More GAP antenna guestions...............
Bill Russell
hear from a few more ppl concerning GAP products. I am interested in
the Titan DX and have read a few reviews. I know this is a compromise
antenna. That said and sticking with verticals, what do u folks think
of it compared to other brands? I also know that there are a lot of
variables with any antenna installation so Im trying to average out
the responses. It would be nice to be able to compare antennas that
are all installed at the same site but that is not likley unless
someone out there has done that..........Any advice will be helpful.
Thx, Bill
Gary Danaher
at the corner of the house. The Titan is not very different in design.
They all are going to be more noisy than a beam, have a lower angle of
radiation for DX, and require a ground system of some sort to radiate
properly. Gap states that they require little ground work which is true,
but you still need some copper in the ground. A multi band vertical will
work reasonably well on all the resonant bands down to the lowest
advertised band, at which point it begins to resemble a dummy load. If you
want to work 40 meters, get an antenna advertised for resonance down to
80. If you want to operate on 80 meters, get a vertical rated for
resonance down to 160.
Gary
AB5RM
Tim Taylor
nice simulation of a dummy load at 3.8 MHz. My Voyager is great on 80 but
again acts as a dummy load on 160.
-Tim
"Gary Danaher" <gdan...@home.com> wrote in message
news:3A3FF30F...@home.com...
Mike Frye
Calling the GAP Titan a "compromise" antenna would be very kind. For the
sake of the group I will hold back my true impressions. The antenna that
it was replacing was a bent up 40m dipole fed with ladder line and a tuner
at the the radio. The bent dipole was better than the Titan on most bands.
My other antenna was a cloud burner and consisted of an SGC auto tuner
with approx. 40ft of random wire mostly horizontal about 20ft above a few
ground radials and it out performed the titan (small case on purpose) on
DX and local on every band. Even local 10m vertical polarized stuff was
better with the SGC and a horizontal wire. The titan had a great match on
every band, but so do my dummy loads. I have participated in many A/B
tests of trap verticals (GAP, Cushcraft R7, Hy-gain) and a multi-band
dipole on 40& 80m at distances from a few mi to about 1200 and the dipole
has always won.
Happy antenna hunting!
Tom W8JI
<wi...@global2000.net> wrote:
Hi Bill,
You might search out the ARRL review where they compared a Gap to a
trap vertical with a real ground system.
On the higher bands, a Gap is OK. On the lower bands, it is a very
poor antenna. While you can make contacts, a low dipole would be MUCH
better on the lower bands for DX than a Gap.
I had a Gap antenna given to me several years ago. My 35 foot
top-loaded vertical with 60 radials was several S units louder than
the Gap at any distance, and 1500 watts would totally zap the matching
stub.
I now use the aluminun for a homebrew antenna.
Buy a Butternut, or any other trap vertical, and install a good radial
system..or a dipole fed with ladder line and a tuner. You'll be better
off.
73 Tom
pmarkham
<2h8v3tctficiepfkl...@4ax.com>:
>I've seen a few GAP antenna postings in this group but I would like to
>hear from a few more ppl concerning GAP products.
A little info:
http://www.qsl.net/aa3rl/titan.html
Do a search at:
http://wmod.dejanews.com/home_ps.shtml
Entering keywords " gap titan" results in ~200 relative posts, in which
resides a great deal of "magic" based hyperbole and enough rf theory based
common sense to debunk most of the fiction, if you care to look for it.
Many good technical posts among ~1000 older posts are not available, at the
moment.
Pete/wa4hei