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Camb-Hams DX Blog

We find that vertical antennas work for us on most bands. We also use vertical Dipoles for HF bands above 20m, there are a few reasons why verticals should be considered for a DX’Pedition;

  • Low weight to transport
  • Small size requirements to transport
  • Quick and easy to setup
  • Easy to tune and change as required
  • Minimal guying needed (3 only)

The only draw back is RF can flow back down the outer of the coax radiating in places it shouldn’t. This is acceptable (but not ideal) in a single station environment but can be a contributing factor to breakthrough issues in a multi station operation like we normally run, this year upto 5 HF and 4 VHF stations running at one time.

The way to solve this is to add a choke to the coax. Some people just make 6 turns of coax at about 5 inch diameter but this is not always sufficient. Ian GM3SEK has written lots on the subject of chokes and this year we have made some to help improve our station.

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