[Elecraft] Re: [Icom] Opinions re: HF Verticals?

Stuart Rohre [email protected]
Mon Oct 14 15:16:05 2002


I have had all type of antennas, even some most hams only dream about.
(Rhombic, Vee beam 10 waves on 10m, 400 foot long wire, dipoles, quarter
wave vertical, trap verticals like Cushcraft, Butternut, etc.)

Now I have the Gap Titan for some 7 or 8 years.  Best performing vertical
over the R7, R5, Butternut, and some horizontal antennas.  It is equal to my
best dipole, and excels on DX.  It has NO traps, only aluminum stubs so the
parallel lines act as traps but without coil loss, or lumped capacitance.
The only compromise stub is the 80m capacitor loaded one.  It is an adequate
performer on that band.

If you could get the aluminum and insulators, sure you could build your own
Titan, but your labor must be worth something.  Much easier to get the kit.
Aluminum tubing in many sizes is harder to come by these days.

No one antenna is always the best, so I have a combination.  One of the best
all around performers for me have been very large horizontal loops, put up
no more than 20 feet high!  With one 849 feet around, we worked Indonesia at
QRP phone last Field Day.  IDEZ antennas I developed are also excellent
performers, but require a transmatch as does the large loops for all band
use.
(Inverted vee Double Extended Zepps).  We use open wire feeders for those
big wires.
72, Stuart K5KVH