[HCARC] Gap Verticals

[John Huecksteadt]

I read the posting from a former club member that slams GAP antennas. In my
opinion, the most of the author's comments are misleading, even false. I
would like reflector subscribers to hear another opinion. In fact, I think I
have a responsibility to say something.

I've owned a GAP Voyager for maybe nine months; I can't really remember how
long. I was neither a fan nor detractor before that. Then Don, W4WJ,
mentioned to me that the Voyager was really good 40m antenna. In fact, his
overall impression of it was good. Since I was trying to build something to
get on 160m and wanted vertically polarized antennas for 80m and 40m, I
thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did.

The Voyager is a little pricey. Be aware. The antenna, itself, is physically
robust and well-built. It is not flimsy mechanically. The materials are all
top-grade, stainless steel where appropriate. It is mechanically
complicated, what with the tuning rods, and so on, but even the least
stressed parts are and over-speced; again, in my opinion. This is not a
tinselly, cheap antenna. Any statements to the contrary are simply wrong.
Realize, of course, I'm talking about the Voyager. I have no idea what the
other Gap products are like or how well they work. I'm only saying it's
misleading to trash all GAP products. 

The Voyager requires only four radials, not a field of them, and they are
not long. I think they’re about 40 feet long or so. My Voyager has stood up
to three seasons of Hill Country weather, including some vicious winds. It
has stayed up when a white-tail buck ran full into one of the guy wires
trying to flee my Labs. 

The most important thing is how well this antenna works. On 40m it is a
KILLER, no two ways about it. On 160m it's fair, on 80m it's better. I don't
use it on 20m. Here is my score summary for this past weekend's CQWW CW DX
contest. The contacts on 80m and 40m band were ALL made with the GAP
Voyager. It's a very good DX antenna. For 1000 miles in, you would probably
be better off with a wire antenna, like a Zepp or dipole or G5RV or the
like. On 160m I don't believe you can get a wire up high enough around here
to work well. (Think back to the November club program.) As you can see, it
compared very favorably with a TH7DX on 20m thru 10m for an equal number of
hours spent on the relevant bands. Frankly, the Voyager continues to blow my
mind on 40m. I keep thinking "This guy (rare DX working a pileup) will never
hear me." just to be proven wrong time and time again.

        Band    QSOs    Pts  ZN    Cty
         1.8      23      57    8   14
         3.5      84     234   20   45
           7     256     720   28   89
          14     253     740   31   90
          21     256     746   29   97
          28     268     766   27   80
       Total    1140    3263  143  415

If you ever want to stop by for a demonstration and see the construction of
this GAP product,  just say so. And beware of whom you listen to and  how to
interpret them when it comes to trashing products.

73 de John/AC4CA