Reviews from the field

I bought this after speaking with an HRO guy who had one, while looking at the Hex Beam. I am glad I bought the GAP Titan DX as it has been nothing but great. I believe 14k QSOs on 7 continents in little over 2 years is good enough for me. Consistent great signal reports and from my QTH in FL this antenna gets the job done at a great price and small footprint. Plenty of naysayers but all of my QSOs and friends around the globe are none of those. I'm thinking of buying another one to put at another location. Mounted on a 10ft mast nothing in the way, zero space taken of my yard. Been up thru 2 hurricanes not guyed, I can take it down in 5 minutes, leaving it up, never taking it down as I put 3 guys on to never worry again after 90mph plus winds 2x without so I'm gtg.

Have had mine 4 or 5 years now with nothing but success. I have 2 shacks in the home: one is the main shack, and the other is a smaller set up in the home office. When I put together the office shack I didn't want a second tower and beam, so I went with the Titan DX vertical. I have work over 100 countries from the office location. I sign onto a 40M net most mornings from 7 to 9 AM ET and have no trouble hearing stations from all over.

This is my third GAP antenna! First was my 1995 Challenger, then I owned a Titan in 2003, and now in 2023 another Challenger DX. The ease of assembly, no traps, and no tuning make working and switching bands as easy a pressing the band switch. Even if it is going to be a permanent install, I highly recommend the tilt-over base. The antenna doesn't really require any maintenance, but it sure is handy to lay the Challenger down before wind storms, severe thunderstorms, tornados, or ice storms. When properly setup following the dos and don'ts, it is a quiet antenna for working DX. As an ARRL Technical Specialist, a good 75 percent of the antenna issues I solve are due to improper installation or setup. The Challenger is a solid performer when assembled and setup properly following the few requirements it needs to preform well. And if one does discover an issue, Richard is only a phone call away. My Elecraft K4D and I both enjoy having and using the Gap Challenger. If you purchase one, you will most likely be able to make the most of it and if not, it will most likely sell for close to its retail price on QRZ swap meet. It is a full 5 Starts in my opinion as I don't have a single complaint about any Gap Antenna I have owned or used. Keith de N5KAH

This is my second multi-band vertical, first one was a R7, hated it.. love this one.. been up now for 8 years and still working like it did when new..highly recommend this one.

Moved it without dissembling , hooked it up and works great. This is one fine product.

I bought my GAP Challenger at the Atlanta Hamfest in 1989. It was a vast improvement over the Cushcraft R5 that I was using. I have deployed it in numerous locations since then and even had to replace the internal wiring harness when a 'friend' disassembled it from one location and cut some wires. It has always worked well! 30 years of always working speaks well for the quality of construction! Many contacts both local and DX speaks well of design. After relocation recently I thought I had a problem with it on the bands above 20m but I found that it was a problem with my ic-7300, not the GAP! Best vertical made in my humble opinion. SWR less than 2:1 from 80 through 6 meters. I did extend the 12 meter rod for 17 meter use with no problem.. 80 meters works well for DX and has about 200kHz bandwidth. The other bands require no tuner. Highly recommended. Easy to build, easy to deploy (with a friend). Rugged, and very good performance!

Bought one 2nd hand, had it for 6 months 8 feet off the ground attached to a stockade fence post. So far so good.

This antenna does just as it says. Works fine on 20M. Worked many stateside stations. Sure would be a great ARRL SS antennas. On 40 and 80M is where this antenna really shines. A real killer on 40M and certainly holds its own on 80M. As for 160M....this antenna works. It hears better than it transmit. Be surprised how many "alligator" stations out there. Have worked Caribbean and many EU om 160M. This is a sturdy antenna. It has survived some pretty stout wind storms. SWR is on the money. Love the no need for tuner or radials.

I had to wait for my Gap mono 40 due to some uncontrolable happenstance at the Gap facility, but it was worth the wait. This antenna went together easy and quick. Works very well, and is very long. All that metal makes it perform very well. I worked 3 rare dx through pileups first call the evening I installed it, last night in fact. There was no need to tune it, just follow instructions and it will be close to flat VSWR entire band, maybe 1:3:1 at 7.300, flat 1:0:1 at 7.200, 7:2:1 at 7.000. Listen to the instructions and get help to haul it up, I did it by myself but I am a very big guy and used to be a body builder, and it wasnt easy especially since I had to lift the bottom of the antenna up to chest high to place it into thw ground mount which I had on a ground mounted pipe a few feet out of the ground. It is 31 feet long and on a light breezey day is a task to say the least. I was too excited to put it up is why I did’nt wait for help. You will love it it works!!!

After reading the reviews on this site I bought the 20M Mono to replace my R5 that I've had for 25 yrs. The 20M Mono is now my new go to antenna. Lower noise than the R5 with a higher signal level on receive. My amp has a wide range tuner so I am able to use the antenna from 20-10M working just as well on all 5 bands. My Mono is ground mounted. One of the first contacts after install was HI on 17M. Great antenna!

I installed the antennae 12 years ago in the pottery next to the chimney in an urban environment and I remain an enthusiastic amateur user. Its performance is amazing and I can compare it even with a 2 element beam antenna well as with an invertet V dipole. The SWR is minimal in all bands and no tuner need. I'm sure this antenna in a low-noise environment would be the perfect antenna. In the distant signals coming at low angles, the antenna is unrivaled. Unbelievable how good is the listening and transmiting. At the age of 12 years old antenna, only 2 problems were presented. With a very strong wind, a rope cut and the support mast bent. The antenna did not suffer anything. Also an insulator on the 40 meter apron broke, but I replaced it with a zero cost 5cm pvc tube. thanks GAP for this amazing antenna 73 de SV8KOM

UPDATED REVIEW - I have had my Challenger DX for several months and am quite pleased with it. I have found that it does quite a job on 17 meters, even though it isn't designed for that band. From my QTH in Oklshoma, it enabled me to log contacts to Rwanda snd Mayotte on 17m that my OCFD was not capable of reaching. Within it's tuning range on 80m, it does pretty well and logged my first 80m European QSO. It is my go-to antenna on 15m and 40m when I want to work DX. It is very stormworthy when guyed. It was easy to install and I loved that I did not have to dig up my backyard to install a radial field.

I have had my Challenger DX installed at ground-level for 4 months and am pleased with it’s performance. I live in Oklahoma City and run a 40-6m OCFD at 34’. I added the Challenger to give me 80m, improve 40m, and give me some lower takeoff angles on the higher freqs. The 80m performance has been so-so, but better than trying to tune a 40m dipole for 80m. On 40m, I have finally been able to get DX beyond southern Canada and the Carribean...many QSOs into Europe and far northern Canada, including QRP into Europe. My OCFD is usually 1-1.5 s-units better on 20m, but there are times when the Challenger outperforms it (several over-the-pole QSOs into Russia). On 15m, I can now work the Pacific very well! I have used it several times on 12m when my OCFD wasn’t up to the task. My 10m usage has been limited, as has 6m (I primarily use a moxon on 6m). I have also used it successfully on 60m and 17m with an LDG ATU. All-in-all, I am happy with this antenna’s performance and really like that I didn’t have to dig up my backyard! It has met my expectations. BTW, I only run 100W or less. The antenna has survived 14 severe thunderstorms now (77mph peak wind gusts) with a set of midpoint guys in a triangular configuration.

I bought this antenna around 2006 so it's been up for 12 years now, I was able to get my WAS with this antenna. I am in Florida. It has never been blown down from storm. It survived a storm last year where part of our shingles blew off the roof. I think it has been struck by lightning many times. I have had many good signal reports with it and have fed a linear into it with about 800W. I have worked a number of stations in Europe and a few in the Far East. Very easy to work the States and South America. A good antenna for the money.

Got this antenna when I worked in Port Saint Lucie, FL in 1993. I moved to Boca Raton, FL and used it in a HOA. Worked relatively well! Had to camouflage paint it and still worked great! Glad I had it after hurricane Wilma. I moved to Decatur Georgia and disassembled it for the move and reassembled it. Still performs good as new. Low SWR on all bands as advertised. No tuning, no frustration and on the air with good sigs!

I"ve had an Eagle for about three years now, and have had great results with it. Ground mounted at 6ft. I've made many DX contacts with it...I am continually amazed at the performance..

My 40 meter Gap works the world. . I now spend the night on 40 meters. This antenna is fantastic. Still waiting for a 80 meter version.

Had a Challenger back in '93 and another one here until it went down in a tornado. I know how well they work. So bought the 40 Mono and am very pleased. Went together easily and once erected worked "right out of the box". I've WSPRed down to 200 mW with good results on 40 and, surprisingly, 20M. I'm mostly QRP here and couldn't ask for a better antenna. Thanks

I set this up at about 3 feet high and was contacting Europ from my house near Tampa, FL. This antenna just works. I also enjoy the fact that uning the 40 meter wire to the desired frequency range a good thing too. I just wished that an addition of a 160 meter element with some way of widening the 80 meter bands was possible as well as adding a 6 meter element. But this is an outstanding antenna from what I've seen. It delivers what is advertized! de K9FBA 73

Bought this antenna in 1993 in south Florida. I have a limited sized lot and the Challenger DX was a perfect fit. Well within my limited budget. While in S. Fla, it survived Tropical Storm Gordon along with many windstorms. Moved to Oklahoma in 1999. It was at two different locations in Central Oklahoma. It was taken out by a strong straight wind in 2010. The center insulator broke completely along with bending some of the vertical radiators. I repaired it and it's still going strong. I moved to Wisconsin in 2014. It's been on the air at two different locations here and works well. I use this antenna for digital only (JT9, FT8, PSK, etc). It's a quiet receive antenna but it doesn't compare to my 4 el yagi up at 60 ft. But it's a solid antenna and if I were buying another vertical I'd buy another Challenger DX.

My last antenna was a random wire up 60′ which I loved until it came down, and my yard is such that I really can't put up a new one until February (when the leaves are gone). In the meantime, I thought I'd go back to a vertical. I choose the Titan DX mainly based on the reviews on eHam.net and other boards. It's location is far from ideal - trees on 3 sides and near a metal building. Some observations: 1. I had no problems at all following the directions. Tuning was also a snap - a few tweaks for 40 Meters and the SWR on all bands is as promised. It also tuned very well on 6 Meters - waiting on a band opening to see how effective it is there. 2. I installed the antenna on a 10′ pole and choose to use guys, seeing as I live in a hurricane zone. With Hurricane Irma, I had wind gusts over 65 mph and the antenna wasn't affected at all. 3. I wasn't expecting much at all on 80 meters, but was pleasantly surprized when I was able to break through a pileup and work DX 1,500 miles away running 100 watts. 4. It seems to perform very well on 40 meters. I was able to work New Zealand from the US East Coast, again running 100 watts. 5. I've gotten good signal reports on all bands. Also, the antenna doesn't seem to be any noisier than my wire antenna. 6. I had a few questions before I bought the answer. The response from GAP was quick and very helpful. I've only had the antenna for a month, but so far I have to say that it's exceeded all of my expectations.

Love it! Strong, sturdy and dependable. Mine has been in use for over 10 years with zero issues. I would use this ground mount again at any QTH.

Have had the Challenger up now for 3 months. I have it ground mounted here in Florid. It replaced a 5 band trap vertical. So far I have been able to break the Mid West and East Coast 20 and 40 meter mono banders and there Kilo Watt stations on all the resent DX expeditions with 2 or 3 calls and 200 watts. 20 and 40 meters the antenna really performs. 10 and 15 are OK, 80 meters it really needs some help. Haven't tried the other bands. Can't wait to get a amplifier for it. Ron KN4D

My second Gap Vertical, a 20M mono. I purchased about 8 years ago. I use mostly for cw and psk31. If I hear it I work it. This antenna is a dx machine, 20M psk31, 30 watts, New Guinea and the Pacific rim. South America with S9 plus signal on psk and cw with less than 50 watts. You can add Europe as well. This antenna has been my only antenna until today, just received my third Gap.

The third Gap is a brand new 40M mono. It isn't up yet, however, I will have it up this weekend. Sunspots force a new antenna, hi hi. When I called Gap I explained that I have bad hand tremors. I requested if it was possible for them to do a bit of pre-assembly for me. Richard offered to help and today I have the antenna with the pre-assembly done. YES, greatly appreciated and above expectations. I may have a backyard sprouting aluminum Gap antennas. THANKS GAP (Richard)

Purchased about 1989. Used it for 10 mounted at 15 feet. Worked very well. My first Gap, happy.

I have owned this antenna for over 10 years it has been in 2 locations in vk4; I am in the process of disassembling it to move to vk2 the antenna always has lived up to it's claims; performance I cannot recommend it highly enough best regards bill vk2wml

I put up the GAP Titan because the Stepper antenna that I used was not very durable. I always had to mess with it all the time to keep it tuned . The GAP was very inexpensive. It went together easily with only a few mistakes on my part. The instructions were a bit difficult to understand. I thought the Titan was a little light in construction to stand up to northern Michigan weather. I would highly recommend guying it . The performance of this antenna was outstanding . 50watts took me around the world.

I've had my Titan DX up for 6-8 weeks now. It's 10′ off the ground on a galvanized mast. Although guying isn't required, I did anyway. 80m leaves a little lacking although I suspected such since there's only 100k bandwidth there. The SWR on 40m is a little higher than I'd like (1.8-2.5). I'm going to try to tweak that a little. 20m on down is great! Less than 1.5 SWR. I've DXed to 10 different countries (mostly on 20m, a little 40m) without a ton of effort using 100W and usually get a signal report of 57-59. Overall a great buy for a multiband antenna. I spoke with Chris at Gap once for info on tuning and he was very helpful

I have the monogap 20 meter ground mounted. Performance on 20 is comperable to my dipole on close contacts but much better on dx. Also as a plus my Yeasu internal tuner allows use on 10, 12, 15, and 17 with performance equal to that on 20. definatly a keeper. N7GEA

Purchased my GAP Challenger DX 2 weeks ago and assembly was straightforward as the instructions were simple to follow. Nothing to change on the antenna as it performs exactly as per the specs on HF. The 20m performance is remarkable First three contacts were 2 VKs and Texas all within the first hour and then the following morning on 40m more VKs, US, Puerto Rico and UAE. Best of the lot was busting through the pile up on 15m for V55DX yesterday. It also had a bit of a battering on the second day with winds gusting 65mph, so pleased I guyed it for my own peace of mind! Cheers guys!

GAP 15m Mono takes on my Hustler 6BTV on 15 m and wins hands down. Tuned at 1.2:1 with no adjustments on 15m after assembly. It tuned 1:1 on 17m. What a pleasure to see the receive gain up 3 s units over the Hustler. It is ground mounted per the instructions and is very low profile.

I have tried almost every 1/4 vertical antenna and have been very disapointed! However in the year 2000 I purchased a Titan DX and did not expect much! I was WRONG. The Titan performed great and the first thing I noticed was that the received signals were even stronger. NOW 2015. I just performed my first maintenance on the antenna. I replaced the internal harness and top jumpers. I removed my 7 ft ground mounted mast and added a Quick tilt assembly. I should have used a quick tilt 15 years agao, my back would not be aching today. PERFORMANCE. The Titan has given me my DXCC, first one in the 40 years that I have been licensed. I am very pleased with the antennas's performance, durability to stand up to Chicago winters and I need to add that the customer service from Gap is EXCELLENT. My backround is TV ENG maintenace supervisor and former electrician. First licensed in 1967 and again in 1980. I highly recommend this antenna for DX work as it name implies. Al.... KC9YS and you can see a winter picture on the TITAN DX on my QRZ page.

I bought my GAP Titan DX antenna in 2001 when I reactivated my interest in ham HF. My original installation was mounted on an 8 foot steel pipe on the surface of the ground and 4 point guyed. After several months of "testing" and confirming approximately 80 DX countries, I relocated the antenna to a push up mast with the antenna base at 30 feet and guyed accordingly (I do not recommend using a push up mast - the material is too flimsy for the wind loading on the antenna). My newest mounting is with a 12 foot steel pipe mast and the Quick-Tilt mount firmly anchored in the ground. The Titan DX is an amazing antenna, performs very well and other than performing some minor maintenance after 12+ years of use has been worry free. Now if we could just do the figures on how to phase two, three or four of these fabulous antennae..................

Had my Challenger for 4 years now and it is great performer and great design - has withstood some tough winds. Moving North to another state and am, for sure, carefully disassembling and putting it up in the new home and property .... everybody oughta have one of these if limited on space and need great performance! Pix on my QRZ site. 73

I installed the GAP Eagle 11/7/1992 while I lived in Virginia. It is the best antenna that I have ever used. Moved to Ohio in 2001, installed the same antenna and it is still working great. Good Job GAP Antenna Products, Inc Ted KQ4TL

I bought this antenna after researching many others out there on the market. The performance of the antenna is very good on all bands just as GAP says it does, although 80m is very tricky. My only gripe is the instructions that came with the antenna to put it together, I would have liked more detailed drawings, although it was simple enough. In addition I think a guying kit should be provided as standard, and have had to guy the antenna against the strong winds we get her is Wales. Overall a fantastic antenna and SWR is virtually non existent on all bands, except the 80m one.

I have been using a Gap "Titan" antenna for several years now. I find it's low angle of radiation and very low SWR's on all bands works extremely well for my DX operations. I can get thru most "pileups" on the first call. I often run high power (legal limit) and have experienced no issues. It has survived high winds on more than a few occasions without any damage. This antenna is a brute. I would recommend this antenna for anyone who is serious about their antennas. Jennifer - KQ4U

I love this antenna. My first true DX contact shortly after installing the Titan DX was FT5ZM, Amsterdam Island. A whopping 11422 miles from my QTH. This antenna just performs. I am trying to figure out how to get another one and get it "portable" for field day (I need to figure out the financial aspect to buy one and the assembly/portability requirements for transportation to/from field day). Wherever I may call home in the future, I will always have a Titan DX with me in addition to any other antennas.