| K0OZ |
Rating:  |
2023-11-08 | |
| Very Pleased |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I have assembled and installed my GAP Titan DX. I am pleased with the SWR achieved on all bands! The highest SWR across all bands is 2.0 on the 20-meter band at 14.150. It's pretty amazing for a hack like me. You know that the antenna design did most of that hard work and it wasn't me. The assembly went together without a hitch. I took my time and went online to watch some videos on the assembly and deployment.
One thing I did find was noise on the 80-meter and the 40-meter bands that I was able to attribute to my son's television and not the antenna. He'll be getting a new television soon so he's happy for the noise, he gets a new TV out of it.
I've reached Europe, Asia, Hawaii, and South Africa with only 100 watts no problem with good reports. I found there is no need to use any internal or external antenna tuner due to the low SWR I achieved. The 40M loop was a cinch to tune and the SWR is 1.129 in the shack. 15, 12, and 10M bands were so quiet I thought they weren't working until I heard people booming in clear as a bell.
I am extremely happy with my purchase. The attention and recommendations from the company proved invaluable.
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| W8NOR |
Rating: |
2023-04-23 | |
| Works well for me |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
As noted by others, the GAP Titan manual is just covering the basic installation with few hints for when something isn't working as expected. Luckily, there are many websites that fill in the gap (pun may be intended). That said, the antenna went together without any problems and was installed in my back yard for testing. I had some problems with 30 and 80 which could be because of proximity to a split rail fence with a chicken wire screen. All other bands were well under 2.0:1 SWR.
So far the antenna has performed very well with a G90 transceiver and 15w power. I have guyed the antenna (don't skip that) and high winds never bothered it. Too early to judge how well it'll hold up over time but it seems sturdy enough to last.
I have plans to move the antenna farther away from fence and buildings and see if it improves SWR on those two bands.
Bottom line, I would recommend this to others as a substitute for verticals with radials or those "no-radial" verticals that don't work well. |
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| WB9YTG |
Rating: |
2022-12-07 | |
| Highly recommended |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Have had the GAP Titan HF multi-band vertical 16 years (purchased direct from GAP at the 2001 Dayton HamVention). A few repairs over the years. Pleased at its versatility. Has worked well in my small city backyard. (fortunately no HOA). Mine is about 6 foot above ground near the shack. Not invisible, but have had no complaints from my neighbors. DX and contest QSO's on 20/18/15/12/10 (SSB) using 100 watts. Solid contacts on 40 and 30 meters (CW). Mixed results on 75 but not surprised. Even use it on 2 meters for the local repeater. |
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| WD0J |
Rating: |
2022-12-06 | |
| Great Antenna |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| Mounted exactly 8 foot above ground on a mast in concrete. Guyed with kevlar parachute cord so far has survived 70 plus mph winds. Over the summer of 2022 I have managed to work 60 new dxcc with this antenna. I have had questions along the way and I received great support from the guys at gap. Best way to contact is to pick up the phone and call them. |
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| AB7YF |
Rating: |
2022-11-11 | |
| Substandard materials and poor customer support |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| When the Titan worked it worked well, but the materials used to produce it are substandard. After a little over a year my Titan developed a 30° to 40° bend In the main mast just above the mounting bracket. I do not live in an area with high winds nor am I subjected to high winds. Occasional moderate gusts but nothing that would demand guying the antenna. Customer service has been of no help. For the money I have paid for this thing Gap should be offering to replace the mast for free of charge. I will never buy another gap product nor recommend to any of my friends. |
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| NN8Y |
Rating: |
2021-12-05 | |
| So Far So Good |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I did a bit of research and decided on the Titan DX. I have a small yard, no room for radials, and wanted one antenna that would cover as many bands as possible.
It went together fairly well, the manual could have had a couple extra things pointed out that would have made it go a little smoother.
Up it went. Then trouble started - high SWRs. I read everything I could find on the net, then tinkered, and on Monday called GAP.
Chris was helpful and asked many questions, most of which could be summed up as "did you do it the way the book said?" There were a couple others that weren't covered, such as, the upper supports for the mid tuning rods should be butted against the gap. Then the lower long tuning rod will have an inch or two clearance off the counterpoise bracket. The other was to make sure the mast didn't stick up above the mounting plate.
I asked Chris why they didn't put tuning instructions in the manual and he said they used to have that in there, but people would tweak until they gave up, THEN call, and then there was no baseline. In other words, at that point you could fix what was wrong and it wouldn't work right since it had a case of tinkeritis. He said that it was always the installation, with few exceptions. Either something not done per instructions or some long vertical metal in the vicinity (within 30 feet).
I kept trying Chris's suggestions, and finally deduced (with eHam Elmer help) that the meter I was using must not be reading right. Chris had suggested testing a dummy load at the end of the coax, and it was not reading anywhere near 1:1, but the meter was the last thing I suspected.
So today I bought an antenna analyzer, and found that the Titan was under 2:1 on 10,12,15,17,20,30,40, and 100KHz on 80, as claimed.
So, now I'll quit fiddling with it and start USING it for something other than the beautiful work of art it is.
The Titan is a vertical dipole, center fed. High feed point puts more power into the air and less into the ground, compared to a bottom fed vertical. This is from the antenna handbook, it is not just ad hype, folks.
Also, look at the pattern of a typical dipole sometime. It is a doughnut stood on end like a tire. So you get an effective lobe at each side and the rest of the power goes into space. With a vertical dipole, the doughnut is on its side. Think about it. |
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| KI5NYJ |
Rating: |
2021-11-29 | |
| Very good antenna, but |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I love this antenna. Actually, I should say "Now I love this antenna." Did a lot of research, including this site, since I cannot afford to go blow hundreds of dollars on antennas over and over. I wanted a vertical one and done for the house. Initially contacting GAP got some responses - appears to be a one or two man show, which is fine, I guess. I ran into some problems with high SWR on 40 and 80 that the 7300 couldn't handle, and asked for help. They asked for some SWR numbers; I sent and asked a little more help, and got nothing back. Since I knew I'd be using my 7300 on field days and such and would want a tuner, bought an MFJ 939I (I also reviewed on eHam) about 2 months later. This tuner solved everything that was problematic with the Titan on 40 and 80, and lowered the SWR on all bands to below 1.3. Strong signals on all HF bands. Will take a couple hours to assemble and mount - get help - and download Mitch (AE2A) Baum's "enhanced" instructions. These clarify the GAP instructions 1000%. |
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| KD1WR |
Rating: |
2021-04-14 | |
| Great Vertical Antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Titan DX installed March, 2021. Also have GAP "GK" guy kit and "QT" quick tilt. Very broadband. Less than 2.0 : 1.0 SWR entire phone portion all bands. Mounted 7 ft above ground with 40 ft RG8X feed coax to station. Love the "GK" guy kit and "QT" quick tilt. Antenna is very solid construction. Worked 11 countries and 23 states with less than 3 hours operation! Very quiet Vertical. I have been a Licensed Ham for 58 years with many antennas including the Hy-Gain 18HT vertical and many others (inverted L, try-band beam, long wire etc. Excellent assembly support from Richard at Gap Antenna.
The GAP Titan DX is a real winner vertical antenna. Do not look around - buy it if you are in the market for a vertical or you only use a single HF antenna. Love my GAP Titan DX.
Jim Titus, KD1WR, Zachary, LA 225-306-4163 |
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| KA0FMZ |
Rating: |
2021-01-16 | |
| Good antenna. At first |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I must say at first the gap was working great but then after a time of 2 years it went south. The only band I can work on now is 40 meters the other bands the sir is over 5 so I need a little help to see what went wrong . I changed out the feed line no help I will try support and let you know Thanks all KA0FMZ |
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| KG0HG |
Rating: |
2020-12-24 | |
| GAP Titan DX-My Experience & Pro-Tips |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Just installed the Titan DX last weekend. The keys to success in getting it assembled correctly are to download the manual after you order it and are waiting for shipment. You can spend a couple days reading through the step by step process and be that much smarter for it when it comes time to assemble onsite.
That being said, I followed the instructions exactly; even down to the way the tuning rods were positioned with the rods above and below the center, longer, tuning rods. Look at the sketches/pictures, and make adjustments to match what you see in the pictures.
There are a few changes I made vs. what was showing in the instructions and will list them here.
Make sure the 75/80m cap is definitely below the screw that holds the top wire loop terminal, or else you could pierce it and damage it. Also, make absolutely sure it is plugged in correctly.
I used a sharpie to mark the locations of the pipe clamps holding the PVC plastic gray standoffs to make sure I knew what their factory-shipped locations were while assembling the antenna. I did end up adjusting them up/down the antenna section so that the screws which served as stops on the tuning rods could actually rest on the standoffs, and not put strain on the yellow wire leads connecting to the tuning rods.
When mounting the 40/10m counterpoise bracket between the two sets of mounting screws on the lower section, I had to use a pair of needle nose pliers to guide the excess band of the pipe clamp through the hole in the mounting bracket. Otherwise, it won’t feed through it correctly and curl up.
When opening up the standoffs and positioning them correctly as pictured, the pipe clamp adjustment screw will be difficult too reach with the supplied screwdriver tool because of limited clearance with the PVC plastic standoff. Use a small crescent wrench to put the final turns on tightening.
Feeding the supplied yellow coax through the lower antenna section can be tricky because it gets caught on the transition from the double wall to triple wall construction of the lower section. I took the shortest tuning rod and fed the coax through it just enough so that it didn’t poke out the other end of the tuning rod, and then inserted the tuning rod in the lower section of the antenna while feeding the coax at the same time. Once I got past that transition, hold the coax in place, and give a quick push on the tuning rod, and it will fall out the other end, and you can then proceed to feed the rest of the coax out the other end. BE SURE TO PLACE the two, round, PVC plastic collar bracket mounting insulators on the lower section FIRST before you feed the coax through the side exit hole as instructed.
I had to use a large screwdriver to separate the slit on the PVC plastic collars to get them to fit over my 1-1/4” OD galvanized pipe and to slide into position for the mounting bracket plate. Also, there are no washers supplied for the U-bolts and nuts that mount the lower antenna section & galvanized pipe to the plate. I added some washers for better grip and tightness.
I did not purchase the guy kit. Just go to the hardware store and buy another U-bolt to fit around the upper antenna section just above the GAP and tie off your corded rope before tightening it down. I measured off about 30’ of rope and used it to help hoist the antenna in place while my helper “walked” the antenna from the middle section towards the base.
As you wait for the shipment of the antenna, dig your hole as instructed, and set your PVC plastic pipe in the hole and set it with concrete. Ensure it is leveled on two sides and it will dry and set up nicely by the time the antenna arrives. Place a cup over the hole of the PVC plastic pipe to keep anything from falling into the hole and down the pipe. Pro-Tip: Take a hack-saw and cut the PVC pipe at an angle towards ground level. When you prepare to install the galvanized pipe with the antenna mounted to set it in place, place the galvanized pipe base in the PVC plastic pipe set in concrete, and while you lift it in place, it will have sort of a back-stop to not slip out, and it will slip down easily when perpendicular to the ground and standing straight up.
With the antenna in place, tie off your guy ropes. I used 6” long flexible metal springs to provide some “give” as the wind blows and the antenna sways a few inches either way. Be sure to place the springs, if you use them, on the opposite end of the rope away from the antenna.
There are comments about how to run the coax to the PL-259 connector of the antenna. After connecting my 100’ RG-8u coax line to the antenna connector via the female adapter, I made a small drip loop off of the connector, and zip-tied the coax line to the galvanized pipe to ground level.
There are no metal buildings, or objects within 60’ of the antenna; only a few trees. The galvanized pipe is 10’ total length with 3’ of it buried in the ground. So, there is 7’ above ground elevating the antenna and counterpoise above most tall people. A short step ladder is all that’s needed to adjust the nylon rope and twist nut for tuning 40 meters to your desired resonant frequency.
My SWR and reflected readings were incredibly good for all bands except 40 meters. For my 3.5 Mhz option for 75/80, it’s basically 1:1 flat. The other bands are 1:3:1 or less to flat across the entire usable frequency allocation! 40 meters seems to be a bit “touchy” in that currently, I’m 1:1 at 7.295 Mhz, but 2:1 at 7.020 Mhz. So, I’m still working on that with the counterpoise. More to come on that.
So far, I’ve made some great contacts with the antenna. It seems to be a bit noisier on 40 meters than my dipole, but signal strength is a couple decibels better with the Titan DX vs. my dipole at longer ranges. I am going to continue using it on the various bands, and report back later on my success with the antenna and contacts made with it.
Hope you find this helpful if you’re considering purchasing the GAP. Stay tuned for follow up info…
Joe Rinella/KG0HG
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