On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:08:30 GMT, "west" wrote:

I know I can go to eham.com but I like the advice on rraa better. I also
know that this question is somewhat subjective, but if you will, please
indulge. :-)
What is flat out the best vertical HF antenna in your opinion and why?
Thanks in advance.

west
AF4GC

What I gather from what I read here and all the publications I can get
my hands on it is a quarter wave radiator over 130 radials that are at
least 1/4 wave long.

That may not hold true if you consider radiators longer than 1/4 wave.
"Best" is a very loose spec.

I am in the throws of constructing what I think is "Best" for me. I
started out with a 28 foot radiator and three twenty five foot
radials. It worked. It works a whole lot better now with a total of 36
radials. 14 are about 70 ft, 16 are about 36 ft, 6 are less than 36
ft.

I will work on a taller and more robust radiator next.

I feed it with a SGC-237 tuner. I can only guess the tuner losses are
similar to what a comparable tuner built from the TLW program in the
ARRL Antenna Handbook predict.

The limiting factors are the radiator, the ground and the losses.

What is "Best" for you will depend on your set of compromises.

My expectations are focused on 160-80-40 meters. It was pretty
inexpensive until I added the tuner!

John Ferrell W8CCW
"Life is easier if you learn to
plow around the stumps"