP Eagle and it performed miserably.
However, I believe I may have been part of the problem.  At first, I thought
it was the location of the antenna.  It is about 7 or 8 feet away from a big
silver maple.  I did not think it would be a problem.  Also, the houses here
in my neck of the woods all have aluminum siding.  So, going on thinking it
was a location thing, I sold the antenna to a local ham.  I helped him put
it up and he went to connect up the coax and the PL259 came off the coax on
the antenna.  He saw that the braid was black!  He stripped the wire and
found that it seems there was some major heat going on in that connector.
He mentioned that I probably had a bad solder joint.  And me using 100 watts
on different occasions seem to have cooked it a little.  I wondered why
people could not hear me well.  Was I wasting RF to heat?  Was it the solder
joint that was causing the miserable performance?

Well, the ham with my old vertical is having a great time and the antenna is
working FB.  He likes to tell me about it every chance he gets...

I am thinking of diving in again and getting a vertical.  Right now I use a
DXLB+ in an inverted V up in a tree (about 40 feet) and it does well (it
lets me get on 80 and 160).  Am I going to gain anything? (Pun not
intended).  Would the money be better spent on an accessory (or a K1)?  I
just don't want to get a vertical again and find out it is not doing well.
The vertical I would be interested in is the 6BTV.

Thanks gang...

73 de Jason
N8XE