K7LXC book review was with the Titan. It was a poor performer against
the Challenger, much less my other antennas IMHO of my testing between
the two, Junk!
de ns9i
On 12/11/2012 5:13 PM, Tom W8JI wrote:
So my question is.... does anyone have actual experience with these
antennas (especially the voyager) as compared to other antennas for a
specific frequency. Now guys .. I know you cant really compare a 6
element beam to a vertical of this kind but I am talking about a
comparison that is realistic.. like how does it hear, tune, match &
get out compared to something like another vertical or a dipole up
some reasonable distance.
Jim,
Years ago someone purchased and had me measure a GAP vertical. The Gap
was terrible on 160 and 80 meters. It was OK on most other bands. On
160 meters, although I have a pretty good mobile antenna, I had about
the same field strength from my mobile antenna. The Gap was down about
10 dB from a 1/4 wave on 80 meters, as I recall. My mobile antenna is
about 20 dB down from my 1/4 wave 160 meter vertical.
The ARRL reviewed one Gap vertical in an on-the-air A-B test, and a
small ground mounted trap vertical was equal or better. I'm sure you
can search ARRL reviews and find this review.
Also, the HF Verticals test by K7LXC and Ward Silver compared many
verticals, and had about the same results on 80 meters as I found and
the ARRL found.
All of these completely independent tests were A-B tests against other
reference verticals, and all pretty much agreed with each other.
This doesn't mean you can't work DX with a Gap, because I can work VK,
JA, and Europe on 160 with my mobile antenna. I've worked several
Europeans on 160 SSB while driving down the highway. I can, at times,
even beat others in pileups from the mobile on 80 meters. Obviously if
the Gap is as good as a better mobile antenna, you can probably work a
lot of DX with it.
73 Tom
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Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
_______________________________________________
Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
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