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write your own review of the Comet 4 Ele. Beam..
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VE6CPP
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 23, 2008 07:08
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Works Well
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I needed an Antenna for 6M.. Mostly for use with WSJT Meteor Scatter..and for the number of SSB openings on E Skip I was told about.. did not want to spend a Bundle just to try the band. I found the Comet is fairly light-weight in construction as compared to most yagis I have put together. It does look like it would be 'Very Suitable' for Field Day and /p Op's.. assembles quickly with the 'wing nuts used'! For a $100 Yagi.. I gave it a 4.. but in performance, a 5! Run a 150W Mirage thru it with no problems.. and with only a few openings I have had in '08.. should be close to 100 Grids worked! As with the Review below.. I too live in a High Wind Area of S AB.. and it has survived fine in the past 10 months it has been up! Easy and In-expensive way to get 4el up on 6M! I am thinking about a 2nd one to Phase in.. and use for /p Ops next E Opening!
Jerry VE6CPP VE6Jee/p
DN39or
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KC0LOE
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 10, 2008 12:04
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Works well for the price
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Ever since I became a ham I wanted to get on six meters. This spring I finally took the plunge and bought the equipment to do so. When I first took the antenna out of the box, I noticed there were no instructions, just a diagram of the antenna. It took me about 1/2 a day to figure out how it went together(never put a beam together before).
After I had it assembled and raised, It was time to try this baby out. I made several contacts on the east coast and Canada on the first night I turned it on. I was lucky enough to land in the middle of an opening.
The antenna is pretty durable. The wind here in South Dakota can get pretty fierce. It was survived several nights with 40+ MPH sustained winds. The only thing I would change, would be that clamp that attaches the antenna to the mast. It could be one size bigger in diameter for better survivability in a major storm.
Over all the antenna is a good performer for the price. Comet needs to put better instructions in the box, and make the mast clamp more sturdy.
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F5DQK
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Rating: 4/5
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Jan 23, 2006 10:45
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Comet/Diamond comparaison
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Thoughts about HB9CV capacitorless four elements:
Last autumn 2005 I bought both models Comet CA-52HB4 and Diamond A-504HB in order to compare them.
Because of lack of winter propagation, I'll wait next summer for trying them on air.
So I did mount them and try in my loft
Both have about same boom length (respectively 3,13 and 3,25 m).
1st impression is that Diamond is stronger build:
The A-504HB diam 12.7 mm unique elements are stronger than the CA-52HB4 ones with their 11 and 9.5 mm diameter.
Also Diamond's 32 mm boom diam instead of Comet's 25 mm confirms me this impression.
Diamond gamma tapering is immediately visible. So you have to spend a little time for the Comet one
(no mark for it), especially if you don't have any idea of the gamma prepositionning.
Serial capacitance is substitued in these models by 2 parallel wires : one between both gammas, and the other for dipole to reflector "earth"continuity
Gain of 7.8 dBd seems a little exagerate ! Mmana simulation gives 7.14 dB maxi with a 52 pF serial capacitance, but 5.8 dB without !!
Perhaps a little problem with Mmana, because I was obliged to carefully adjust gamma wire diameters and distance from the boom.
Front to back ratio of 17 dB is easy achieved..
I hope having more on air news next summer !!
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N8FVJ
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Rating: 4/5
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May 19, 2002 13:22
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Low Cost- Needs Mech Upgrade
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I purchased the Comet #CA-52HB4 for 6 meters. My Cushcraft 50A-3 has been a solid performer, but some 6 meter FM repeaters showed up in my area. The issue is the Cushcraft is a narrow band design presenting an unacceptable well over 2 to 1 SWR at 53 Mhz. My options was a seperate vertical antenna or the expensive multi-band Cushcraft ALS-670 Log Periodic ($249) including a loss of 2dB gain as compared to the 50A-3! I wanted one antenna plus the convenience of a directional antenna on 6 FM. Vertical vs horizontal gain is not a concern on 6 meters. The Comet offers a gain of 10.4dBi and a SWR of 1.5 or less from 50.0 to 53.5 mHz. Electrically the antenna is well designed, however some poor mechanical details were evident. The tiny 'spaghetti noodle' sized mast clamp would never keep the antenna secured in the proper direction at my windy QTH. I machined a 3" x 8" #7 gauge aluminum plate and clamped it to the mast. This was easy as the center mast clamp Comet provides has a flat surface, thus removes clamping stress from the mast. I drilled four more holes and used two muffler clamps to secure the antenna to my 2" antenna mast. The next issue was the Comet coax connector has a slightly larger diameter than standard. This does not allow the ground side of the coax to be electrically secure. I used a 90 degree adapter, soldered the threaded 'slip ring' (align this up before soldering), then screwed the adapter on the antenna coax connector. Now, I have a solid ground connection. The antenna does appear to be rugged enough for the ice storms and high winds at my QTH. I will not say overly built, but 'just enough'. Comet refers to this antenna as a light weight design usable for a temporary base station. My modifications make the antenna a permanent base station design. Due to the coax connector and 'weak' mast clamp, I give the antenna a 3.0 rating. Performance receives a 5.0 rating and overall design strength a 4.0 rating. Overall, the Comet CA-52HB4 receives a 4.0 rating. If this was a $200+ antenna, I would have been unhappy. At the $119.00 + shipping, I can live with it!
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K0XXX
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Rating: 4/5
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Aug 28, 2001 10:16
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Wide Banded & Easy Construction
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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The antenna has no written instructions (only pictures) however, construction was easy and straight forward.
Using a MFJ analyzer to check it, the VSWR was nearly flat across the entire band. It started increasing at about 53.7MHz but still did not get higher than 1.7.
The only complaint I have is that one of the holes for mounting the elements to the boom was not aligned with the others. But, it was close enough that about 15 seconds with the Dremel tool fixed the problem.
Overall, I am very satisfied with the antenna and may purchase a second one for stacking (which may require a modification to the mounting hardware).
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W6CQA
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Rating: 4/5
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Dec 4, 2000 21:14
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A very wide band ant.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Wanting a light weight ant. for 6 meters, I thought I would give the Comet model CA-52HB4 a try. It has a 10.5 ft. boom and is very light, at 4lb./14oz. It is rated at 10.4 dbi and a front /back ratio of over 19 db. That's not a great front/back but the antenna does cover the entire band. The parts were well packed and even the element tubing pieces were packed inside a plastic bag. All parts were there and there were no extras. The elements are made up of three pieces. The centers of the elements are 7/16' tubing and the outer sections are 3/8". Element sections are held together with small stainless steel bolts, though the drawing and parts list indicates they are "self tapping". The boom is made of 1" od. aluminum tubing and held together with a two piece hot dipped steel coupler. Don't know why they didn't use a piece of aluminum tubing for a coupling sleeve? All other hardware is stainless steel, including the boom to mast bracket, which incidentlly, covers mast sizes of 1" to 2&1/2". The antennas wide band characteristics are obtained from the unusual dual driven elements. What is unusual, is the dual gamma matching system. The driven elements are connected via a two conductor phase line(unshielded). You must pay careful attention when assembling the gamma arms and the connection of the phase line. The gamma arms are not tapped at the same positions and the phase line must be connected so the driven elements are in proper phase. There are no step by step instructions. You must follow the drawings. The parts assembled properly and everything was very clean. The element mounting bolts and mast clamp is provided with wing nuts for easy assembly for portable operation. About the time I was thinking, "here is another fine Japanese product", my bubble popped. The boom to element mounting saddles were not formed properly. Instead of providing an element mounted at right angles to the boom,(90 degrees), they were more like 80 degress. They were all off by the same amount and in the same direction. I was able to chuck up a rotory file in my drill press and grind enough material, (aluminum), out, to make them work. There are no provisions for vertical mounting for local FM activity. The mast to boom mounting "U" bolt passes through the pre-drilled holes in the boom. It could be stacked side by side with another CA-52HB4 for vertcal polarization, although a single horizontal antenna would work fine on FM "skip" signals.The factory provides a radiation pattern graph and a SWR graph. My antenna is in a fixed position, so couldn't check the pattern, however the SWR graph was very close to the factory graph, with the highest SWR of 1.7 at 54mhz and dropping to a perfect 1:1 at 51mhz. I would have given the antenna an easy "5" had it not been for the manufacturing goof on the element brackets.
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