[Elecraft] Verticals

[Stuart Rohre]

Jason,
A much better vertical in my Experience is the Gap Titan, (or Eagle), but
the Titan has more bands I believe.  The other antenna you mention is VERY
dependent on local earth conductivity, and if you do not have that, and most
ham urban locations do not, you are wasting your money on only a monopole
antenna without extensive radial system.

The Titan can be elevated a bit, as mine is at six feet above the center of
the back yard.  It is about 10 foot from a Live Oak much taller than it, but
I think it was your bad solder joint and not the Silver maple that was at
fault with your vertical as you say it works fine for the new owner.  Mine
works lots of DX and stateside with good signal reports.

The aluminum siding houses need to be a quarter wave or more from your
vertical, or raise it about 15 feet to be above the siding, (if single story
houses).

The other antenna you mention needs radials to function well, and my friend
who had one had a devil of a time tuning them correctly.  The Titan-- I just
put up, soldered the coax plug correctly, and it is playing well, years
later.  Never had to tune it; it met specs right out of the box.  The
difference in what I have and what you propose, is mine is a center fed
vertical dipole, more forgiving of earth conditions, than the trap loaded
bottom fed antenna you are considering.  The Eagle and Titan are linearly
decoupled, non trap Asymmetric Vertical Dipoles.  The other is a Monopole,
and was problematic when we had two for field day, and later my friend had
one backyard mounted on a chain link fence.  By the way, they do like to
call it a trap, but since it has coil and capacitor, of fixed components,
they are subject to losses.

If you have resonant aluminum siding in the near region of any vertical it
is not going to work as well, as a non conductive environment.  That is, any
siding which is exactly quarter wave or half wave long at one of the bands
will affect that band.

You might also look at Force 12 Antennas web site for more on vertical
dipoles, which are ground independent.  Also, the W4RNL Antenna web site at
<cebik.com>.  Force 12 has a multi band vertical dipole for 20-15-10, and
may have some others for other bands.

Soldering is EVERYTHING to antennas and ham radio hookups in general.
Practice on scrap before soldering connectors, do not overheat them.  Use
good solder like Multicore Solders, (Richardson, TX) which have multiple
cores of non corrosive flux.  Clean off the resin with alcohol after
soldering connections used outdoors.  Tape them up, and use sealing
compounds like Dux Seal to prevent moisture getting to your connector.  Use
an iron, not a soldering gun, unless you are well practiced with the gun.
Do not solder outdoors, if you can get the antenna element into a sheltered,
out of the wind indoor or sheltered area.  You do not want wind to dissipate
your heat.  When soldering some coax connectors, you must clean off the
outer plating, to get solder to wet well.  The silver plated connectors, are
easier to solder, and bring that advantage to their use, and are often sold
in quantity for $1 each at ham fests here, (Silver plated and teflon high
temperature center insulation.)  Look up soldering as a key word in a
<google.com> search engine, and you will find many hints.

Good Luck and 73,
Stuart K5KVH