Non-Resonant Vertical Antenna

SIMPLE - Non-Resonant Vertical Antennas have gained in popularity over the past 2 decades, especially the 43 ft. version.  Several companies sell these antennas and Joe Ham seems to have swallowed the marketing hype, hook, line and sinker.

In 2011, I purchased a half size version of this antenna, just to try it and see.  At the time, the only antenna I had in the air was a tri-band (Kelemen) trap dipole for 80/40/20m.  It's feedpoint was about 12m (40') high.

The non-resonant vertical I bought came with a 4:1 balun.  Perhaps it's an UNUN, not a balun.  I didn't bother to cut it open to look.

I ran a multi-band A/B (receive-only) comparison test on the vertical to get a first-impression of how well it worked.  The test was run on all ham bands, 40m and above and where practical (i.e., 40m), I tested it during the day and during the night.  Night time results are in the table with a grey background.

I CAUTION readers not to jump to the false conclusion that a different balun ratio would have made a significant difference in the test results.  It would indeed change the SWR (by band) slightly, but there would be insignificant change in the received signal strength.

More info about the test setup and its results are found in the PDF download below:

CONCLUSION:

There are no shortcuts! 

Over-simplified antennas work, but not as well as properly designed antennas.

Personally, I would never use this antenna when good communications was my goal.  However on a vacation where I wanted something inconspicuous to work

all bands, just to get me on the air, I might choose this one.