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Reviews For: GAP Titan

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : GAP Titan
Reviews: 192MSRP: titandx
Description:
Covers 10m 12m 15m 17m 20m 30m 40m and 100 KHz on 80m, & WARC
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.gapantenna.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
33.71924.4
W7SY Rating: 2012-07-30
Great experience Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I got my Titan DX from Gap Antenna in the late 90's

After a few years I dropped out of the hobby and left the antenna on my roof top for a few years. One day a wind storm damaged the mast NOT the antenna. After taking it down the antenna was set on the ground in my backyard for more than eight years. In 2009 I enter the hobby again and went looking for my Gap antenna got it cleaned and put it up again. Worked like the first day.

July 2012, I called Gap Antenna and a real person answered the phone on the second ring. After many years I wanted to replace the counterpoise hoop wire and needed to get the dimensions. They were prompt to tell me all the correct lengths and advice me on how to replace it correctly.

My experience with the product as well as the company has been positive.
N7RXL Rating: 2012-07-03
Highly Recommend Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought a Gap Titan a year ago, used. All of the wiring looked a bit weathered, and I got a good deal on the used antenna, so I bought a new wiring harness and all new wires (jumpers & hoop).

It is definitely not what a beam would get me, but for a vertical I've been extremely pleased! I'm surprised at how many times I get answered on my first or second call to DX, with my Titan & 100 watts.

Just got my WAS last month and should have my DXCC about September.

For my small property (.14 acres) the Gap Titan has been a GREAT answer. No tower, no rotor, no radials. It's ground mounted (about 4' above the ground).

The couple of times I've had to call Gap (including my wiring order), they've been wonderful to work with. Friendly & knowledgable about their product. I have no hesitation should I ever need feedback or information from them, because they've all been pleasant to talk with (and no long waiting).
W9GF Rating: 2012-02-17
So Far So Good! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the GAP TITAN DX and the GAP Quick Tilt Ground Mount. It took me about 3 hours to assemble the TITAN DX. I found the instructions to be adequate. Yeah, I made a couple of dumb mistakes but not a big deal.

Installation was also problem free (if you don't count me hitting a water pipe).

In the space I had to install the GAP TITAN DX I did not have enough room for the square counterpoise supplied with the GAP TITAN so I stapled a 32 foot long counterpoise to my wooden fence instead.

The TITAN DX is very easy for me to lower and raise alone using the Quick Tilt Ground Mount.

I've made a couple of local contacts on 80m but really haven't had the time to concentrate on seeing what it will do - so I guess you could say the 'jury is still out'.

I've documented everything I did as far as the installation goes and also I have included my AIM 4170 Antenna Analyzer screen shots in my document which can be downloaded from here:

http://blog.nienhiser.com/2012/02/gap-titan-dx-installation.html

I would also like to mention/thank the guys that answer the phone @ GAP - Rich and Chris for all of their help and advice - they were fantastic!
N5SWE Rating: 2011-12-19
Great antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Purchased the Titan and the ladder mount for the motor home 4 years ago.
The antenna works very well and easy to set up.
Using the Gap ladder mount, just insert a 7 or 8 foot piece pipe in bottom of mast and reach up to pull it down. The antenna hinges up. Place bottom retaining bolt in thru mount and it is there. I usually leave the pipe attached and bury the bottom in the ground for extra support.
I have been in 50 MPH winds with this set up with no problem. The winds blew the antenna into a "C" configuration, but it stayed together.
KG4TUM Rating: 2011-07-23
Great Antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought a 3 or 4 year old Titan. Brought it home, cleaned it up and reassembled it. I mounted it about 7 feet off the ground. Other reviews here have gone into great detail on the assembly so I'll skip that. It's not too difficult, it just takes a bit of time and attention to detail. It's nice having one antenna that is resonant on the frequencies that I operate without the need for an antenna tuner. I can take down all my wire antennas now. My first contact was with a station in Bosnia on 40 meter SSB running 75 watts. He gave me a 59. There was a pretty good pileup and I got him on the second call. So it works. I just got through working Ecuador on 15 meter CW. I hope it is durable, time will tell. By the way, mine is resonant on 6 meters as well, about 1.5:1 but I haven't tried it there yet. Also, I have raised and lowered it by myself a couple of times now. It's not the easiest thing in the world to do, but if you loosen the U clamps and slide it down the mast, then remove the clamps, you can walk the antenna down. It's a bit tricky but it is doable.
AE7LC Rating: 2011-07-18
No problem assembling or tuning Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I acquired a new GAP Titan about a month ago. Unlike many of the reviews here I found assembly very easy and the manual concise and accurate. I know some folks work better with a "picture book" manual but for me the text was spot on, easy to follow and to the point. Along with the one drawing of the entire antenna and the rest of the small drawings in the manual, it worked very well.

I immediately broke out a ratchet and socket instead of the included nut driver and I strongly recommend this! It took me about one hour to assemble on a couple of sawhorses. I mounted the antenna to a four foot piece of steel pipe and initially just buried a PVC pipe about two or three feet into the ground. It was easy enough to raise the antenna and slip it into the buried pipe but it is tall and not lightweight so I didn't like raising or lowering it when there was any wind. I later got the tilt-mount and that makes this super easy to raise or lower now. The counterpoise pieces pop off in a minute or so and down it comes or the other way around. Since my yard is not very large if I want to have guests over I can take the antenna down and set it off to the side of the yard by myself very easily.

Initial measurements showed the SWR excellent on 10m, 17m, and 30m; spectacular (so good - difficult to measure) on 20m, good enough on 15m and 12m, and resonated too high on 40m. 80m with the supplied cap is <2:1 from about 3.6 to 4.0MHz. I lengthened the counterpoise wire as long as it would go to get 40m in good shape from 7.07 to 7.3MHz. I don't do CW at this time so that's good for me. I lengthened the adjustments on the two tuning rods that have adjustments and 15m and 12m came in well.

One very easy way I came up with to find what tunes which band is to simply take a fluorescent tube and sniff around with it while a helper keys up.

I've guyed it on three sides. While it is sturdy enough to not get broken or blown apart in the wind it is simply too big and moves and bends enough for me to be completely uncomfortable with it being guyed when there is any wind. I had it up with the guy lines attached to the antenna but not secured to the ground stakes when a huge AZ dust storm rolled in and it look like it was bending so much that it made a slow curve with the top almost pointing horizontal! I quickly tied the guy lines to the stakes and all was well throughout the storm.

Right away I noticed that the counterpoise radials seemed to droop, especially in the hot AZ summer sun so I guyed them to the mast just below the feed point (the "gap"). This was so easy to do I don't know why anyone wouldn't.


I haven't worked it a lot yet and I'm fairly new to HF anyway. My impression is that it works as well as the 20m dipole I had been using but time will tell and I may submit a follow-up after some time with it. I've made some 20m SSB and PSK contacts easily enough and have gotten excellent reports back. I've gotten contacts from one end to the other of the US on 20m and also gotten Brazil, New Zealand, Cuba, Argentina and Russia on 20m PSK. I've done a little 10m phone work into CO, TX and NC.

My yard can't tolerate large radials well as it's half concrete and in the suburbs (not that big) so this seems a good choice for a vertical for my situation.
N4WVE Rating: 2011-06-21
More than you might think! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased my Gap Titan DX after my A3S beam came crashing down in a storm. I was tired of tower climbing, but didn't want to lose the advantages of a beam. I also wanted 10-80 meter coverage and low SWR. Not much to ask, right? After extensive research, I decided that I did not want to cover my pasture with radials (even though I could as I have tons of room) and I wanted something at least as effective as a dipole or better. Since this is asking a lot, my expectations were pretty low. I settled on the Titan, but didn't expect much.
I could not have been more wrong! This is first a very unusual antenna. As a center fed vertical, it receives the same as my OCF dipole at 60 feet. No kidding. The first day on the air I worked Oman, Jordan and Kuwait back to back. VERY impressive! My SWR is 1.5:1 or lower on ALL bands including 40 and 80. With a kilowatt linear I can work anything I can hear. AND it is very nice to look at!
Now, having said this, let me offer some thoughts about construction. Putting this antenna together is more like building an electronic project. It does not snap together in 30 minutes. You HAVE to plan ahead and allow at least a half day of uninterupted time to build this antenna. Some can build quicker than others, but this should not be a race! Look closly at your planned installation location. DO NOT have any metal or other obstructions near the antenna. Make sure you use the insulators between the antenna and support mast...they are there for a reason! Also, use the little coax hole at the bottom. There is a reason for that, too. The instructions are precise and MUST be followed to the letter! When you think you have completed the build, let it lay there a while, step away, and look at it again later. You may see something you missed. I did. I put ONE end insulator on the counterpoise on backward and could not tune 40 meters. Take your time!! The GAP forum is great help if you need advice and responses come back quickly. I can't say enough about Rich and Chris and their great support for their products!
If you build it right they (the DX) will come! No lie! It is NOT a beam, but I feel mine works as well as my A3S without directivity. I do live on top of a mountain, 700 feet above the surrounding countryside and I am sure this is a great benefit for this antenna as all four sides of my mountain fall off steeply, but this antenna has a very low angle and can really reach out for DX! Anyone with any questions may to contact me directly. You will love this antenna!
KI0RQ Rating: 2011-04-28
Great Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought a 6 yr. old GAP Titan vertical that had a few parts missing and needed some TLC. I disassembled it completely and got it home.
I went over every part and cleaned and polished it.
Bought a few parts, ( wires, end caps and a new 80 meter cap and started reassembling it.
I had no problems with the manual, just read it a few times and then read one section at a time while assembling and then recheck your work, and then recheck it again before moving to the next section.DON'T BE IN A HURRY.Turn off the radio, TV, and ask for peace and quiet. I had a few questions
regarding ordering parts and checking tuning after assembly and a couple calls to Rich at GAP
took care of everything. I then installed it on top of an old military tilt up mast, it would put the base of the Titan at 12 ft. I installed a guy clamp and 4 dacron guys before I tilted it up.
My wife and I tilted it up with no problems. She leaned into a rope while I lifted. Worked great.
I ran all the recommended tests and all were between 1.1 and 2.1 with one exception. I could not load 10 meters. One call to rich at GAP and that was fixed by adding about 2 ft. to the wire extension on the counterpoise.
Next, The acid test. I put it on the air on 20 meters and found a pile up on 14,200 all trying to contact a station in Kuwait, I live in Missouri. So I figured the GAP is touted as a great DX antenna, SO when the station signed with his last qso I gave a call in the pile up and he cam right back to me first and gave me a +20 report. He asked what I was running, I told him a Drake TR-4C at 180 watts into a GAP Titan vertical. He said it sounds great
I was flabbergasted. I had never had a qso outside North America. I have never run an amplifier. After that I contacted a station in Russia. That's two in less than 15 minutes. I cannot say enough about the service response from Rich & Chris at GAP. The old adage: It's not big power, It's the Antenna that makes it all work. This antenna proves it to me.
I have only used the Titan for a few days, so I will write an update after I have used it for a while. Many thanks Rich.
PS I have no affiliation with GAP products, just a few calls to Rich for help.
Great antenna Frank Donnelly KI0RQ

K4FLH Rating: 2011-01-30
Works great ! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've owned my GAP Titan DX for 3 years now. I have moved it from a ground mount to a 10 foot mast coming out of a 10ft tri-pod mounted on a concret pad. Both configurations work great. It's now that I have a bit more yard room with the counterpoise over head so we can walk under it. LOL.

The antenna was fairly easy to build. The instructions were spot on. No trouble understanding them at all. I had no need to do any tweeking after assembly. It operated as advertised immediately!

I have read that some find that the counterpoise tubing bends under the weight of snow. What I did is insert wooden dowel rods up inside the tubing. After all the HEAVY (as in weight) snow we had this past month my counterpoises are as straight as the proverbial arrow!

I'm tempted to try another GAP antenna product, since this one works so well for me. I'm curious about the Voyager DX. It has 160M capability that I could use. Maybe this spring!
W2ALQ Rating: 2011-01-12
Great worth the Effort Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
First, if it is worth having it is worth the effort, believe me this antenna isn't a snap together or plug and play antenna. It is a precision peace of HF RF engineering. Never use the word easy until it is erected and functioning, and you are sitting in your easy chair, then it is easy to make almost countless contacts. Mine was used and it's dis-assembly was frightful, the bottom yellow coax was broken missing shielding and pulled out from the top coax section. My friend and I had to perform (near heart surgery on the "magic" center of the antenna) a complete internal repair of the bottom half and the two shield extensions to the skin of the antenna was required. WE DID NOT RE-ENGINEER THIS ANTENNA. It is hard to improve upon near perfection. I have great VSWR's on it when I completed the last page of tested frequencies it is 16 feet above ground level (AGL). All VSWR's are below a 2 except for 12 meters which is right at 2. Please remember, that Richard and Chris are just a call away and if you don't try to change their engineering they will bend over backwards for you. You will need more than one other person (three would be better) to raise it higher. If you need help, check out the Gap user group on Yahoogroups. Again, remember two things; 1) if it is worth having it is worth the effort 2) absolute attention to detail and patients will give you great results.