> I suspect that verticals just don't work well when frequency is
raised much above 80 meters. Anyone else have any thoughts on that??
I think there's some truth to this, but I don't know why. I do know that
I've never gotten a ground-mounted vertical to play on 10M worth a darn.
I've had multiband verticals that worked OK on 15M and 20M, but they were
clearly inferior to a dipole. However, I've always had good luck with
ground-mounted verticals on 40M, both multiband verticals and full-size (the
latter are *much* better.) I think they are superior to a high dipole for
long haul DX, and that's probably due to the lower radiation angle. For
closer communications, it's either a toss up or the dipole wins.
As I recall, a ground-mounted vertical with a reasonable number of radials
(say, 60) is -3 dB down from a dipole. A dipole should be superior in the
favored directions, but the radiation angle tends to favor the vertical for
DX. I believe a 4-square is about 5-6 dB up from a monopole, so it should be
about 3 dB better than a dipole. That, combined with the lower radiation
angle, should make the 4-square quite superior to a high dipole. Most
4-square owners I've talked to think so. It doesn't make a lot of sense to
me that your 40M 4-square didn't work well.
73, Dick, WC1M
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