Zero Five Antenna

ZeroFive Vertical Antenna

After the hurricanes of 2005 came roaring through Orlando I had little, if anything left of the 3 element, tri-band quad that had served me so well for over 20 years. After the storms were gone and hurricane season was over here, I decided it was time for a major renovation of the antenna “farm”. The tower and quad were taken down, the VHF antennas were taken down for repair, the remains of the Butternut were taken down and sold.

I decided I wanted an antenna that I could maintain without climbing a tower, that covered all bands to replace both the quad and the Butternut. I had settled on a vertical of sorts being that the average sized lot I live on wouldn’t allow a decent wire antenna system. Problem was deciding on just what vertical I wanted, so I gathered up some magazines and, coupled with some Internet searches, and started comparison shopping. Of course the most popular brands came to mind:

• Hy-Gain
• Gap
• Cushcraft
• Sommer
• Steppir

However, I came across one brand during my shopping that I had never heard of before: Zero Five. I went and added Zero Five to my shopping list and started comparing them all and finally decided to settle on the Zero Five for several reasons:

• No traps
• No coils
• No gimmicks to adjust
• Sturdy installation
• Good reports from current owners

Price was a consideration, but it was a small one as they are all fairly equal in pricing with the exception of the Steppir. Radials were not a consideration as I have had several verticals and they all seemed to work best with radials under them, despite the advertising that a couple of them required no radials. You will find that Zero Five is one antenna company that does state their antennas require radials.

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Antenna Assembly & Installation

When the antenna arrived I was surprised at the packaging, kind of small for a 43 foot antenna, one thing was evident was that the the crew at Zero Five really know how to pack their product. Upon opening the box I found NO INSTRUCTIONS, but it took a minute or two to figure out that the parts were all pre-marked as to how far in they should be inserted in the next sized tube. As I have read about this antenna, it was together in 45 minutes and ready to tilt up on the tilt-over base that came with it. Once the antenna was up I had to fight the urge to use it as I had yet to finish installing the radials. Once the antenna was up (a beauty of an antenna) I went back to completing the radials. All in all I have 3500 feet of 12 gauge copper wire in the 75 radials.

Does It Work?

It does work, it is quieter than other verticals I have owned. I has allowed me to hit Europe on 40 and 80 meters with little effort and I run my rig barefoot (In fact I don’t even own an HF amp). During the VP6DX expedition I worked them 17 times on 3 different modes. Along with VP6DX there has been 5J0E, 5T5DC, TX5C, 9X0R and others. Contesting isn’t my main focus of radio but I do get results with the antenna.

For more information about the Zero Five vertical: http://www.zerofive-antennas.com/

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More About The ZeroFive Antenna

When I still lived back in Orlando, FL (ugh!) I decided to pull down the tower with the hurricane-damaged tri-band quad antenna. In place of the tri-bander, I decided on the ZeroFive antenna for several reasons. Reason one was maintenance, including the ability to lower the antenna to avoid oncoming storms. Reason two was I needed an antenna that would work with my new Icom IC-718 radio with the new-to-me WARC bands.
The locals broke out all the typical anti-vertical antennas comments like “a vertical radiates poorly in all directions” and so forth. One fellow accused me of running an amp, but I hadn’t owned an amp for nearly ten years. So to prove that the ZeroFive worked for me, I’ve posted one of the best tests for the ZeroFive. I worked VP6DX using the ZeroFive and my Icom IC-718 running 75 watts so it’s hard to convince me that “a vertical radiates poorly in all directions!”