Hi Curtis;
Just looked at this antenna and sounds rather interesting. It
was one of the many out there that I wasn't aware of. My
geography dictates that I use a vertical roof mounted. Have been
trying to get an h f 9 v up but to say there have been problems
would be an understatment. If I give up on the butternut might
give this a look. How did assembly and tuning go? Supposedly its
self supporting, how has it managed in the wind?
richard
sent from my braille note
----- Original Message -----
From: Curtis Delzer <[log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Date sent: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 10:26:04 -0700
Subject: Re: There's antennas, and then, there's antennas!
I have a Hygain AV640 which is 40-6 meters which seems to work
just fine.
Curtis Delzer.
HS.
K 6 V F O
San Bernardino, CA.
[log in to unmask]
skype: curtis1014
On Thu, 29 Aug 2013 10:22:41 -0700
"Alan R. Downing" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Howard, I know Tom too. And of course, Jay Terleski, the owner
of Array
Solutions, is a very good friend. I have Jay's home and
cellphone numbers,
and often speak with him on the weekends and/or evenings. Array
Solutions
makes and sells all very high quality gear, including the Power
Master II,
which I have and use every day.
Best 73
Alan R. Downing
Phoenix, AZ
-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Howard, W A 9 Y B W
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2013 10:12 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: There's antennas, and then, there's antennas!
Hi Ronald,
About two years ago I purchased new antennas. After doing some
research, I
decided on three antennas from a German company, Optibeam.
I looked at Hy-Gain and did not choose them primarily because I
was afraid
of the quality because of MFJ. Shortly after MFJ acquired
Hy-Gain I called
MFJ to inquire if they had retained the engineering people from
Hy-Gain, the
man on the phone said that anyone can measure and cut aluminum
tubing. His
response scared me off.
I looked at Force 12 and thought they were too complex and way
to much
assembly.
I considered SteppIR and was concerned about the moving parts
that surely
will need service and that was out of the question. The SteppIR
most
definitely will give you a perfect match since the controller
keeps
adjusting the element lengths to maintain the 1:1 match.
I finally decided upon the Optibeam company from Germany. The
Optibeam
line of antennas are sold here in the United States by Array
Solutions, a
great company. I Purchased an 11 element beam for 10, 12, 15,
17, and 20
meters a 2 element beam for 40 meters and a 5 element beam for 6
meters.
The 11 element beam has 3 active elements on all bands except 10
meters
where there are 5 active elements.
I looked at the Optibeams about 10 years ago and backed off
because at the
time they could only ship to an international airport and I
would have to go
and pick them up and deal with customs.
This is all changed and arrangements have been made with UPS and
they can
now be delivered to your home. I must tell you that the
shipping cost and
the exchange rate on the Euro can add considerably to the cost.
Now, about the antennas, there are no traps, no moving parts,
all hardware
is stainless steel and the aluminum tubing is heavy duty. All
is of the
highest quality.
I owned a Hy-Gain TH6DXX about 30 years ago, before they used
stainless
hardware and that was a pain. Also, the parts of the antenna
were all just
dumped in to the box and one had to measure each piece of
aluminum tubing
and match it with a drawing in the manual to determine what
pieces to use to
build each element. What a pain in the A--. Hopefully, this is
all
changed.
Now back to the Optibeam, the pieces for each element were
bundled together
and marked so one knew exactly which element they would
construct. The
element pieces slid in to each other and fastened with a screw
in a
pre-drilled hole so no measuring was needed to get the proper
length. There
were a few places where there were choices as to which hole to
use depending
upon what part of the band you wanted to work. Even the
position of the
elements on the boom was pre-marked with a sharpie. The Hy-Gain
antenna
used compression clamps and you needed to measure each piece to
get the
proper length, again, what a pain in the a--.
I am totally blind and was able to put 90 percent of this
antenna together
myself after my son helped me identify what element packages
were what.
As to performance, I don't really have anything to compare to.
Haven't
tried to break through any big DX pile-ups yet.
The translation from German to English in the manual was a
little strange at
times, not a big issue. I did have a couple of questions and
e-mailed
Optibeam and got quick response even considering the time
difference. All
communications is with the owner and designer of the antennas.
I met Tom, the owner in Dayton and he is great.
Well, this got a little long.
By the way, I looked up Optibeam on e-Ham before purchasing and
all ratings
were a 5 except one. The only bad review was a 1 and it sounded
like he was
an idiot. There were over 250 reviews. Over 250 reviews with a
5 ratings
says something to me.
Howard #3
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Ronald E. Milliman" <[log in to unmask]
To: <[log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2013 10:25 AM
Subject: Re: There's antennas, and then, there's antennas!
I'm still not making myself clear for some reason. I know all
about
antenna
theory, antennas for different bands, DB gain, front-to-back
ratio, etc.,
etc.
I am asking which brands and models of commercially available
ham antennas
seem to be the best. Again, I know what they claim and what
they report or
publish, but what has been your experiences from a real-world,
hands-on,
operational point of view. It is like the rig that, on paper,
has all of
the
others beat in every functional specification, but if the rig is
cheaply
constructed and keeps burning up parts, then, no matter what
they report
on
paper the specs are, the rig is still a piece of junk! The same
goes for
commercial ham antennas. If it is rated for 1500 PEP, but when
you put
more
than 1 KW into it, it burns up the traps, then, no matter what
the specs
are
on paper, it is a piece of junk!
So, from your experiences, which brands and models seem to
really be the
best?
Ron, K8HSY
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