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[TowerTalk] Gap and others

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Gap and others
From: Dinsterdog@aol.com (Dinsterdog@aol.com)
Date: Wed May 7 10:48:18 2003
Wow,

I got a lot of response to my Gap question on noise and 80M.

Now here's the rest of the story......

I moved from my 160 acre ranch in Wyoming where we had a number of low band 
arrays etc........to a typical urban back yard in Denver.  Being a low bander 
and 80 meter diehard, I set up my Hustler 6BTV and with it. With around 10 
radials and my Alpha Amp, I had a fairly decent 80M season (of what was left of 
it) working several JA's, and even a RW station zone 19 LP at sunrise.  That 
was a rush-  All on days where the RF hash was tolerable. It's a lot better in 
the morning vs evening-

Now I know how to DX on 80M using big antennas, and have had good success with 
smaller antennas like the HF2V and 6BTV....I don't waste my time on wire 
wonders, etc....

But the noise level on the Hustler at the new QTH was a lot worse than 
expected. Ouch as you could hear a pin drop on it at my old QTH and both the 
HF2V and 6BTV did well DX'ing. At the new QTH, HF2V was no better on noise. 
Especaily trying to hear EU. 

To make things worse, my 3 year old kept getting tangled up in the radial 
field......what a mess I was running into trying to work the only band I'm 
serious about-

In a totally desperate mode, and brain jammed with rose colored glasses and 
prescribed medications, I did try Martin's 1026 box but let's face the facts.  
This box requires a null antenna that can hear as well as what you are using 
taking up extra room in the yard.  My 6 BTV was on one side of the yard, while 
my nulling HF2V on the other side Blah- The box had ok effects at first nulling 
out some noise but it also reduced signal strengths as well nulling them out 
too....it had poor RF protection and cooked in a week. Good little toy if your 
are a SWL, but not for DX'ing in my experience-

So how do I get the DX efficiency of a vertical yet hear with it too-  Using 
receiving loops is a good idea, an excellent idea! But again, room is limited.  
And regardless of what vertical antenna I've tried, noise still sucks- (My 
guess is I'll still try some rx loops some day but..........)

So here I am pondering whats the next step- In the mean time, I go out and get 
the new Cushcraft MA5V with it's center fed vertical dipole design. (I think 
thats how some explain it)-

 Guess what?!....it is quiter on rx vs the Hustler 6BTV on ALL band comparisons 
and works just as well.  Hummmm......too bad you can't run any power with it 
and darn if they didn't build it for anything but the high bands- 

So looking around, I find that the Gap Titan is a center fed 1/2 wave 
vertical/dipole design or something to that effect. It's never clear to me but 
it seems like a good choice for a quiter RF antenna. That is their claim-

So before ordering one, I go to my antenna test book but I'm not encouraged by 
what's stated for this antenna on 80M. Then I go to Eham and bingo, over 50 
reviews and it people love it- A 9V who I've worked from Wyoming uses one and 
that's the icing on the cake. 

So I order it and I'm almost done finishing up.  Recent emails to me say it's a 
dummy load on 80M while others say it is not quieter than anything else they've 
tried.  These emails are from people I know to be great low band ops but I 
remain encouraged-

I'm looking forward to raising it up- Power limitations and all.  

BTW, I was told that the 500 watt limit applies to full duty cycle and that 
running legal is ok on CW, SSB, etc....myth or fact I'm about to find out- 

I like pushing antenna's to their limits and I'm watering at the mic to try 
this puppy out- 

Any other commenets about the Gap Titan or any other Gap for the low bands will 
be greatly appreciated. Good or bad, I just want to know.  I've already used 
several suggestions in constructing the antenna found on the Eham review site 
and Gap has a great webpage......Please feel free to email me here or at 
dinsterdog@aol.com.

I'll post my results in a few weeks once I have a chance to work some DX 
somewhere-  I am using the capacitor for 3.500MHz but have ordered the cap for 
3.800MHz for later comparisions-

If you see any mushroom clouds over Denver, you know I pushed it a bit too much 
with the Alpha-

73  Paul  N0AH

  
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