[Elecraft] Verticals

Sat Feb 9 10:59:34 2002

I've had a butternut HF9V-X (manufactured by Bencher) with the radial kit on
my roof at two different houses over the past 9 years or so, and it is still
working very well.  I've been able to bust through some pileups with my also
old HF rig that others near me with their "better" antenna's were not able
to, and now that I've discovered QRP & QRPp operating, it's still doing me
very well - I'm working stations all over the country with anywhere between
100 and 500 milliwatts.

Bencher no longer sells the -X version of the antenna, but the only
complaint I've had is that I should have bought the full version with more
band coverage (The -X version was UPS shippable).

Now, after 9 years of weather - sun, winds, ice storms, etc. - I have one
insulator that needs replacing, and while I'm at it, I'll replace all of the
insulators just because I'm *nal that way.  Bencher still has the parts
available, and the cost for the parts will be minimal (between 15 and 30
dollars).  Even without the repair that I'm going to make this spring, the
antenna is still fully functional.

Hope this helps.

- Thor, N9IK

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of
> [email protected]
> Sent: Friday, February 08, 2002 10:53 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [Elecraft] Verticals
>
>
> 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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list: [email protected]
> You must be a list member to post to the list.
> Postings must be plain text (no HTML or attachments).
> See: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Elecraft Web Page: http://www.elecraft.com