Colin: 

Thank you very much for the review, and sharing your first hand experience
with the Chameleon.  This is what I was looking for when I threw it out to
the "Blind Hams Think-Tank" where great minds reside! ;)
We have wire, as well as verticals at several sites and a great array of
working antennas on the mobile unit. 
The Chameleon, if it was installed, would have gone on the roof top of an
office building to be used as a backup, not a primary antenna system.
Saves me the hassle of sending one of my sighted team members up there to
install a "dummy load" on the rooftop. Lol
Thanks again,
73, 
 

Michael Dane:
W7ALx: 
Director of Emergency Communications:
{City of} Depoe Bay:
Mobile Emergency Operations.


-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of colin McDonald
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2012 7:48 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: CHAMELEON antenna:

I've used the camelion.
I've done side by side tests between a camelion, a hussler hamstick, and an
MFJ hamtenna, which is basically a hamstick slightly altered.
In every test, on 40M, 20M and 15 and 10M, the camelion was an average of 2
to 3 S units (about 6 to 9 DB) deafer on receive, and seemed about the
same, on average, on transmit.
A hamstick or hamtenna is about 1, perhaps 2 S units less than a typical
wire antenna like a G5RV or mono band dipole...at least in my experience.
So, a camelion would probably be around 3 to 4 S units, or 9 to 12 DB,
perhaps more on the lower bands, worse on both receive and transmit than a
regular wire antenna...and at least 2 S units or 6 DB worse than a regular
hamstick type antenna.
It's pretty much useless on 80M and is a terrible antenna, not even as good
as a quarter wave, on VHF and UHF.
The local ham store here was convincing everyone to buy one for a
while...but at $300 it's a complete rip off, and the antenna doesn't work
worth crap with, or without the 9 to 1 balun they supply, or the counter
poise wire.
No Configuration at all seems to make that antenna work...yes, it'll tune,
but so will a dummy load....
A friend who is a new ham, got conned into buying a camelion when he first
got his license.
And he figured it was great because it did all bands etc...what he didn't
realize is that it's a truly awful antenna....even if it was a 50 dollar
antenna, it would still be awful...but it's very high priced.
Your far better off with a collection of ham sticks, or a multi-band wire
or even a nice ground mounted HF vertical.
I did give the chameleon a fair chance in the test, but over an entire
weekend of tests with many different stations, I found what I mentioned
above.
It's not even a decent CB antenna, and that's saying something.

73
Colin, V A6BKX
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Dane" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2012 9:16 AM
Subject: CHAMELEON antenna:


> Good morning everyone,
> I'm wondering if anyone here on the list has used or any information on 
> the
> Chameleon v11 antenna?
> From what I've been told, it is a HF/VHF/UHF vertical. Any info on this
> product would be much appreciated.
> Thanks, 73:
>
>
> Michael Dane:
> W7ALX:
> Director Of Emergency Communications:
> {City of} Depoe Bay:
> Mobile Emergency Operations.