There was nothing really wrong with the R-5. I used one for almost all
of my 12 and 17m operating as 9L1US in the 1990-91 time frame. Maybe
all you needed to do would have been to mount it on a steel railing atop
a three story building on a 400 ft. hill overlooking the Atlantic. :-)
The large toroid in the matching network in the plastic box fractured
into several pieces by the time I was 5H3US. Cushcraft wanted to sell
me the entire box full of components only at a very high price and I got
rid of the rest of the thing.
I keep a Hustler 6BTV with 25 radials here in case I lose a wire antenna
or have a rotator problem.
73,
Dave K8MN
On 9/11/2014 21 51, David Gilbert wrote:
Not to heap coals on the fire, but I also owned an early R5 and it was a
terrible performer. I had it over a year and when I finally got rid of
it and put up a simple 20m vertical in the exact same spot on the roof
and fed it against random length wires as a "ground plane", the
improvement was astounding. I don't think the basic concept was so bad,
but the implementation was horrible. I realized what I had as soon as I
opened up that little box at the base and saw what some clueless person
thought could act like a matching network.
In general, though, I think it is a mistake to characterize all
verticals a poor performers. It's all a function of efficiency
(avoiding losses) and location. Check out the ground conductivity
charts across the U.S. and you'll see huge differences, with some areas
essentially acting as terrestrial dummy loads. Nearby structures that
can absorb energy or distort patterns represent other possible culprits
for bad results with verticals. I used nothing but verticals for most
of three decades, but mine were always on a flat roof and well in the
clear of anything nearby.
73,
Dave AB7E
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