At my present QTH, the antennas are prohibited by the rules of my HOA. That is, "no permanent visible antennas allowed"On top of this grim issue, I also have very limited space for any HF antenna. I have 2 small patios and the attic, which is also very small, about 21ft/7 m wide and 18ft/6m deep, and the height is on low side, crawl space for the most part. Nevertheless, I managed to install several wire antennas in the attic (40-10m multiband doublet, 17m monoband moxon), and strung the similar doublet along the outer roof edge. I also installed a 35ft/10m Max-Gain fiberglass push-up pole in one of the patios and used it to bring up different light antennas, like "hamstick" dipoles or MFJ-17754 2 band (20/40m) dipole. It all worked somewhat, some better then the others, all depending on the propagation and the location of the distant station. DX-wise, I had most success with MFJ-2220 "hamstick" dipole at 35ft on the fiberglass pole.

Until recently, I had no vertical antennas and was determined to try them one day. Vertical antenna is a good idea if the space for the installation is very limited and it has to go up and down promptly and with little effort. At the same time, not all vertical antennas are very good radiators: first, they usually radiate equally in all directions, having no directivity without additional measures, like setting up a system of vertical antennas with special feeding arrangements, meaning the signal in the far field will be lower when compared to a beam antenna or even to a dipole; second, a good ground system or, for elevated installation, a system of radials required for better radiation efficiency (and I have little space for that). Nevertheless, in Dec 2017 I acquired and installed 2 vertical antennas:

• (1) MFJ-2286 "The Big Stick" portable 17ft/5m telecscopic, base-loaded whip for 10-20m;
• (2) Hy-Gain AV-12AVQ 3-band 10-15-20m vertical.

Here are my impressions after a short test, starting Dec 24th and until the last weekend:

(1) MFJ-2286 "big stick" portable antenna

Here is the link to the antenna on the manufacturer's website: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-2286
This antenna is really a stealth HF antenna. I installed it a few feet above the ground, inside the patio and close to the fence, run the provided radials inside the fence, and its invisible when the whip is folded:

above: MFJ-2286 antenna, whip folded

The antenna's construction is not top notch but it survived a few weeks outside in rain and wind with little ill effect (the bolts on the included MFJ-342T pipe mount rusted). As installed, it worked, but not very good. There is a reason for this: as you see in the picture above, the placement is no good for an HF antenna: it is low above the ground, it is very close to the building, it is surrounded by trees. I've manage to get both stateside and DX contacts, here is the map:

above: contacts made with MFJ-2286 antenna

My impression is that the antenna, as installed, is a poor radiator. My signal was low and I had been provided the reports like 53 and 54, at most. Of course, more experimentation is needed, with the radials and with the height. As a portable antenna, properly installed with recommended radials and in the open, may be close to the water, it should work better. I had no contacts in SE segment because this is the direction where the house was and it was blocking the signal. The antenna has low angle of radiation, judging by the distance to the DX stations I made contacts with. Also on the plus side, the antenna is good for receiving.

The bottom line/note for myself: test with better radial system, play with different placements, see if this will improve the perfomance.

Hy-Gain AV-12AVQ 3-band 10-15-20m vertical

12AVQ is a very old antenna, came out in 70s I think; it has good reputation in HAM community. It is cheap, very well made, light, self-supporting, rigid 13ft/4m 3-band (10-15-20m) aluminum antenna with stainless hardware; it needs a radial system. Here is the link to the antenna on Hy-Gain site: http://www.hy-gain.com/Product.php?productid=AV-12AVQ. I ordered it with intention to erect temporarily as needed in a vertical dipole configuration with 3 resonant radials, using the telescopic fiberglass pole I have. It worked; I have been setting it up and taking down every Friday for the past 2 weekends. The process of erecting takes about ~40 min of relaxed no-rush work; bringing down is easier and faster, 15 minutes and it is done. I store the antenna in the patio, assembled. It is small enough to be stored horizontally, along the fence.

Above: Hy-Gain AV-12AVQ antenna installed in vertical dipole configuration on a fiberglass pole

When I was using the antenna, the propagation has not been great. That said, my impression of the antenna at this height (26ft/8m) and in this particular configuration (that is, a vertical dipole) was that its good radiator, but the angle of radiation is not suitable for the long haul DX. This is especially true for the contacts on 40m (I used the antenna on 40m with the Palstar AT-AUTO tuner and it worked ok). I was able to get through pile-ups and was routinely given 57-59 reports. Here is the map of contacts I made with the antenna: Above: contacts made with Hy-Gain AV-12AVQ antenna

For this antenna, just like for the MFJ-2286, more testing is needed. I should try installing and testing it at ground level with a field of radials. It might work better for DX.

Dixi.