Dayton 2010 was a very enjoyable weekend.

There were several questions that came up and I'll answer them here for everyone:

This is mainly addressing the Bravo Series Vertical antenna series, which were on display.

One item is low cost --  it is easy to add cost into a product and very difficult to keep it low, while maintaining performance.

Another is the basic design -- it is a new one, developed from more experience with Team Vertical over the past 2 years. It might be mistaken for what looks like a ground-plane type vertical. A ground-plane, of course, is a 1/4 wavelength vertical radiator fed against a pair of 1/4 wavelength radials. A quick look at the dimensions will show this not to be the case. A ground-plane vertical also has a feed impedance in the low 30-ohm range and the Bravo design is much higher, in the 50 ohm range for the full size and many of the shortened models, too.

This is an easy one to answer, since the "I" style design was developed via Team Vertical many years ago as a replacement for the more complex "ZR" style. It was produced in many models beginning in 2001 from single band 80 through 6 meter antennas to remote switched, multi-band 20-17-15-12-10 and 40-30-20. It was produced by my company, Force 12, Inc., and called the "Sigma" series. Team Vertical can attest to the design effectiveness, having set several CQWW CW World Records using them.

The "I" style vertical dipole is an excellent electrical performer and came out of a decade of research and development beginning with the "ZR" vertical dipole in the late 1990's, the V-3 and then the "SVDA" series. Although the "I" style vertical dipole continues to be a top-notch antenna when designed and installed properly, it has mechanical and visual short-comings.

One of these mechanical issues on the "I" style vertical dipole is having the feed point at the center of the antenna. This requires the coaxial feed line to be run away at an angle, usually about 45° for several feet. On the remotely switched ones, the control cable must also be run in the same manner and in many installations, this is not a simple task. If this is not done, the feed line and / or control cable become involved with the antenna. The upper "T" bar presents a mechanical situation making the larger antennas difficult to erect at times (top heavy) and sensitive to the wind rotating the antenna. The smaller ones need to have a more substantial (larger) vertical section to support the "T" bar, plus the bar is easily a visual drawback.

Enter the Bravo series.

The drawings below highlight the basic improvements in the Next Generation Bravo series and the drawings are proportional for the 5-band, remote-switched models:

Producing a product when cost is not an issue is quite simple - just keep adding more parts and processes ! The Bravo series takes a different road, not often traveled.

Right from the start, each component is verified that it needs to be there. It is also verified that it is the lowest cost, without compromising performance. Another design goal was to make the Bravo series as field repairable as possible, especially when out of reach of mail service, such as DXpeditions.

Some items of obvious added cost one see that are not in the Bravo series are:

Production? Yes, they are in production. Again, keeping with low cost, we are maintaining as small an overhead as possible to bring you the best for the lowest price.

To order the Bravo Series, please e-mail Tom, N6BT   at   e-mail

We are working on the on-line Cart !

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