Hi Lou;
No matter what I settle on, the tilt over ground mound is looking better and 
better.  Fortunately when the r8 died the tripod wasn't damaged.  Might have 
to resurrect an old beam.  This would all be easier and much more fun if I 
could the antenna together myself.  Nothing quite as annoying as looking at 
antenna in a box for six months.
I tried butternuts little mini-beam a number of years when antenna help was 
more plentiful.  It wasn't easy to tune on 20 but it did work.  The bigger 
challenge is 40 and 80 meters.
Rich
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Louis Kim Kline" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 2:46 PM
Subject: Re: antenna info


Hi.

You could use the GAP Titan, like I am doing, but if you are going to roof
mount it, you are going to want something very solid for a mount and tied
into wood that is tied across multiple rafters.  The Titan is big and
heavy, and represents a lot of wind load, so you probably cannot place too
much emphasis on the mount.  If you decide to ground mount it,  may I
suggest GAP's tilt-over base mounted in four 80 pound bags of concrete (the
installation method that I used).  Guy ropes might not be a bad idea, but
aren't strictly necessary if you have the tilt-over base well
anchored.  Mine has survived two major wind storms and a ice storm.

The GAP doesn't use ground radials -- adding them will do nothing for the
antenna.  It has three main drawbacks.  They are:

1.  You are limited to an 50 khz slice of 80 meters, and GAP doesn't
recommend the use of an antenna tuner to stretch that antenna bandwidth,
especially if you will be running more than 100 watts.

2.  The 40 meter band is much harder to tune when the antenna is ground
mounted than it is when it is mounted up in the air.  This occurs because
of unwanted feedline coupling with the capacity hat, and is minimized if
the coax can be kept vertical for as much as practical.  If you cannot do
this, the resulting SWR is easily tuned out with an antenna tuner,
especially if you are running 100 watts or less.

3.  A common failure mode on this antenna is for the weather cap to become
damaged or fall off, exposing the 80 meter loading capacitor to
moisture.  The capacitor will usually fail under these conditions.  It
might be worth wrapping the weather cap in some weather resistant tape to
make it a bit more survivable.

As long as you account for these three things, I think you'll like the
overall performance of this antenna.

73, de Lou K2LKK



At 11:04 AM 11/11/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi Everyone;
>Since I have the winter to investigate I've been looking at hf verticals.
>I'd like something that at least covers 40 through 10 meters and 80 meters
>would be a nice extra.
>I have used two r8 by cushcraft which have come down so we can cross that
>one off my list.  After reading reviews I have temporarily eliminated the
>dx77.  Since I would prefer something that I can roof mount and don't have
>to add radials that seems to eliminate butternut, step-ir and others.  I'm
>far from an antenna expert and I wonder what else is out there that I don't
>know about.  I have looked at the dx88 but it apparently is best ground
>mounted with radials.
>Any words of wisdom will be appreciated.
>Richard

Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
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Work Telephone:  (585) 697-5753