The Tribander Experience

Most hams start off on HF with modest antennas. Perhaps a simple wire dipole, or maybe a trap vertical. These simple antennas can work, and often work well -- when installed at the proper height and with the appropriate number of radials, respectively.

But those starting off often don't have the experience to do things quite right. My first ham antenna was a simple 40m inverted V -- it followed the roofline of the house on 6" standoffs. The apex was all of 25 feet up -- and the ends were only a couple of dozen inches from the ground. It worked, but not well. With the 50 or so watts I coaxed out of my novice rig, it did OK. I also tried various dipoles strung between trees and buildings, random wires, even a vertical made out of a slinky.

Anyone who uses these simple antennas often dreams of something better. I thought that the guys with the tribander at 50 feet had the high-end installations.

When I bought my own house, I wanted to put up some good antennas. First was a 300 foot longwire at about 15 feet high. Fed with an L-network, it could load up on all bands -- even 160m. It did not work well. For a while, I used a "Loop Skywire" -- a 80m full wavelength loop positioned horizontally. This was about 15 feet up -- just barely higher than the longwire. It worked OK, certainly better than the longwire. But really, none of these were any better than my novice antennas.

Somewhere along the line -- I had an epiphany: for horizontal antennas, the most important single dimension was the height above ground in wavelengths. I built an 80m dipole and got it up in the trees about 45 feet high. This antenna worked great -- much better than the Loop Skywire -- and it only required two supports instead of four.

I eventually put up a beam. First was a Butternut HF4B. It was mounted on a roof tower at a height of about 35 feet (10m). Certainly not optimal for a tribander. I eventually replaced the HF4B with a Cushcraft A3S. I've written about this antenna before -- it is probably one of the best of the small trapped tribanders.

When I moved to my current QTH, I decided not to repeat the roof tower experience. It took nearly seven years before I could save up enough to put up the tower. In the meantime, I used a number of dipoles at successively higher heights, a trapped vertical (the Cushcraft R7000), and even a couple of two-element delta-loop wire beams in the attic for 15 and 10m.

During this time, I had the fortune of being able to guest op at W4AN's superstation near Dahlonegah, GA. NQ4I also invited me to come and operate at his Multi-Multi station. These stations have multiple mono-banders for each band, often at heights much greater than your typical tribander-at-50-feet, and many times stacked mono-banders to certain areas. Operating at a super-station is pretty amazing.

Moving from a simple dipole or vertical to a tribander is an eye-opening experience. With a tribander, the band opens earlier, stays open longer, you have directivity that can bring stations out of the noise or null out unwanted signals. Bands you thought were dead come alive with signals. Pileups that were too big and crowded with a dipole are easily busted with the tribander.

It's curious that going from the tribander to monobanders or even stacked monobanders isn't as dramatic as the shift from a dipole to a tribander. Using a monobander or stacks is much like the tribander, only better. It isn't a sea-change.

Not every ham can afford towers and stacks, but every ham interested in HF ought to consider putting up a modest tower with a tribander. It will make a huge difference.