Many thanks all !! Now that's what I call Chattering !!! I am still taking notes - making printouts.
Some intitial conclusions: I am not going to spend $ 200 - 400 for a vertical. I have just had too much success with my homebrew multi-band ones with elevated feedpoint and radial system isolated from ground, including my last design/installation ground mounted. It is going to be simple - the Butternut sounds like a great antenna, I have heard previously it was. Some of you have had good success with the Gaps. But, just looking at the photos of those antennas, and the necessity of tuning, I can say that I am too old and too much of a physical wreck to even attempt it - with help !! So, having three 10 Ft sections 1 3/4 In I.D. aluminum pipe, threaded, with couplers in garage (buried under flower pots, potting soil, and who knows what by now), that will get it above ground. What will be elevated above ground and how, I'll let you great folks know tomorrow after I finish reading and studying the many posts that I sure appreciate. Just FYI, my present H.B. stub-tuned vertical, which is over 10 years old, is ground mounted (the XYL heavily frowned on the air in the backyard being filled with radials !!!). I used a gasoline powered lawn edger to cut the slits in the ground for 36 radials each 25 Ft long. Thank goodness, I am about 15 miles to the East of where the hard red clay ground turns into sandy/loamy soil here in Piedmont of NC. The radiator is 16 Ft 4 In of aircraft aluminum tubing (1/4 wave - 20M), and I wound tuning stubs for 17, 15, 12, and 10M on 1/4 In PVC pipe attached to insulator base at right angles. So for bands other than 20M, the antenna is electrically shunt fed. I used Smith Chart/length of RG-58 for known C, Grid-Dip Meter, and formulas for Fo and L to determine length and # turns for each stub for 50 Ohm match on each band. 10M was most difficult band to match. Doubt if I could do all this from scratch now !! With the ground losses, the "Q" of the antenna and radiation efficiency of the ground mount is lower than that of an above ground mount with isolated radials. That did help the bandwidth, however. Using a 15 ft step ladder and Field Strength Meter, I took readings at increments of 2 Ft in elevation up to 16 Ft at a distance of 25 Ft from Ant every 22.5 Deg around the Ant. This was done at 14.025 Mhz while my Elmer was keying the XCVR at designated intervals. It took a little math, a lot of time, and a lot of rocks painted white. Good thing it was a mild Winter and 20M lousy that day. I plotted vertical field strength readings on polar graph paper. The angle of maximum radiation in vertical plane averaged 12.5 Deg !! I have managed to work all the major DXpeditions with this Vert and 40M Inv Vee up 10M at Ctr using 100W. I found out that the Vert actually worked better on LP than SP !! With this set-up, I am at 327 Cfmd on CW. The Ant loads good and must work pretty well on 17 thru 10M, as I was heard on Heard and Bouvet on 15 and 10M, and got 3D2CI (last Conway) on 20 thru 10M, also A52A and XZ1N no prob on 20 and 15M. When VP6DI came around, I could have sworn my coax was bad, but I got thru on 15M one evening !! Just wish I was physically able to reconstruct this antenna elevated about 10 Ft with elevated radials. All it would take is two 1/4 wave radials for each band, and the radiation efficiency would improve greatly !!! I am 58 Yrs old, have Graves Disease, congestive heart failure, and am disbabled Nam veteran, so big physical wreck. Just now recovering from bad bout of pneumonia. You young guys enjoy your youth while you have it, as it is fleeting !!! Also remember that DX'ers are a very special group of people, so we should be as kind and helpful to each other as much as possible. I thank you all for being kind enough to share your "vertical experiences" with me. I been building verticals since I was 14 Yrs old and vaporized the base loading coil of my Gotham V-40. That was before I knew about radials and SWR, but I learned quickly !!! :-) :-) :-) Tomorrow, I very briefly tell you what I going to try and elevate, with some much needed help !!! So enuf BW right now !!! TKS es 73 de Larry, K4WLS Same Call - 44 Years Extra Class - 42 Years U.S. Navy (Ret) Only CW - The Real Mode Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, [EMAIL PROTECTED] This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
