Building of the Heights tower

Video of the construction of my tower and antenna. Heights 76′ aluminum tiltover tower with a Dayton electric motor. JoGunn 8 eleament beem.

Commentary by Don W1CIA, comparisons of Hy-tower, G5RV and A3 Beam.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

/48 Comments/by
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48 replies
  2. cmh31909
    cmh31909 says:

    So based on your cursory performance testing, would you say that if you had to do it all over again it was worth the time, trouble, and money?

    Reply
  4. SkylaneCaptain
    SkylaneCaptain says:

    So will all 3 perform the same comparatively against eachother in all conditions? Or is it possible for one to out perform another sometimes but underperform against the same one at other times? Testing within the same band, of course.

    Reply
  5. burt2481
    burt2481 says:

    All that is possible, tests since the video with me operating QRP within 10 feet of the antenna I can seem to work DX ok with 4 watts, mostly 559. Also since the video I have also seen the vertical prevail a bit more? Coming to Cape Cod? See for yourself and stay awhile, here!

    Reply
  6. SkylaneCaptain
    SkylaneCaptain says:

    I’m still planning on making that trip. I had an in-flight engine issue about 2 months ago that turned out to be one of my magnetos failing (they regulate the spark plugs). Didn’t completely fail thankfully. So I wound up replacing both magento systems to be safe. That took a few weeks of trouble shooting and repair. On top of that, I haven’t flown in over three weeks due to other responsibilities. The short of it is that I’m way behind on all things related to flying right now.

    Reply
  8. Blaze1024
    Blaze1024 says:

    You do realize that reception performance is a very poor way of evaluating an antenna. Your G5RV for example might perform well on receive yet on transmit the vast majority of your TX signal is dissipated as heat in the matching section where on the Vertical with at least 60 radials down the vast majority of your TX signal will be radiated instead of dissipated as heat in the feed line and tuner. The Hy-tower with at least 60 radials down will put out a much stronger signal then a G5RV.

    Reply
  9. burt2481
    burt2481 says:

    I find your comments interesting, however on the few times I asked for signal reports they matched my receiving situation, with one exception I am still not sure was accurate.

    Reply
  10. burt2481
    burt2481 says:

    “It is a fundamental property of antennas that the electrical characteristics of an antenna described in the next section, such as gain, radiation pattern, impedance, bandwidth, resonant frequency and polarization, are the same whether the antenna is transmitting or receiving.

    Reply
  11. Blaze1024
    Blaze1024 says:

    @burt2481
    As a retired broadcast engineer as well as an extra class amateur I can assure you that your clam is only partially correct. For example a dummy load shows low SWR across a very large bandwidth yet it makes a poor antenna. And while a beverage antenna makes a great receive antenna its a terrible TX antenna. Even if radiation patterns and bandwidth are similar between TX and RX this doesn’t infer TX efficiency That’s why most experienced low banders use separate RX and TX antennas.

    Reply
  12. kd8opi
    kd8opi says:

    I have an S9 31′ vertical with thirty three 27′ radials coming off of a ground plate. It worked well enough;but when I bought a radio with two HF antenna jacks, I got better, less noisy reception and signal reports on a temporary “buddipole”. I have since put up two Alpha-Delta DX-EE antennas, one broadsiding NE/SW the other SE/NW. As in your vid, the vertical rarely (if ever) outperforms either dipole, and the noise floor is higher on the vert with a worse s/n ratio.

    Reply
  16. snowbird29803
    snowbird29803 says:

    With all due respect: If you can spend five hundred bucks for an antenna and installation (not-to-mention all that station gear), how’bout $20-30 for some good ground rods and clamps? That automobile hose clamp on an iron pipe looks pitiful. 73

    Reply
  18. Exit04
    Exit04 says:

    The testing goes on a bit… and doesn’t really prove anything as conditions are not a constant.
    I agree with Blaze1024 and was going to reply but he has said what i would have said.
    I have some great receiving antennas that are rubbish at transmitting!
    Vertical Ground rods are not effective. Covering the ground with chicken-wire fencing would be more effective as it’s area not depth that counts..

    Reply
  20. Dino Davila
    Dino Davila says:

    I have a basic question. How does it get fed? How do you hook up the coax to it? I know it is shunt fed, so if you could explain the way this is done on the Hy-Tower I sure would appreciate it. 73 de N0RJP

    Reply
  21. burt2481
    burt2481 says:

    There is a coax jack that one side is connected to ground and the center lead is connected to the tower which is insulated from ground. Not shunt fed

    Reply
  22. Blaze1024
    Blaze1024 says:

    With regard to TX vs RX efficiency The most important property you forgot to mention is “radiation efficiency” and “radiation resistance” Just because an antenna receives well doesn’t mean that it transmits well.. Quite the contrary, For example while the G5RV might receive well on many bands. When TXing on anything other then 20 meters it’s matching network turns most of your TX power into heat. Again some of the best receiving antenna designs don’t TX worth a crap its all about compromise

    Reply
  28. JohnMC894
    JohnMC894 says:

    Like this vid. It must have been one hell of a gut wrench when the wind hit the quad like that. I thought my 1/2 wave at 50 ft up was impressive. How humble would that look to your antenna.?. Yes nice one dude. de John in UK

    Reply
  37. MrDrmaul
    MrDrmaul says:

    Why do you people waste your time trashing someones music. I don’t care for it either I’m a Zeppelin man LOL Must be democrats always crying about something.keep your mouth shut and stay out of the mans business. You don’t like it move the hell on.

    Reply
  39. MrDrmaul
    MrDrmaul says:

    I’m not a jo-gunn fan either but no antenna made will fair well in 100 mph winds. Might be antenna or two around the world did ok in 100 mph but most would have tore up…I like the split element hair pin balanced concept myself. great work though 402 I like your concrete gig……..

    Reply
  45. 402dude
    402dude says:

    The foundation is almost 8 feet deep 4 foot square at the top and bell shaped under ground. Took 5.5 yards of 5000 psi concrete.
    72′ tower on the 4′ foldover base.
    Thank you for the comment…

    Reply
  46. Mark Hopewell
    Mark Hopewell says:

    I meant to spell “whole” as HOLE! Apologies. Thanks for the info. Hope you managed to fix the antenna afterwards. All the best, MX0MH

    Reply

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