30' Vertical

In August 2011 I erected this aluminum tube vertical antenna.  The original parts were from a DXEngineering 43' vertical kit (DXE-MBVE-1) that my neighbor Ray, NR1R, had bought but decided not to use. Since I had already found a solution to getting on 160 meters (see my page on that vertical here) I decided to use the parts for an antenna targeted at 20 and the upper bands, to improve my station's low-angle (DX) performance.

Taken just a few minutes after installation. To make the antenna lighter and less imposing, I used the pieces of tubing that were originally intended for the upper part of the 43' vertical.  Plastic dowels inserted inside these thinner tubes - some with diameters under 1/2" - will prevent bending in high winds.

I didn't have the manufacturer's tilt base, but I still wanted to be able to easily lower the antenna both for tuning and for the occasional storm that strikes us here in Eastern Massachusetts (having just been through Tropical Storm Irene this was critical.)  The design was pretty low-tech, as you can see below.  Part of the fun was getting the antenna up using parts already in the workshop.  This includes several spools of 20AG coated wire that was handed to me by an overstocked friend, which meant I had plenty of radial wire.  

 Also visible in this close-up of the antenna's base are the first eight radials, as well as the RG-8XLL coax to the shack

Radials

Never a question of should but how many?  Rudy, N6LF (author of a series of QEX articles on verticals and radials) did extensive research into the subject of radials, but I enjoyed running my own tests of radial quantity vs. SWR, X, and R, since ground conductivity and other external factors would play a role in performance.  Ultimately, I laid out - and buried - 32 radials around the stick, as indicated here:

Radials installed for the vertical

SWR and X were respectable (both dipped to zero within the target band of 20 meters) although R was - even with 32 flippin' radials - over 50 ohms across the band.


Performance

I will repeat what my buddy Doug Grant K1DG has said to me many times: verticals receive noise equally in all directions.  With very few exceptions, I never heard a signal better on the vertical than I did on one of my dipoles.  So, in an effort to improve the performance, in November, 2012 I dragged out several of the left-over aluminum tubes and increased the height of the vertical to approximately 30'.

With the increased height I noticed a qualitative improvement in Signal-to-Noise on the upper bands, and it was also nice to be able to load up on 30 and 40 meters.  But the vertical so rarely delivered a better signal than one of my dipoles - as well as for esthetic reasons - that in June 2014 I decided to give it a temporarily "vacation."  The ground radials are still there, so when the colder weather arrives I could re-install it with little effort.

Always looking for ideas, questions, or comments about the build.  Feel free to email them to me directly here.