Living It Up With The Cushcraft MA5B
Its been just over a month since I installed my new antenna and what a difference it has made. I have the Cushcraft MA5B mounted on a home brew tripod with a short mast and HYGAIN CD45II rotator. The antenna set up is not as high in the sky as I would have hoped for, but nether the less it is working really well. I have made lots of good QSOs across the Atlantic when the band has not been very good, I have noticed that the vertical and Carolina Windom are miles apart from the reception quality of the MA5B. I keep hearing big signals on the beam and when I switch to the other antennas I can barely copy the same signal. I suppose I should have expected this from my many previous experiments with beams and verticals on vhf where I have worked satellites on 5 watts with my arrow or IOIo antenna and struggled to achieve any contact with a vertical. With the new antenna working so well on bands that are not as good as they could be, I can't wait until the conditions are cooking! The