I had a buddy take his and slightly modify it. He took the vertical set and optimized it higher in the band. So he had a Horizontal for SSB & CW SWR great at the bottom of the band, and a Vertical resonant higher for FM work, and Circular for sats, and the slight mismatch diddn't seem to hurt it any.
Joe WB9SBD Sig The Original Rolling Ball Clock Idle Tyme Idle-Tyme.com http://www.idle-tyme.com On 10/3/2013 11:22 PM, Bill Bordy, NJ1H wrote:
I have a Cushcraft A144-20T. Twice as many elements in each plane than yours. I run both a vertical and horizontal coax to my shack and use a crossover coax switch with phasing and impedance matching coax to generate switchable circular polarization in the shack. Works great for me. The polarization change makes a big difference at times on the satellites..
I can also run just vertical or horizontal polarization by changing the coax configuration in the shack. In fact, you can use the same crossover switch as a SPDT to experiment with changing between horizontal and vertical polarization. I do this during VHF contests sometimes. I have also worked meteor scatter with it.
I have been using this antenna for 25 years with no problems. I used it with AO10, AO13 and AO40 with no problems. The low orbit birds are really loud compared to the high orbits birds.
73, Bill NJ1H
On 10/3/2013 10:18 PM, Les Rayburn wrote:
I just acquired a "new" in the-box, never assembled Crushcraft A144-10T "VHF Twist" antenna. It includes the cabling to allow the user to select left or right hand polarization. My questions are numerous:
1.) How is the performance on this antenna, compared to more modern designs?
2.) If I were going to install it inside my attic, should I chose left or right hand polarization?
3.) Any caveats or things to watch out for?
Any information that could be provided would be great. I was thrilled when a friend stopped by and asked me if I'd be interested in the antenna. Good price too.
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