DX Flagpole Antenna and HOA vertical antennas are > 90% efficient on all HF bands frequencies. 

Yes, it's true. We get questioned on this all.the.time! I've asked our designer to answer this question about "90% efficiency across the bands" and here it is...

Keep in mind, across our website we offer claims some may think are too good to be true. In response, we maintain these claims are of a more conservative stance as the efficiency is closer to 100%!  Again, we prefer a simple and conservative approach to our research findings so even the rookie class among us can easily understand this. Let's explore this a little more.

When it comes to radio antennas, efficiency is related to how much loss is within the antenna system. That said, there truly isn't much loss with the pole and tuner. Why? The large diameter pole alone has almost no loss, hence it is nearly 100% efficient on all bands. 

Okay, so what other areas are lossy, you ask?

EZNEC software will not show what additional loss takes place in the short stub from the tuner to the feed point, in the tuner itself, or your coax to the tuner. Note that EZNEC takes no account of how or where you feed an antenna it is modeling. 

Out of these remaining segments of the system, it's the stub that causes most of the remaining losses. We use either low loss coax or ladder line in this segment. That minimizes losses so far now in the pole and the feed point to tuner segment.

This leaves the tuner which adds a small level of acceptable losses despite what some hams mistakenly believe. Some think "tuners eat power," this is just not so. The loss some have experienced using a tuner is the result of an improper installation such as too much coax or a mismatch in the type of coax used. It is the coax that is lossy, due to high SWR, not the tuner.

Remember, this is an antenna system that requires a choke and tuner at the base of the vertical-dipole for proper high-performance results. Other methods may work yet each of these now become a level of compromise against what an otherwise proper install provides you in the way of performance.

Does good SWR mean the antenna is working correctly? Nope.
The system was indeed designed to utilize a tuner. If you use a tuner in the correct location within the antenna system you will be operating a real high-performance antenna system and we believe you will enjoy so much of the DX your QTH can naturally achieve. 

We have more performance information on our FAQ and Product Pages. Also, please feel free to contact us to engage your questions further.

Finally, this is fun for us and we hope this is fun for you too! Let's spread the word and get our friends back on all the bands confidently, with a well performing, self-supporting single pole, all band antenna like our DX Flagpole or OCF Vertical Dipole Antenna Line. They have no more excuses about neighbors and HOA officials. Flagpoles are approved. If they aren't in an HOA and don't want a Flag, great, we have OCF vertical-dipoles available from 80-6M.

Your friends will thank you for sharing and our collective logs will be longer still.

73 and see YOU on the air!

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