Verticals Work!

Introduction

Browsing around eHam.net a few months back, I came across an article by Steve Katz (WB2WIK) titled 20dB for $48.60. This should be an interesting read. After reading the article, I thought to myself, "I should try this out." I used to own a GAP Eagle DX that did not do so well (In hindsight, I think it was a mistake on my part, which includes a badly done soldering job on the coax connector by yours truly). I wanted to try a vertical again and I wanted to do it right. I have an Alpha Delta DXLB+ installed at 35' in an inverted V configuration. The dipole supports 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10M and the WARC bands with a tuner. I will also have a roof tower installation here at the house with a Hexbeam. However, the beam will only cover 10, 12, 15, 17, and 20M. I wanted something that would work for me on 30, 40, and 80. Plus, as Steve mentions in his article, a vertical would be a good "go-to" antenna. I am also a casual contester so I figure that this would be a good second radio antenna, as I want to try this technique in upcoming contests. So I decided to install a vertical (again) and I wanted to share my experience with the amateur radio community.

Starting Out

I dropped by the local amateur radio store here in Columbus (Universal Radio) and picked up the antenna that Steve mentions in his article: a Hustler 6BTV. I also dropped by a local Lowe's home improvement store and picked up about 2000' of #14 wire, some ring terminals, nuts and bolts to use as the mounting point at the base of the antenna, and a 4' piece of rigid steel pipe, about $60.00. Brought the wire home and proceeded to make 68(!) 20' radials. Wrapped the end of the wire to a desk leg and then unwound the wire to 20' and cut the wire. Did this 68 times. It helped to have a movie going to pass the time. I woke up the next morning very sore.

Next, I attached the ring terminals to the ends of the wire. This was my first mistake. First, I found that after a while of crimping these things on, your hand starts to get really raw (not to mention muscle fatigue). Second, I failed to solder them which would have been handy while installing the radials (more on that later.)

68 20' Radial wires ready for ring terminals

Installing the Radials

In the long-standing ham-radio-antenna-installation tradition, the day of installation was cold, it just finished raining, and it was muddy. Perfect for installing an antenna! I get the power edger out and proceed to make some small trenches in the sod. Since the soil was moist and muddy, the edger clogged very easily. So after each 20' trench, I would have to clean out the area around the blade. This got old so I proceeded to the nearest camping supply store and bought all of their tent stakes. This was about $40.00 for about 80 stakes. I proceeded to install the radials on the ground by attaching a tent stake in the middle of the radial and attaching a tent stake at the opposite end of the radial. As you can see in the photo below, I created a radial ring that consisted of #12 wire, 2" long 1/4" bolts, and 1/4" nuts. The #12 wire had ring terminals at the ends and they connected the bolts together in a triangle. The ring terminals on the ends of the radials would attach to the bolts and the nuts would tighten down on the radial ring terminals. Here is where I discovered my second mistake (mentioned earlier): I failed to mow the radial area. The grass was pretty tall. The radials did not hug the ground as much as I would have liked. I tripped over the radials many times (using black wires I failed to see them.) Sometimes, when I tripped over a radial, the wire would pop out of the ring terminal. "Should have soldered them" I grumbled to myself. If I would have soldered the wire to the terminals and mowed, placing the radials on the ground and using the tent stakes would have done fine. I quit at about 31 radials.

Close-up of the homemade radial ring.

As time permitted during the days that followed the initial installation, I used the edger to make trenches beside the radials that were not buried yet. I would then place the radials down into the trenches. In the above photo the black radials on the bottom and left of the photo are placed above the ground. The white radials on the top and right are buried.

Initial Impressions

After installing the radials, I ran coax from the base of the antenna to my Ameritron RCS-4 remote antenna switch to do some comparisons. I can say that most of the time I get about the same signal strengths on stations close in and on DX with some paths. Stations south and north of me I get better signals because the dipole nulls are north and south. Now I have coverage in those directions. One evening, I was listening to W1AW code practices on 20M with the dipole and it was a very strong signal. I switched over to the vertical and W1AW was in the noise. I could barely hear it. A couple minutes later, a ZS6 station was in a QSO on 20M and the signal was definitely stronger on the vertical than the dipole, about an S unit.

So far, the DX I have worked has been 5C7N, HC8N, UN6P, HC4T on 20M, CY0MM, YV5OIE, PJ2/W0CG on 30M. This is about the same type of performance on my dipole at times. So I am getting about equal performance to my dipole at this point. Nothing to write home about, but nothing to be ashamed of. The antenna is allowing me to fill in the dipole nulls and get a little better performance on some paths. Most of the time, the vertical is doing as well as the dipole. A good second radio antenna thus far.

Picture of the vertical installation with 31 radials.

A Better Radial Ring

I did not like the homemade radial ring, as it did not look like it would last that long and I wanted something a little more elegant. I asked the question on the QRP-L email list and got a recommendation to look into Comtek Systems (http://www.comteksystems.com). They make a radial ring with 60 holes predrilled into the ring. This includes stainless steel hardware to attach the radials to the ring. The instructions say that you can attach 2 radials under each stainless steel screw that will give you 120 radials total. I will probably get there someday, but for now, 60 radials will be fine for my purposes. At the time of this writing, the ring costs $34.95.

The Comtek Systems RR-1 Radial Ring (picture courtesy Comtek Systems.)

At the first sign of good weather, I proceeded to dismantle the homemade radial ring assembly. I removed all of the ring terminals from the radials as I was going to attach the radials directly to the stainless steel hardware without the ring terminals. Some of the radials did not reach the RR-1. So this meant that I needed to somehow get the radials to the ring. Either I had to move the tent stakes already in the ground, which would have been a hassle or stretch the wires to the ring. The latter worked the best so I stretched the rest of the radials to the ring. After attaching the radials, I went back in the shack to compare performance.

I noticed no performance difference between the home made ring and the ring terminal, which was to be expected. The benefit to the radial ring was the ease of installation and it was nice and neat.

Adding the rest of the radials

I dedicated a snowy day to install the rest of the radials. It was fun to be outside watching my dog run around the yard in the snow while I was lying there installing radials. With gloves, thermal underwear, heavy coat, I was pretty comfy and warm. I pulled off the rest of the ring and attached each of the wires to the remaining screws on the radial ring. Pulled the wires tight, attached the tent stakes, and pounded them into the ground. Took about 3 hours to finish the job. I had 59 radials now attached to my antenna. Now to see how it is doing!

Fired up the radio and switched it over to the vertical. It was dark so 20M was shutting down, 30M through 80M was still alive. Checked some stations on 40M. Some stations were probably and S unit or less below the dipole. I was only hearing stateside at the time. Other DX stations were sometimes a little louder than on the dipole. Where I saw a big difference was on 15M. I was hearing a bigger difference between the dipole and the vertical. There are some "wav" files of stations on 15M located on my web site at http://www.qsl.net/n8xe/radio/wavs/vertical/ to give you some comparisons. I attempted to have the dipole first and the switch over to the vertical. As you can see from the files, there is a difference between the dipole and the vertical. So far, I am very pleased with the vertical and amazed at some of the differences on the higher bands.

And this makes sense. The radials are 20' long, which are longer than a quarter wavelength on 10, 15, and 20. On 30, 40, and 80, the radials are under a quarter wavelength. And the performance is indicating so far that the vertical does better on the higher bands than the lower ones. I am not disappointed as most of the time the signals are the same between the vertical and the dipole with DX signals. However, I just listened (and recorded) an English station on 40M and the station was doing a little better on the vertical.

Conclusion

I would say that the vertical is a great addition to my antenna farm. In the process of writing this article, I have since installed my tower with a Hexbeam. I must say that the Hexbeam performs better than the vertical. However, the vertical plays better on the lower bands, especially 30M. I recently worked both T97M and 3B8CF with this vertical. The one thing to keep in mind to have an effective vertical antenna: you need to install radials, as many as you can (up to 120 of them). Once you do that, a vertical really can shine! I am glad I made the vertical plunge!

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