| N3GKS |
Rating:     |
2010-04-12 | |
| Still eval. SoFar-SoGood |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
The antenna went together as advertised. I have it mounted to a DX Engineering tilt mount attached to a piece of galvanized water pipe sunk 5 ft into the ground with fence post anchors clamped to the pipe and buried. The problem is I didn't learn my lesson with an R7000 which not only bowed but broke below CT1. I had my Titan guyed using the GAP system and specified guy point. In a recent wind storm the antenna bowed between the guy point and mount. I tilted it over today and the damage is minimal. I contacted GAP and suggested a second guy point midway between the upper guy point and the mount. They agreed. As I'm writing this, another consideration might be to lower the single guy point. Once I straighten the elements that were slightly bent, I'm going with the double guy. I'll let you know how it works.
Mike
N3GKS |
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| W4PUP |
Rating:      |
2010-02-09 | |
| 5 watt SSB DX? Yep! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Since getting a Yeasu 817ND for Christmas I have found the secret of this radio is antenna,antenna, antenna! I ordered a small whip style with a jumper for the different coils, made a nice SWL antenna I suppose. I then put up a GAP Titan DX and it was the difference between night and day. Here in S. Florida I can sit in my lawn chair at the base of the vertical with the short coax lead from the antenna, center and shield hooked to a binding post/BNC on the front of the radio, drink coffee and work DX. Tip of the hat to G1MYA, my first 15 meter DX this morning. I've bettered 1 watt per thousand miles 3 times now with QSOs in Latvia, Vienna, and Slovenia (YL2BJ, OE3DIA, S58N) Also worked J79WW, TI8II, HI7MC, PA3GSU all in the last 30 days. |
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| KF5BQJ |
Rating:      |
2010-02-01 | |
| Works Great |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I assembled and put this antenna up by my self in about 8 hrs seven feet off the ground. If I had to do it again, mabey 4 hrs. The instructions are a little hard to understand, but I must have gotten it right. I only made one adjustment and that was to the counterpoise hoop wire. It works as described. NO tuner needed.
I have made quite a few DX contacts as well as good reports here in the lower 48. |
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| OZ1GCT |
Rating:      |
2009-10-22 | |
| An old friend is back |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
A few weeks ago, I reinstalled my GAP Titan,when I had to take my beam antenna down, due to some problems in the neighbourhood. I almost forgot how good this antenna is. It's not a beam and it's more noisy than my beam, but for a vertical,it's the best. I enjoy to be able to just switch the bandswitch - no need to push the tune-button on the transceiver - the swr is below
1.5:1 on all bands and I can work more than 100 Khz on 80 meter without tuning. I love this antenna - and it makes the old phrase true:Can you hear them - you can work them.;-)
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Earlier 5-star review posted by OZ1GCT on 2005-11-07
I had to replace my old Fritzel GPA-50 - because I wanted an antenna with all bands. I have a very
small yard with no space for dipoles, so it had to be another vertical.
The Titan was quite easy to assemble - and after small adjustment with the counterpoise wire - it
was ready to work with.
I used my MFJ-259B to tune/check the SWR and the
antenna easily meets all specifications given by
GAP. I have only had this antenna for a few days
but I think it's a winner - I have already made
a lot of good dx-contacts. |
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| VE1WCP |
Rating:    |
2009-09-19 | |
| tropical antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have used this antenna for 3.5 years the. It works as advertised.I live in eastern Canada when it snows and the snow is wet the weight bends the counter poise down to 90 degrees it can be strightened out once and the rods reversed but after that the bend causes them to break I have now replaced them twice with new pipe not a big job but unless you mount the antenna at ground level mine is up 8 feet so I can mow under it or remove the counter poise before the mention of snow or ice you will have problems.I called Gap about the problem a coupel of years ago still waiting fore the solution Not fore north country |
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| HAMDUDE |
Rating:      |
2009-08-30 | |
| require's some antenna knowledge |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
came across this antenna listening to 10 meter's one night, a ham bought it new and put it up and could'nt get it to work, said he wanted to sell it, i asked how much,said i could have it for $75.00 if i came and took it down. i was there the next morning and 2 hour's later it was at my qth. was pretty impressed, but felt it could be improved upon. reception on all band's was good except for 10 meter's. out came the manual and the phone. the service and technical help at gap is second to none. three trip's up and down and these are the pertinent point's.
1. proper placement on the star washer's is critical on all connection's
2. main four vertical element's work best when lined up with four arm's on the counterpoise.
3. feedline placement and angle is critical.
4. follow barely adequate instruction's EXACTLY as stated.
5. my 10 meter problem was solved by adding a 6 inch piece of tubing on the 10 meter section.
6. my is mounted on a push up pole with the counterpoise at exactly 25 ft.
7. have worked the world with this antenna, my angle of radiation is perfect for dx.
8. my $75.00 dollar investment and about a week's work has really paid off. |
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| AC8DE |
Rating:     |
2009-07-13 | |
| Good No Radial Choice, Great Factory Support |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I purchased the Gap Titan at 2009 Dayton Hamvention. My intent was to mount it on a 20’ mast pole on the side of my house, due to its large counterpoise. Before I start, I just want to say that Rich @ Gap provides support like no other. If I could give Gap a rating based on Rich’s support alone, he would get a 10.
Although the assembly instructions are written poorly, I did get it correctly assembled on attempt 2 and it had good SWR. I had a couple of dimensions off on round 1 and the SWR was over 5:1 on most bands. As it turns out, having the main stand-offs in EXACTLY the right position nearly against the center insulator is critical and the instructions are a little vague on this point. So on the assembly instructions, I would have to give it a 2 at best. Better instructions and some photos are in order. But Rich will happily walk you through putting it together on the phone, which makes up for the poorly written instructions to a great degree.
The feedline position of the Titan is CRITICAL to how the antenna tunes up. Also, its relative height to the ground. These two things go hand in hand on getting the antenna to tune up right. The antenna was really designed to be mounted on a 5 foot 1” schedule 40 metal pipe near the ground. When you start raising the height of the Titan, the SWR will also rise. The Titan must couple with the feedline and the ground. It is suggested you pull the feedline away from the Titan at a 45 degree angle and get it away from anything metal by Gap. (So while it is technically “radial-less” design… guess what, it uses the shield of the feedline as a radial!) Try doing this on a 20 foot mast on your house. It is not a simple feat for a permanent install. Once you get it up in the air, it wants to couple that much more with anything around it and you results may be unpredictable. If you want to raise it on a tall mast, with work you will get it right, but it may require moving it several times and fiddling a lot. This is the most twitchy part of the installation if you want it on a tall mast. On a low 5’ mast, no problems. In my particular installation, Rich and I could not get the SWR right on a tall mast after 40 hours of work, so it had to stay on the ground. So for its mounting possibilities and twitchiness of the feedline, I have to give it a 3.
The Titan’s construction is heavy duty to be sure. But be warned, the antenna is large when compared to a Hustler, Butternut or other more “standard” 25’ long vertical. It has quite the visual impact. It also must be guyed with at least 3/32” guy line, so you will need to install the guy points. I know they say it can be left unguyed, but I can tell you there is no way. This antenna is top heavy due to the fact that it has a large folded coax cable harness inside the antenna itself, with most of this harness being above the center insulator. So it wants to sway in the breeze due to the weight and relative large diameter of the tubes. Just raising the antenna up from the ground risks bending it due to weight in the top sections, so guy it off!!! Mine was bent during one of the raisings due to my own error, but the tubing is excellent quality and you can bend it back easily or have a metal working shop do it for you. There are some people who don’t like the sheet metal screw assembly, and I can understand this. The secret here is to not overtighten those screws, as you can strip out the hole. (Someone suggested running bolts through the tubing and putting a nut on the other side. This would be a NO NO, IMHO) They can work back out however, so pulling it down after a few months for an inspection to see how it is doing is a good idea. I will give it a 5 for material quality and construction design, despite the screws.
Performance is a more difficult to be completely objective on. I find the listening sensitivity quite good. I could hear from all over the world. Could I hear and get out with it as well as a more traditional vertical on a large bed of radials? Well no, but to have this expectation is silly. The Titan is a trade-off solution for those who won’t/can’t put in a radial field or elevated radials. With this in mind, I will say that it outperforms any of the typical verticals if they are installed without or with limited radials. So if you are considering the Titan, be realistic in the fact it is a trade-off design and intended to be so. I had to return my Titan to Rich, due to the fact I could not get it to tune up correctly on a tall mast. But for the 8 weeks I had it up on a 5 foot mast, it did perform as expected and I worked a lot of DX. I did not do A-B testing with it, so do keep in mind this is just a judgment call. But I have to give it a 5 on performance, provided it is installed on a 5 foot mast and you understand that it is a trade-off design from the start.
Lastly something rarely reviewed. Parts costs. Thumbs up to Gap on this! Eventually, many of us damage antennas due to lightning, wind, etc. I checked on the parts costs of the wiring harness, tubes, tuning rods, etc. I can tell you they are quite reasonable, with a typical tube section being around $20. You can’t buy it local for that! My current Butternut on the other hand is quite the opposite with a single small diameter tube section often costing in excess of $40, which is quite high, considering it is much smaller in diameter than the Titan. Here I have to give the Titan a 5 based on parts cost.
Today, I run a Butternut HF6V on a large bed of radials (64 at 40 feet long). Is it better than the Titan… well yes. But the work involved in putting in a vertical on a bed of radials is daunting compared to erecting a Titan. It takes a month of Sundays to put in a radial field and you have to have the room to do it.
Conclusion: I would recommend the Titan to anyone who wants to work DX and can’t put in a radial field. Just mount it on a 5’ pole and get it away more than 40 feet from your house or anything metallic, like other antennas. If you do these things, you will enjoy your Gap Titan.
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|
| EC4ALB |
Rating:     |
2009-07-12 | |
| Titan versus Cushcraft R8 versus Butternut HF9V |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have had 3 titan ;
1st, about 4 years, assembly manual was a bit poor, but not very complicated, maybe a pair of hours, swr was ok in all bands, this antenna gave me a very good results on all bands from 10 to 40 meters, 80 is a compromise band and narrow, but not works so bad. The antenna was mounted on a chimney, with a 2 meters pipe, and guyed.
After a big windy storm, the mid section was even broken, so i decided to replace it, no problem with the new part, once installed worked as the first time.
I decided to buy it and install a Cushcraft R8, (bad decission), i posted a review about the r8.
2nd was about 2 years and as always no mounting problems, was in the same location and guyed.
After one year i decided to change it and buy a Butternut HF9v, (bad decission again) the butternut, gave me some problems in a few bands, it was bit rare, 1:1 swr in even most bands, but 3 swr or infinite in the rest, testing it with an analyzer, must to say the bands i had 1:1 the antenna was working very fine, but i was not able to tune the other bands, so what i did? buy my 3rd titan dx.
I selled the 2nd titan and the butternut to a friend, still haven´t been mounted.
My 3rd titan still is packed, cause i´ve moved to other place to live, and i haven´t time to mount my shack, but i thik i will not have any issue, but i will post a new review once mounted my 3rd and i hope the last one.
Why i do not give a 5, cause the antenna will be a bit stronger in mid part, but the rest is ok for me, any of you have tryed to work on 6 meters??
I had no problems on this band with my second, i do not why :)
EC4ALB
Álvaro
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| N3UJJ |
Rating:      |
2009-02-04 | |
| Everything it is advertised to be |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I’ve owned the GAP TITAN DX for 2 years now, and I must say it is everything it is advertised to be, like most reviewers I would agree that the instruction manual leaves a lot to be desired. But if you take your time, read the instructions twice, you will have no problem assembling the antenna. I bought the antenna as my first HF antenna after getting my general ticket, thinking that I didn’t have the real-estate for dipoles. In the past year I have found ways to make wire dipoles work for me, and one thing to be aware of is that verticals have a higher noise level then horizontals (like the previous reviewer said).
Am I happy with the investment, yes, and I would recommend the Titan to any ham that can’t use horizontals.
If you would like to see an analysis of the antenna done with an Array Solutions AIM 4170b, visit http://n3ujj.com/aim4170b/index.html.
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| KA3SBF |
Rating:      |
2009-01-16 | |
| Incedible antenna |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I purchased my GAP Titan DX back in the Spring of 08 - assembly was somewhat interesting as it was the first vertical antenna that I had assembled, other than an Butternut HF6V back in 1987. Improvements to the manual for assembly, maybe a few close up photos for future purchasers would be nice but I guess its part of the fun of the overall assembly :) - overall time for our assembly was about 3-hours from unboxing the hardware to connection via the 213 coax.
Once we had assembly complete, a quick hoist to the top of a 2-story row-home here in Baltimore was easily accomplished. Attached to an 8' mast supported by a 3' tripod was very quick. Overall height from ground level is about 30'
Knock on wood...my SWR readings are 1.1 across all bands, they are a bit higher within the 40-meter band CW frequencies - I have not had to revisit the roof to perform any adjustments at all!
The rig used here in the shack is a new Kenwood 480 (200-watt) - many pile-ups have been broken with this combination rig and antenna with QSOs and reports all favorable!
Finally, I would highly recommend this antenna to ANYONE with confined space, especially within the confines of neighborhoods that limit space for antennas.
The only draw back I would note and it is no fault of the GAP design, a higher noise level is obviously experienced from a G6RV Jr. |
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