N9PUZ
Tim McDonough, Springfield, Illinois, USA
This page was last updated on December 8, 2003
I live in a location with plenty of room for antennas but precious few good places to hang them. Normally I use low dipoles, long wires, etc. These have worked well all things considered but of course I wanted more. For various reasons I didn't feel a tower, beam, etc. were good options at this time.
By and large the GAP Titan DX vertical has received positive reviews on various web sites. I've also worked a number of them on the air and the owners were pleased with them. After quite a few bits of correspondence with other owners and reading a lot of material on the web I ordered a Titan for installation here at home.
I read through GAP's online instruction manual before ordering my Titan to see what items I'd need for installation in addition to the antenna. These extra items included a 1.25" mounting pipe and four auger type anchors for guying the antenna. GAP says that if the base is mounted in concrete and the antenna is at ground level guying is not required but is recommended. We get a lot of wind here in Central Illinois so I planned to guy mine from the start.
One negative comment I had seen regarding the Titan was poor assembly instructions. I'll say they are hard to follow if you read them online because the file is formatted to create a booklet when printed. If you print them and assemble the booklet they're very straightforward and I found them easy to follow.
Assembly of the antenna went very smoothly. There were no missing parts and everything fit together as described in the documentation. All together I estimate that I spent about 6-7 hours including assembly, site preparation, installation and initial testing.
I've had the Titan DX for about a week at this point. All of my work so far has been on 20 and 40 Meters. Even with less than great propagation I've worked stations near both coasts, Mexico, and the Caribean.
Update: March 2005. The GAP has been in service here for about two years now. It has survived two Illinois winters and now has many more contacts to its credit including many in Europe, Africa, South America, Australia and several to Japan.