[TowerTalk] Gap titan response

["Rob Atkinson, K5UJ" <k5uj@hotmail.com>]

I own a Titan so a few quick comments based on my experience:

Obviously there will be a huge difference between it and the quad or yagi 
(can't remember wat u said u had) you had before.  May as well get that out 
up front.  No way to sugarcoat that, so get ready.

As verticals go (remember that qualifier) it is up to par on 15, 17 and 20.  
Not quite as good on 10 and 40 compared to say, a 1/4 w. vert. with a lot of 
radials.  On 75 it gets you on the band & that's abt. it.   Basically as it 
is physically small and covers so many bands there are compromises due to 
the network of stubs, linear loading and so on.

If you can put it out in the clear say 100 feet away from buildings on flat 
ground (or a hill) ground mounting it is probably okay, but elevating it 
even just 15 or 20 feet helps on 10 m.

Mine is 15' off the ground on a mast bolted to my garage in order to get it 
to clear my garage and house as they have Al siding on them.

I found it a fussy antenna to put together and get resonant.  I had to do 
some fiddling with mine.  You will probably need one of those swr analyzers 
like the mfj 259.   It is reasonably flat across 20 and above.  I get around 
200 khz of 40 and 150 khz of 75.

The tuning rods up the wind loading.  since you have harsh winters you 
should guy it no matter where you put it.  mine is guyed just above the 
feedpoint and has come through our winter gales with no probs. so far (up to 
62 mph winds to date).  It wiggles around in the wind but that's it.  I have 
heard that if it isn't guyed it will bend pretty far over.

My experience has been anything full sized on 40 and 80, i.e. a dipole up 40 
or 50 feet will run rings around it.  If you put it on a roof with a tripod, 
you are going to need a real solid mount, like a glen martin tri or quad pod 
and a steel water pipe or carbon steel mast.  in other words it will tear up 
a tripod and mast that are made for tv antennas so forget about using them.  
hpe this helps

rob/k5uj

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