[Elecraft] Antenna?

[Brian Mury]

On Sun, 2004-07-04 at 06:47, Mike Morrow wrote: 
> It confirms the very dismal performance of *all* those "popular" HF
> short loading-coil verticals in comparison to the most simple, basic,
> inexpensive quarter-wave vertical.  TANSTAAFL!

It's no surprise that a full size quarter wave beats any loaded
vertical, but I disagree that they all have dismal performance. The best
5 are less than a 1 dB difference (with the best being a mere 0.3 dB
difference). The best 13 are under 6 dB, which is less than 1 S unit.
Only 4 have a greater than 1 S unit difference.

> Likewise, the horizontal antenna comparisons confirm the overall
> superiority of a simple dipole over other horizontal types being
> tested.

Here, the worst is -3.78 db, which is only slightly over half an S unit,
while a couple beat out the reference antenna. Yes, ok, one of those
*is* a yagi; the other is the long buddipole.

> A comparison of all tested horizontal and vertical antennas against
> the half-wave horizontal dipole would have been interesting.  I'm sure
> it would have shown a very significant advantage of a horizontal
> dipole over any vertical tested.

I would also like to see a comparison between the horizontal and
vertical antennas. I don't think the horizontal antenna would
necessarily beat the vertical - it depends on a few variables, a couple
big ones that come to mind being the height of the dipole and the
vertical's counterpoise. 

Of course, what is best also depends on what takeoff angle you want. If
you want a low takeoff angle for DX, I would argue that a vertical would
be hard to beat, especially if you're not able to get a dipole up high
enough. A low dipole is, of course, hard to beat for shorter distances.

> compared to that of a single band dipole.  That's why, for the
> seven-band portable dipole that I put together,  I use small,
> lightweight, home-made PVC insulators with manually connected jumpers
> around them to change the band of resonance.

Neat idea!

-- 
73, Brian
VE7NGR