Flagpole antenna

[N9JIG]

I am considering one of the ZeroFive flagpole antennas to get up and operating on HF. Living in an HOA I am pretty limited in my options but they do allow flagpoles.

Has anyone tried the ZeroFive 30 foot flagpole antenna?

30 FOOT 10-80 METER HIGH PERFORMANCE COMMERCIAL DUTY FLAGPOLE ANTENNA | ZEROFIVE-ANTENNAS

 

[AK9R]

I have a friend who used a ZeroFive flagpole antenna. He fed it with an Elecraft KAT500 (and KPA500 amplifier) and about 25 feet of LMR-600. I don't know exactly how he did his radials, but I know he had them. He has since moved and is still working on his new set-up.

I am using a ZeroFive 27-foot vertical (not a flagpole). I'm feeding it with a LDG AT-1000ProII and 50 feet of LMR-600. I have 16 30-foot verticals (and need more). I was previously using an Icom AH-4 mounted directly at the bottom of the antenna, but I'm planning to get an amplifier and the AH-4 can only handle about 120 watts. The jury is still out as to which set-up was better.

The thinking behind the LMR-600 is to reduce the feedline losses between the antenna matching unit and the non-resonant antenna.

My friend is a serious CW DXer and worked many countries with his set-up. I chase a little DX on SSB and RTTY and do a bit of RTTY contesting. I've been reasonably satisfied with the results given that I'm in a location where I can't put up a tower.

If you have questions, I'll pass along what I can.

 

[N6XTN]

You might want to check this link:
3.5 to 50 MHz Flagpole Antenna | 80m to 6m Stealth | W6NBC Design | Force 12 FPA 20 - Force 12 Superstore

It is an OCF and eliminates the need for radials.

73
Christian

 

[prcguy]

I have not used the ZeroFive specific antenna but have used several 30ft range aluminum and fiberglass pole with wire verticals. Over a really good ground system and fed with an auto tuner they work very well on 80 through about 17m but the radiation pattern on 10m is not very usable because its too tall.

A good ground system can be a couple of lengths of 3 or 4ft wide chicken wire laid in an X pattern with the vertical planted in the middle. A wide chicken wire or hardware cloth can be a much better ground system than say 8 or 12 wire radials.

I have also used a 30 and 43ft vertical with a built in 4:1 balun and it was very poor in performance compared to the same antenna with an auto tuner at the base. I can tell you its a night and day difference, especially on 40m and below when you rip out the balun and replace with an auto tuner at the base. The key here is placing the tuner right at the antenna and using a tuner in the shack feeding coax to the vertical is not the same thing and will not give the same performance.

I just got home last night from the New England area where I have a remote HF station and one of the antennas is a DX Engineering 43ft vertical over a lot of ground radials. I had an auto tuner on it which made it come alive but the tuner died and earlier in the year I put the original 4:1 balun back on just to get by. This trip I put a repaired auto tuner back at the base of this antenna and its like magic, I can make 80m and 160m contacts to people I could not hear with the balun and on 40 and 20m the vertical now works better DX than the big ZS6BKW dipole on the same property.

My thoughts on the Force12 20ft long 80 through 6m vertical that doesn't need radials is "dummy load on a stick". It will suck compared to the same size vertical over even a modest ground plane and fed with an auto tuner at the base.

 

[mancow]

I have one of the 43 ft fiberglass telescopic antennas which is just a piece of wire inside and comes out the bottom.

I have a Z11PRO2 tuner but it's in the shack. I could place the tuner in a waterproof housing and run it off batteries. However, the antenna is strapped to a chain length fence pole. It's the only place I have to put it. Would the fence act as a decent enough ground plane to make it worth while?