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You can
write your own review of the Cushcraft 13B2.
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K9MBL
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 22, 2005 15:41
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Great Antenna!!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've had mine for nearly four years, mounted at two different QTH's. We live in the desert southwest and get some really nasty winds/thunderstorms. It has survived without an issue and still tunes flat across the band. I have it mounted on a tripod on the roof of my house exclusively for SSB. Never ran it vertically so can't comment on that. If I can hear it, most often I can work it. I would only trade it for a 14820T to work some of the long distance repeaters in my area (and to keep from running 2, well, 3 antennas for the same band - my farm is getting waaay to big!). This is the only 2m beam I've owned. Works great for me, why leave gold to go find it?
Mike
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ZS5J
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 25, 2005 10:45
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not too bad
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I bought a new 13B2 from AES in Las Vegas while on vacation a month ago. To make the package smaller to take on the plane back home, I took it out the box, stuffed all the elements into the boom, and put the driven element and other hardware in my baggage. I installed it here 3 weeks ago. It goes together very easily, swr was great at 147.000 mhz - but.....our 2 meter band here is from 144 - 146 mhz, so the swr was 2:1 in the middle of our band. No problem, I threw out the driven element, and replaced it with the same tubing but 3/4 of an inch longer on each side. The swr is now perfect on 145 mhz (I hope it hasn't screwed up the pattern or gain - it doesn't appear to have).
Performance is good, not excellent, but good for the price. There are repeaters 150 miles away that I can access any time, regardless of band conditions. And, 2 weeks ago we had excellent ducting down the coast, and was able to work several repeaters more than 400 miles away.
Negatives - it's a bit flimsy, and performance is good, but not quite as good as my M2.
73, John ZS5J
Richards Bay, South Africa
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KK6SM
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Rating: 1/5
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Feb 24, 2005 20:01
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Poor Performance
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I had mine up for a week and found it didn't work any better than my Diamond X-510MA. It also seemed to be flimsy in construction. So I took it down, disassembled it, put it back in its box and put the Diamond back up. I also have a Cushcraft HF beam that works well. I'm disappointed that Cushcraft would make a 2 meter antenna with such poor performance!
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AF4O
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Rating: 4/5
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Dec 25, 2004 10:39
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Good Antenna
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had this antenna for about 10 years. I agree with the previous post about the metal mast. On vertical with a metal mast I was not pleased with the performance but on horizontal its fine. I use the antenna on WSJT meteor scatter, etc and on ssb. If the conditons are there then i can usually work them. Im sure there are better performance antennas in long boom varieties but for close spacing the 13b2 does just fine. Since I am a fanatic about weatherproofing (tape, coax seal, and clear acrylic on the connections and clear acrylic on the joints) I have had no long term problems with the antenna.
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K9WIT
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 14, 2004 19:49
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Great preformer on SSB !
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had this antenna for 10 years. I have it mounted horizontal for ssb and after 10 years the swr is still 1:1 to 1 across the entire 2 meter band. Can M2 say the same ? Do your self a favor try this antenna out if your into ssb on the 2 meter band.
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KC2GOW
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 2, 2003 11:47
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A DREAM COME TRUE
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have to admit I am not the biggest cushcraft fan in the world. This is an exception. Currently it is mounted horizontal in my attic w/ 120w pep. It works great, I'm working stations in w. virginia and maine without trying. Soon I will get the antenna mounted outdoors on a rotator and I'll update my review. It is a well built antenna with a lot of gain. Perfect for someone that cannot fit big arrays.
73's
Andrew
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K9KJM
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Rating: 3/5
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Aug 1, 2003 01:33
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Flimsy compared to M2
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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"As good as an M2?" Get a grip! Compare the
M2 2M12 to the 13B2 for a direct comparison, Not
the little 9 element!
The Cushcraft 13B2 is what you call "flimsy"
MUCH lighter duty than any M2 antenna.
I have used both here. Note that I rate the Cushcraft 13B2 as an OK antenna......... Because it is. For it's price, it does a decent job.
I would rate it's gain not that far behind the
M2, BUT there is no comparison in quality.
The M2 antennas are MUCH better built. (And will
last much longer)
As they say, "You gets what you pays for"
If you want a second rate antenna, Get the Cushcraft.
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VA3HST
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 31, 2003 22:08
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Excellent Antenna
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've owned the Cushcraft 13B2 for 10 years now, and it's an EXCELLENT Antenna. Its still functioning flawlessly, 0 problems with it at all. Would buy another one in a second.
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K3XT
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 8, 2003 16:00
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As good or better than M2
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had the 13B2 up now for ten years. Had good performance until recently when SWR started to increase. Thought matchbox on 13B2 had gone bad and was wondering how a quad or the much raved about M2 might do. So I purchased a 9 element M2 2m antenna (boom length for both antennas about 15 feet long) and installed it on the same mount as the 13B2 (horizontal). Using a 2m beacon that is 4 miles away I took S meter references before and after the antenna switch. There was not a bit of difference in Forward gain. Side lobes on M2 were less noticeable (cleaner pattern). But the 13B2 had a noticeably better Front to Back ratio on an uncalibrated S meter. It turned out the high SWR was due to an aging piece of coax that went around the rotor. When I reconnected the 13B2 with some new coax the SWR was 1:1 and almost that from 144 to 148 Mhz. The SWR curve on the M2 is only good for a 2 Mhz bandwidth. So I had a good 2m antenna all along. The only fault might be that Cushcraft rates their antennas in dBi and M2 rates their antennas as dBd. Both antennas appear to be true 12 dBd forward gain antennas. If the M2 9 element antenna does have more forward gain than the 13B2 it is so small that I cannot tell any difference.
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KC2KNF
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 4, 2003 18:54
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OK IM MY BOOK
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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the 13b2 has worked just fine for me
the only problem i noticed is that the rejection was pretty bad,but after a few convesations with hams who are much more fimilar with vhf,like sherman "w2fla" and dave "n3jfm"
i replaced the steel mast with a heavy gauge piece of p.v.c with a wooden dowel inside for extra strengh
no more problems and the antenna works great for
long distance simplex
im going to buy another and mount it horizontal
for 2 meter ssb
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