On Tuesday, March 12, 2013 3:37:51 PM UTC-4, Bert wrote:


Using my non-functioning verticals, never more than 100 Watts, and a

very desultory operating style, I've managed to do WAS a few times over

and have 235 countries confirmed.


Once I was challenged by Roy Lewallen to do some quantative testing on ante
nnas during a discussion on the two types of antennas.

In my experiment, I made a switching arrangement between a Butternut HF6V v
ertical, ground mounted, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 buried ra
dials, and a 96 foot doublet at 50 feet.

Ahead of the switching arrangement was a pad, so that I could adjust the me
ter reading by switching attenuation in or out. Obviously I did not want
to transmit through the pad.

Most of my experiment consisted of listening to other hams, and switching b
ack and forth between the two antennas, then adjusting the signal strenght
until they were the same.

The results:

Some times the Vertical was best.
Some times the Horizontal dipole was best.
Some times which antenna perfomed best changed during the middle of a QSO.

Overall, the vertical was a little louder on recieve, and generally a littl
e weaker on transmit, although there were two things affecting this. And su
rprisingly enough, it wasn't always the take off angle. Some times it was I
MO signal polarity, but that's another experiment. The changes in signal st
rength that occured mid QSO were often noted by the people I was recieving
, and they usually attributed it to the band changing. I think it might hav
ebeen band changing and a shift in th epolarity of the recieved signal.

The other issue is that while it is common knowledge that a Vertical has a
lower take off angle and therefore "better" for DX, it must be remembered t
hat that lower take off angle needs to have more signal strength heading ou
t at that angle than an antenna with a more circular pattern has. And they
do not always.


So my conclusions about which is best between a vertical and dipole antenna
is a resounding and very convinced, Yes!

I believe that each has moments when it works better than the other, based
on Band, your QSO's distance from your station, and sometimes propagation e
ffects.

Most verticals need radials, and the radials must be installed properly 4 r
adials are not good practice. My 20 some radial setup was not ideal, but in
to diminishing returns. Since I installed them over time, I was able to not
ice that the signals were not getting any louder, a rough and ready test of
efficiency.

But verticals do work.