"Fractenna" wrote in message
...
Any feed back?

If you desire a single antenna with excellent SWR match at many bands,
then I
am of the opinion that there is value here.

Even the most efficient horizontal dipole is almost useless for DX--the
assumed
need, not NVIS-- unless it is high up. This is because all low dipoles
have low
gain at low elevations: Their launch angle is quite high.

I would suspect that typical ohmic losses on the BW are 2-5 dB. The
mismatch
lsses are negligible.

Getting this well over a wave high at the lowest freq of operation will
afford
at least that, and probably more, in a gain differential at low angles,
compared to an efficient, low dipole.

The point: a high BW antenna will work well. Any low dipole will work
poorly.
The in-between is a valid issue to ponder.

73,
Chip N1IR

Chip, how did we digress to comparing a "high B&W" to a "low dipole"? When
the two are each at their optimal height (and why would we ever compare
anything else..) then the dipole has it all over a B&W. I use my (amost 1/2
wave height) dipole only for DX, without a tuner on it's two resonant
frequencies and with a tuner on two bands well above, with amazing results.
5, 8, 11 and 15 mhz to Alaska, Equador, Venezuela and Canadian Maritimes, if
that qualifies as "DX".

73

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Va