Completed antenna
8 of 12
Looking back toward the house. Performance has been surprisingly good. Many hams feel that vertical antennas are inferior to dipoles ("equally bad in all directions"), but a dipole needs to be substantially higher than most hams can put them in order to give an optimal horizontal pattern; otherwise they radiate much of their power at high angles. Verticals, on the other hand, can achieve much better low-angle radiation if there is an adequate radial system. In my installation, the vertical is lower in noise on receive than the dipole, which runs over the house and thus picks up a lot of electrical noise. With the 6BTV I have been able to work just about everything I can hear.