Flagpole HF antennas

I am moving next month to a new home in an HOA in Arizona and while outside antennas are not allowed, flagpoles are.

I found this one at 30 FOOT 10-80 METER HIGH PERFORMANCE COMMERCIAL DUTY FLAGPOLE VERTICAL ANTENNA | ZEROFIVE-ANTENNAS

Has anyone had any experience with this or other similar models?

While I don't expect the same results as a multi-element beam on a 50 foot tower I think I hope to be able to get some decent results.

I don't have direct experience, but I know a guy in Lafayette, Indiana, who has one. Same situation as you--HOA restrictions, but flagpoles allowed. He seems very happy with the antenna.

I have a ZeroFive 27 foot vertical that I tune with an Icom AH-4 mounted at the base of the antenna. I have 16 28-foot radials out on damp, Indiana clay soil. I'm guessing you will need more radials on the dry decomposed granite that's common in the Phoenix area. The antenna performs well for me and I've worked Hawaii on 75m and 40m SSB from my location in central Indiana. I have a Balun Designs choke balun on the feedline and a couple of snap-on toriods on the control cable to keep RF out of the shack.

I've run various 30ft, 32ft and 43ft verticals with the typical 4:1 matching transformer and various amounts of ground radials. Performance ranged from ok on 60, 40 and 20m to not so good on 80m and bands above 20m.

On my permanently mounted 43ft vertical I recently replaced the balun with an SGC autotuner and it literally came alive. It now outperforms a multiband dipole on DX 60m through 20m and 80m is not far behind. Surprisingly 160m works well where I'm making easy contacts out to 200mi and nobody could hear me with the stock balun. This vertical has over 30 radials and the soil is always sopping wet.

I also used bias Tee's to supply tuner power up the coax for the tuner. My 43ft is at an unattended remote site and the new remote powered tuner has been working flawlessly, even buried under 4ft of snow last week.

In my opinion the 30ft flag pole should work very well if you supply a good ground system like lots of radials or hardware cloth. But you must loose the supplied balun and use an auto tuner, otherwise be prepared for disappointment. You can probably save $100 if they don't include the balun and put that towards a good auto tuner mounted right at the base or in a NEMA box buried flush with ground level with some drain holes into an underground bed of rocks, etc.

Also, don't expect a 30ft antenna to work very well on 15 through 6m, its just too long and you'll have high angle lobes that will only talk to the moon.
prcguy

I've got a co-worker who lives in a trailer park, same restrictions.

He's using a flagpole antenna with good results. I've talked to him quite a bit, been thinking of using the same set up to get HF at my house. He echoes what PRCGuy say above. Ground radials make the difference. He's using an old military remote tuner at the base.

What flag do you plan to fly on the flagpole? I can think of some suggestions.... Oh I'm just a rebel at heart!

100% pure Yankee so it has to be the RW&B! Oh, and with a Cubs flag just below!

Ya know the Cubs spring training is in Mesa, doncha.

You betcha! We don't get into the new house until right after spring training breaks but, like we always say in the Cubs universe: There is always next year!

BTW, back to the original topic... What are my options on ground radials? How many and how long should I be looking at? That will impact where the antenna goes...

Here is a good read on radials and ground screens for vertical antennas: http://www.sherweng.com/documents/GroundScreen-sm.pdf Looks like a few lengths of chicken wire or hardware cloth can provide an adequate ground plane using less space than a bunch of radials.

I've read many reports that say its better to have lots of short radials than a few long ones, it seems the spacing between the ends of the radials is key and there is a small fraction of a wavelength between them that you should target. When radials are laying on the ground or buried, they are no longer resonant, which is different from using elevated radials. But ground loss will detract from radials on or in the ground and the goal would then be simulating a huge solid metal surface out to 1/4 wavelength or even 1/2 wavelength like AM broadcasters do if you had the space and money.

When I put up a permanent 43ft vertical I tested performance as I added radials. It worked and made ok contacts with four 33ft radials and the radio's internal tuner would easily tune on 160m. I have 125ft of LMR400 feeding the antenna.

Then I went to eight radials and it seemed to work a little better on all bands. Then around 12 radials the internal tuner was having trouble tuning on 160m. At 20 radials I could not tune 160m and its probably because the high ground loss with just a few radials raised the very low impedance up to something the radio could handle. As I added radials the impedance on 160 got lower as it should and out of the radio's tuning range, but the antenna was becoming more efficient on 160m.

I stopped at about 30 something radials and as more were added after 12 the improvement was harder to see, but more is definitely better. All the testing while adding radials was with the supplied 4:1 balun with the tuner in the radio making up for the terrible mismatch.

Adding the SGC tuner at the base made more difference than going from four to 30 something radials and the combination of lots of radials and the SGC tuner made this 43ft vertical into a very worthwhile antenna.

However, I would not be happy with just a vertical for HF. I have a horizontal dipole on the same property (ZS6BKW flat top at about 25ft) and its one or more S units better than the vertical for local stuff within a few hundred miles due to NVIS propagation. Without the horizontal antenna I would be missing out on lots of local 40 and 80m contacts.

If you can supplement a vertical with even a low dipole or end fed running along a fence, it will fill in places where the vertical falls short.
prcguy

N9JIG said:

You betcha! We don't get into the new house until right after spring training breaks but, like we always say in the Cubs universe: There is always next year!

BTW, back to the original topic... What are my options on ground radials? How many and how long should I be looking at? That will impact where the antenna goes...

Click to expand...

Rich, what kind of landscape are you going to have? When I was living in Scottsdale back in the mid-90s, most new houses were getting graded decomposed granite and a few plantings. Grass in any amount that we are used to in the midwest is pretty much non-existent on new construction out there.

The point I'm getting at is that now may be the time to think about how you are going to conceal your ground plane. I'm wondering if your construction team will work with you to help you get radials or a ground screen buried in the "soil" before the finish grading is done.

Well, we ended up buying a resale home. Got an amazing deal we couldn't pass up!

I might be able to redo the landscaping to accommodate radials...

It is "Desert Chic" as the rest of our area is but I don't know what the underlying terrain is yet.

congrats on the house. If I had to do a flag pole, I would try a Hustler 6BTV in PVC like this guy did.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kc2vgc/sets/72157624011333551/

If you need any help, more than happy to be your guest during winter, so sick and tired of the last two winters up here in the Twin Cities.

Good luck with your move and enjoy your new surroundings.

ZERO-Five antennas are great. Super materials and construction. I second the grounding using hardware cloth/chicken wire. You could also roll out some braid under the solid and do a proper connection both mechanical and electrical.

I know one Ham whose Flag-pole is on his dock with a copped strap into the Atlantic Ocean in Florida.
Remember the old E.F. Hutton Commercials? Well when he transmits people listen. I spoke with him several times and would have to dig through my logs to find his call but he was strong on 40 /20/ and 10 during a contest last year and caught him on 20 when a friend in Texas and I were in a sched. he jumps in and reminds me about the prior QSO.

Again he demonstrated it barefoot @ 100 watts and kicked in his Alpha came up like you would expect. I am considering picking up their 80-6 Ground plane with the 100" radials.

Another fellow out here in San Diego runs one and at his Idaho cabin location.