[Elecraft] OT: Small Patio Vertical:

[Stuart Rohre]

Well, Julian, please note that half wave verticals are as efficient as
horizontal half wave dipoles, and are not to be confused with short
verticals, or quarter wave verticals where half the antenna is missing or
made up in the radials or ground plane of somewhat questionable efficiency
with its close coupling to earth.  Not all verticals are lossy!

The MFJ and other small loops suffer from narrow bandwidth, and are some S
units down in signal from half wave verticals, and even quarter wave
optimized verticals.

The vertical is a low angle antenna in the quarter wave style, and that too,
can give the impression of not working well compared to another antenna, in
that you may be skipping over near in signals and landing in DX lands with
few hams.

No antenna is optimum for all ranges, but the center loaded vertical dipoles
from Force 12 Antennas are some of the best of the type tested here.  For
only 12 feet tall, the Sigma 5 works extremely well on 20m and up.  A home
brew version could be easily done as well.  Consider the sleeve feed
parallel dipoles if you have the room to run a full size 20m or even 40m
central element.  Hang higher band dipoles from arms at the top end of the
low band vertical dipole.  Run coax up the central tubing.  The quarter wave
element will act as a stub decoupler around the coax.  Or run the coax off
at right angles or even a slope from the vertical dipoles as is done with
the Force 12 Sigma series.  You can use ferrite beads to decouple the
outside of the coax.
73,
Stuart
K5KVH