Zero Five vs. Gap Titan
This is no reflection on either manufacturer, Tom Leakos of Zero Five and Richard from Gap Antennas are both great guys and fun to chat with. This comparison is mainly for my own information and if it helps you decide which antenna is best for you then its a win win! This topic has been beaten to death and I have even seen comparisons of beams to both antennas, really? I guess hams just need something to talk about.
So here we go and everything on my log book page after 05/07/2021 is using the GAP Titan, everything before on 40meters and higher was the zero five.
Zero Five 43' Vertical
Pro’s and Con’s:
Pro: Easy to assemble and marked for length of each section.
Pro: Great customer service.
Pro: Does not need guying under most conditions.
Pro: Top quality parts and hardware.
Pro: Tuned very nicely 40 through 10 meters.
Pro: Fast Shipping and nice packaging.
Pro: Tuned up nicely at 1kw with LDG AT-1000 Pro II.
Pro: Solid performer on 20, 40 meters Lots of DX.
Con: Struggled to tune on 80 meters and would not tune under 3.900.
Con: Poor performance on 10, 12, 17 meter band even at 1kw.
Con: Extensive ground radial system with 120 radials and one 8′ ground rod at the antenna base.
Con: Needs tuner either at the base of antenna which is ideal or at the shack.
As you notice in the images I extended the antenna with the hopes of getting it to perform in the DX window at 3.795, I got it to about 57 feet and still did not get enough length to have it somewhat tune in the DX window. Extending the antenna required guying. Extended it seemed to tune better on the other bands.
GAP Titan DX
Pro’s and Con’s:
Pro: Quality material and hardware.
Pro: Great customer service.
Pro: Does not need guying under most conditions. But highly recommended.
Pro: Loaded directly very nicely 80 through 6 meters a bit high in frequency on 10m initially but easy fix.
Pro: Fast Shipping and nice packaging.
Pro: Tuned up nicely at 1kw with LDG AT-1000 Pro II. But not needed.
Pro: Solid performer on 10, 40 meters Lots of DX. Have not tried on 80 yet but appears promising. loaded up directly with 1kw no problem.
Con: Complicated construction 3 out of 5 stars on difficulty, READ THE MANUAL several times.
Con: Really should be guyed or sturdier material.
Con: Needs stop screws on lower rods.
Con: Is very finicky with certain grounds and ground connections.
Opinions and Conclusions..
Having used the Zero Five at various locations including a very strict HOA it was easy to hide the antenna and ground radials in the tree’s and bushes. The Zero Five vertical provided me with a solution to that environment and provided good communication at 600watts under those restrictions.
Having moved into a very loose HOA onto 5 acres that does not complain about shutters not the same color as your neighbors I was able to put up the zero five in the open area as depicted in the images. I used 120 ground radials on the Zero Five and noticed a distinct improvement over the initial 36. I used the zero five at my new location to capture a lot of DX into South America and Europe on 15, 20, and 40. This antenna really did not function that well on 10, 12, 17 and I was unable to get it to tune on 3.790 in the 75 meter DX window.
I began looking for a tuned vertical as an interim use until I get my log periodic BOPLA-10 put on the Rohn 45. I did my research and ended up with the GAP Titan DX.
One thing I learned over my 30+ years in ham radio is that there are a lot of opinions and everyone’s perception of their needs regarding antenna solutions is different.
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Albert Einstein
During my research I discovered all sorts of stupid comparisons to the gap antenna, one is a hex beam compared to a Gap Titan DX? It’s a mono band 2 element beam compared to a resonant vertical element usually about 5 to 10 feet off the ground, what exactly is the comparison there?
Or better yet lets compare a dipole to a Gap Titan DX, really? Just absolutely dumb.
Here is an idea, how about we compare verticals to verticals like R6 or a HyTower to the Gap and at least keep it in the same genre.
Also to all the know it all pessimistic hams out there, try to find the positive in products and life and not always the negative. RANT OFF!
So I ordered the Gap Titan DX , I put it together in about 5 hours by myself and in true ham fashion tested all the bands from the radio end, then used an analyzer and I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of 6 through 40. On my usual 80 meter net I did some comparisons between my usual signal on a 240′ wire antenna and the GAP, the GAP was down 12 DB as to be expected, does that mean the GAP is a poor performer, no it means that the take off angle may be lower and since it is only 25′ tall as compared to 240′ 600 ohm fed wire being 12db down in my opinion for what it is it works pretty damn good. The Zero Five would not even tune in the 3800 portion of the band.
As a good friend of mine used to say there is too much El Toro PooPoo, I hope this helps someone considering the Gap Titan DX weed through all the opinions about the Zero Five and Gap Titan DX.
Thanks for reading…..
