There have been tons of material written about antennas. All of it that I've seen was pure baloney all the way up to pure genius. The problem with the pure genius material is that it is always written in such technical terms that most readers just fall back to reading the BS material. I like simplicity of complex things. Why do I have only one wire antenna? Well, after experimenting with at least a dozen types of wire antennas, I've found that bigger is usually better so I built a 160 meter horizontal dipole and found it to be very good on most bands. The only drawback is that they radiate in only two directions. I once put an HF rig in my SUV and decided that I only wanted to only use one piece of coax, so I mounted three $20 "Hamstick" verticals on one mount. It was 10 meters, 40 meters and 80 meters. After tuning each of them to their appropriate band, I connected the one coax to my auto-tuner and the auto-tuner to my HF radio. WOW!!!! Big surprise. I was able to talk from my car to the same stations that I did from my house. Well, the HF radio in the SUV soon got to be old hat pretty soon and I removed it and the antennas. Now, what to do with the antennas. Hmmmm..... I know, I'll mount the 10 meter and the 80 meter verticals to the side of the tower. Hey! Why not also mount the 40 meter vertical to the tower. Well, I figured that 40 meters was the closest band to fill the need for a 24 hour useable band so I put it with my bugout radio backpack and if I bug out with an HF radio, I'll grab the 40 meter Hamstick and take it with me. Oh, did I forget to mention that my radio backpack also has a couple of 100 feet rolls of #14 copper wire for making field installation antennas. Before you ask, No, I am not carrying 100 feet of coax cable. I've got a piece of 25 foot coax coiled up. I'm not climbing a 100 foot tree for an emergency radio station. Anyway, to make a long story even longer, I was quite surprised to find that my vertical antennas, on some bands, outperform my 160 meter horizontal dipole. If you want a technical reason, this is what I have decided. I get 360 degree radiation at a low radiation angle. Its as simple as that. What? Are there times when I wish I had also installed the 40 meter vertical on the tower. Yep. Every time I get on the air I wish it was up there so I could do a comparison. What about VHF and UHF? I left that out because then I'd have to get all technical and in the end it would just boil down to higher up in the air is better. I do have 2 meters, 220, and 440 capabilities.
