A few years ago, I was really on the 5/8 vertical bandwagon. I thought it was the cat's meow. The problem was that real world A/B testing did NOT show it to be any better than a 1/4 wave vert.
I had a 5/8 wave vert for 15 meters. Ground mounted over 16 radials. An ATU at the base took care of the small impedance mismatch and RG-213 carried the signal to the rig. Hot stuff - or so I thought. I also had a 1/4 wave ground plane (4 radials) on the roof of my single story house. It was fed with RG-58. I spent a lot of time with an A/B switch listening to both antennas. You'd think the 5/8 with it's mondo low-angle radiation pattern would walk all over the 1/4 wave but it DID NOT. DX signals as the band was just opening or closing were sometimes stronger on the 5/8, other times on the 1/4. There was no clear winner. It was years before I found the answer. Apparently, that wonderful low angle radiation that we want out of the 5/8 wave antenna depends HEAVILY on the ground conductivity many, many wavelengths away from the antenna. Far out of the reach of any ground radial system, poor soil conductivity is sucking the low angle radiation down to near zero. Sure, over salt water it is fabulous, but for the vast majority, it just doesn't pan out that way. So, for "normal" soil, it seems the best height is something less than 1/2 wave. I run a 33' vertical with a Hustler 80M resonator on top. It resonates on 80 and 40 and does pretty well on those two bands. It also delivers the goods on 30 meters due to the remote tuner. On 20 meters and higher it isn't really all that impressive. - Keith N1AS - - K3 711 - -----Original Message----- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net on behalf of James Apple Sent: Sun 3/15/2009 9:26 AM To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] 43' Vertical and the K2 tuner After the ice storm of 2009, I'm looking for an new antenna. I've been considering the 43' verticals by DXE,HyGain and MFJ. But I'm not sure if my K2 tuner will have the range needed. The DXE site has a warning about internal tuners. Anyone using a K2 and a 43' vertical ? how's it play ? Thanks in Advance - Jim (WB1DOG) ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
