Elias@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (09/25/84)
*Sigh* The time has come when I am seriously needing a beam antenna; the
realities of life being what they are, I don't expect to be able to put
up a tower, so a 15' tripod on top of my 1.5-story house will have to do
(total of 30-35 ft. on a nice hill in historic Lexington, Ma.) Now, I
would appreciate any info, opinions, rumors, or outright gossip the net
may offer on the subject of Tri-banders (20, 15 and 10 m.), including
brand X vs. brand Y, is the higher price of the "Deluxe" models worth
it, user experiences, etc. etc. Who knows, the net may even benefit
from such a discussion...
Thanks de KA1LLM/Antoniocarpentercr.dlos@XEROX.ARPA (09/27/84)
I have just this past week assembled and put up a Hy-Gain TH3JR. It is a light weight unit at only 20 pounds. I am using a roof mounted set-up and this was one of the reasons I selected the antenna. Also, I had helped a friend with his th7... and was impressed with the construction. It is rugged enough to withstand most weather and I have noticed a sig- nificant improvement over my trap dipole. The only problem you might have is with power rating. It is rated at only 600wpep. I too am at a low level and I'm sure that this affects performance. The Quad is probably the best but was not a practical alternative for me. I found this antenna advertised for as low as 168.00 in some of the QST ads. Quads are much more expensive. 73 Chuck... W5USJ
Karz.Wbst@XEROX.ARPA (10/01/84)
Antonio, I purchased a HyGain Explorer 14 tribander about a year ago. My situation is very similar to yours (mast mounted 12 feet off the roof and about 35 feet above the ground), and I have been well pleased with its quality and performance. Its a reasonably rugged antenna, and it really does have the 8 or so db gain advertised. I am especially happy with its front to back performance since a friend, W2AZX, bought a Mosley TA33 about the same time, and while overall performance of the two antennas is comparable, his TA33 (mounted on a 70' tower) has superior front to side performance, but not as good performance front to back as my Explorer 14. My only "complaint" is that the SWR at the lower band edges is in the 2.5 to 3 range. The problem, according to the instruction manual, is that my antenna is too close to the roof. I've thought of re-tuning the antenna to move resonance lower in the band, but I don't wish to sacrifice performance for my occasional forrays into the phone band. Also, my 6146 finals will easily handle 3:1 SWR. Operating with the antenna is a real pleasure. Hamming is sure a lot more fun when you can occasionally break into a pile-up and grab a rare one. That didn't happen very often with my TS820 barefoot and my old subpar antenna. Its also nice to be able to use the yagi and geography as a kind of spatial QRM filter. Its definitely been one of the better purchases for my station. 73 Bob Karz K2OID
n2ic@drutx.UUCP (10/02/84)
I wholeheartedly endorse the KT-34XA. It typically outperforms my monobanders. A word of warning about roof-mounted tripods, however: I used the South River 15 foot tripod for 3 years when I lived in New Jersey. It is not intended for use with ham radio antennas (as the manufacturer will be happy to tell you). I had a Wilson 3-element tribander on top of it (not a particularly large antenna). In addition to anchoring the tripod into the roof, I had one set of guy wires set into the roof rafters. Despite this precaution, I experienced many problems with damaged cross-members in the tripod (i.e. they would break due to twisting of the tripod). Also be warned that without modification, the rotor mounting in the tripod is not large enough to accomodate a "normal" sized ham rotor (i.e. HD-73, Ham-4, etc.), and the opening in the top of the tripod will not accommodate a standard 2" mast. In summary, the South River roof tripods are, at best, a temporary solution ( 2-3 years), which will require considerable maintenance (usually in mid-February when the weather is at its worst). 73, Steve, N2IC/0