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Reviews For: Gotham Vertical V-40, V-80, V-160

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Gotham Vertical V-40, V-80, V-160
Reviews: 28MSRP: 14.95 to 18.95 plus shipping.
Description:
Antenna heavily advertised in QST in the 1950s and 1960s, with fantastic ads. "Work the World with your Gotham Vertical". No longer available new.
Product is in production
More Info: http://none
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00282.2
K8DXX Rating: 2005-12-24
Makes A Great Festivus Pole Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had mine since the mid-70's. Glad to hear that someone likes theirs.

Just dug it out of the garage and turned it into a Festivus Pole (Seinfeld).
K5GSH Rating: 2005-12-24
Satisfied Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my Gotham V-80 Vertical in the late 70's and still use it today. I did add aluminium sleeves to the joints to replace the wooden dowels and made a relay device to change bands between 40 and 80. I did WAS/WAC on 40 and 80 both with the Gotham. Still use it on nets etc. I still get enjoyment. Certainally my monies worth.

73
JJ
NT9E Rating: 2005-11-05
My name is Dave and I am a recovering Gotham user. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I also bought this the Gotham V-80 in the early 70's when I was a Novice. I had a great support group who let me know I had to change taps every time I wanted to change bands so I knew what I was getting into. Worked good on 40 and 80. Lasted about a year before I experimented with another antenna. Worth the learning experience.
KK7UN Rating: 2005-11-05
Wasn't So Bad Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had the V-80 and personally I didn't think it was that bad of an antenna. Sure, it was basic, but it did work. I even ran it without radials, mounted on the side of an oak tree outside of my bedroom window, and a single 6' ground rod. Compared to some of the antennas I've run since then I'll admit it's performance was a bit weak, BUT it did get me on the air! I worked a number of DX Stations with it, primarily in South America as well as an Antarctic Expedition.

Would I buy another one? If this were the only antenna I could afford, and the only way I could get on the air, yes, without a second thought.
K3UD Rating: 2004-03-19
Decent If Set Up Right Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The problem with Gotham was not the antenna. If the antenna was set up properly with a decent radial system and some time time taken to determine where the taps on the coil were in order to get the lowest SWR on each band, It worked as well as any shortened vertical could work. I had the V-160 which when set up right, worked rather well.

The real problem with Gotham was the advertising which was aimed at new hams in the Novice class and touted as an all band vertical without adequately explaining what that really meant.

I suspect that may newer hams sent in their $20.00, got the antenna, put it up attached the coil to it and then the coax, maybe the shield to a single ground rod, maybe not, and proceeded to attempt to use it.

Since it was an "all band" antenna, it was thought that, hey, I just have to flip the bandswitch and I am all ready to go. Most new hams probably did not have swr meters and were not able to determine resonance.

The advertising never did say much about resonating the antenna by changing the taps on the coil, never did say anything that I am aware of concerning the need for a radial system, but always, and this is not exageration for those who have never seen the ads, always talked about all the DX you can work with low power and how K6INI was an all time champion DXer using his V-80 Gotham antenna. This was complete with a log of stations worked.

It was great advertising and Gotham lasted into the early 80s until the one of the principals in the company died. Gotham started business in New York and later moved to Miami.

As I said, The Gotham could be made to perform quite well and be an antenna that one could use to work DX on 80, 40, and 15 meter CW.

IN QST SINCE 53!
W8OB Rating: 2004-03-19
Great for the price Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Purchased one these as well as gothams 15 meter quad while a novice. I couldn't get it to work well but then a elmer told me about putting down a few radials. Wow what a difference this ran circles around my low dipole. Gotham antennas were not the highest shelf items but then again you didn't pay the big bucks for them like some of the other antennas on the market at that time. For a young kid starting out with a paper route budget it was great. After upgrading to general I used these antennas right up until I went into the Army.
WA2LBI Rating: 2004-03-18
Been there, done that, didn't like it! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Too bad the rating scale doesn't have negative numbers. As a novice I saved my pennies and bought a Gotham vertical in 1969. To make a long, frustrating story short, that antenna was nothing more than a radiating dummy load. I finally dismantled it and built a rotatable 15M dipole using the two aluminum tubes. That worked great. I eventually replaced it with a very used Mosley TA-33Jr that cost only a bit more than I spent on the Gotham.
K1XV Rating: 2004-03-18
Destroyer of novice careers Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Anyone who broke into amateur radio in the late 1950s and 1960s and read QST Magazine could not have missed the ads for the Gotham Vertical series, sold by Gotham of Miami Beach Florida. Their ads were typically one or two full pages, and hyped the antenna as a DX machine that required absolutely no radials.

Essentially, this antenna comprised some sections of aluminum tubing, some wooden dowels over which you slipped the tubing to join the sections, and hose clamps to electrically connect the sections together. When assembled, it was around 23 feet long.

At the base was a piece of B&W air coil. As represented by Gotham, all you had to do was feed a coax out to the antenna base, connect the center of the coax, with an alligator clip, to the B&W coil at an appropriate point for the band being worked, and attach the coax braid to a short ground rod.

You attached this contraption to a wooden post or other support with a few metal straps.

Not long after getting my Novice license in 1962, I purchased one of these from another ex-Novice whose license had expired and whose amateur radio career was essentially over. That should have told me something. I assembled it following the instructions closely. I could not be heard by other stations only a mile away. In the hands of someone who knew what they were doing, it was possible to get this contraption to work, but the marketing was largely directed at Novices.

After trying to get this thing to work for about a month, I gave up, put up a dipole which worked marvelously, and soon moved on to General.

I am surprised that the ARRL allowed Gotham to publish those outrageous ads for so many years. I guess in those days, the mighty dollar came before integrity, even though I seem to recall that the League claimed that everything advertised in QST was thoroughly tested. I guess it didn't have to pass.

I seem to recall that I had paid about $12 for it used. That was a lot of money for a kid in those days. With some shame, I admit that I sold it to someone else for about the same price.

I recently picked up an unassembled Gotham V-160 that I intend to put together this Spring and try to get to work by its manufacturers instructions, now that 42 years have passed, and I have some modern antenna analyzers to see what is going on with it. I suspect it will not work much better.