I’m pretty much at my wits end with this antenna. I know as an engineer and being a ham radio operator, I should’ve be giving up so easily, but I feel like I’ve failed with this choice in every way. I’m really starting to ask myself why I went this route instead of a Cushcraft MA5b multiband yagi. With the amount of money I’ve now spent on 1500′ of 12 gauge copper wire, lawn staples installation accessories and most importantly, TIME with the installation of the radial field, I feel I could’ve went with a directional beam for the same price.
Today we laid appoximately 60 radials all at different lengths and I still can’t get the SWR’s down, after extensive tuning of the antenna without touching the traps. I was however able to work 2 stations in Italy and 1 in the Canary Islands. The Italy signal reports were both 5/3. Somewhat of a dissapointment, but I did reach them.
I’ve also looked into going the route of the Hustler / Hamstick configuration and ordered 2 40 meter sticks from a guy on ebay to use as a groundplane, in the event the radial field is a complete failure.
