|
New to Ham Radio?
My Profile
Community
Articles
Forums
News
Reviews
Friends Remembered
Speak Out
Strays
Survey Question
Operating
Contesting
DX Cluster Spots
Propagation
Resources
Calendar
Classifieds
Ham Exams
Ham Links
List Archives
News Articles
Product Reviews
QSL Managers
Site Info
eHam Help (FAQ)
Support the site
The eHam Team
Advertising Info
Vision Statement
About eHam.net
|
| Reviews Summary for PAR Electronics EF-SWL Antenna |
|
Reviews: 31
|
Average rating: 5.0/5
|
MSRP: $$59
|
|
Description: End Fed SWL antenna. 45' genuine #14 Poly coated Flex Weave, wideband binocular transformer. Includes field selectable grounding options. See Monitoring Times 9/03 issue for full review.
|
|
More info: http://www.parelectronics.com
|
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to this review.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
|
You can
write your own review of the PAR Electronics EF-SWL Antenna.
|
STEVEQ
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Jan 25, 2010 07:54
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Outstanding Antenna
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
I am adding my voice to the previous 30 positive reviews. The antenna arrived a few days ago but due to bad weather I could not get it outside.
I made a few small adjustments to my current antenna a few weeks back (dipole as inverted V) which help a good bit with reception so a comparison was in order
(Please Note: As an avid SWL I was very pleased with the current dipole but one can never have too many antennas, right?)
So for fun, I strung the PAR EF-SWL antenna around the inside of the house and hooked it up. Wow, simply wow ! It only took one comparison, I tuned in a strong CW signal on my vintage Drake R4 then switched from the dipole to the PAR. The signal provided by the PAR was brighter and much more crisp. And as I said the antenna is not even outside yet !
Sure there was plenty of noise from all the electronic gizmos in the house, one would expect that, in other words the PAR antenna was picking up everything and this is said in a very positive manner. I do not expect any noise issues once I get this antenna mounted correctly and grounded.
Oh yes, with the antenna strung around the inside of the house I did not have the PAR grounded, I was using it straight out of the box. Wow, simply wow.
Whatever Dale is doing, he is doing it right ... add my solid 5.0 rating .... yes it is that good.
|
|
SLJ2137694
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Oct 30, 2009 15:48
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
WOW, a whole new world has opened up for me!!!
|
Time owned: 6 to 12 months
|
|
Great reception on SW and MW. Mine is mounted as a sloper with the far end 22 feet in the air and the other end 2 feet off the ground. The construction is first rate and should last a long time. I called PAR and spoke to the owner (Dale) about some other options I might have with his antenna and he was very patient and informative. I own 2 of these antennas and I use the other one as a portable at other locations.
|
|
VE4AMN
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Oct 24, 2009 16:19
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Excellent
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
|
Easy to deploy. Mine is an inverted L with the feed point right on a 10' copper pipe for ground. Very fine reception on SW and BC bands.
|
|
KJ6AGO
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Oct 21, 2009 12:16
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Wow! A Quiet Wire Antenna!
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
My new EF-SWL is mounted as a sloper, 30' up at one end and 10' up at the other. Using an 8', 3/4" diameter solid copper ground rod driven into the ground as my ground connection, the soil in my neighborhood is normally damp. The antenna is oriented NNW to SSE.
After using it on my Drake R8A for the past two weeks, all I can say is WOW! What a great, quiet antenna. Whatever PAR does in its design to make such a quiet wire is incredible. I am now picking up many weak Asian and Pacific SWL stations that I didn't hear before on a long wire from my QTH (Sacramento, CA), and can easily read them out of the background noise. Amazing.
Before trying this antenna, I thought that "a wire is a wire is a wire." The operative word for this antenna is Quiet. Don't know how PAR did this, but I'm now a believer. Well worth the purchase price!
|
|
WPE9FNN
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Jul 31, 2009 10:26
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
How can it be THIS good?!
|
Time owned: 3 to 6 months
|
|
I read the reviews on eHam.net, studied the technical articles and finally ordered a PAR EF-SWL antenna wondering how any piece of wire could be as good as the reviews indicated. Let me be the 27th or so person to testify that this antenna is GREAT! I've called PAR Electronics twice, Dale answered both times and spent time answering questions and making recommendations for my installation. It was shipped quickly. It installed easily - sloper from my TV tower to a post with an 8' ground rod next to it and direct burial coax back to the house. And...it works unbelievably well compared to my prior outside and attic random wires (40' and 70'). I often get noise floor levels under S1 and can listen to signals which barely get above S1 since the antenna is so QUIET w/r/to ambient noise. All of my problems with wireless router, power line, plasma TV and other unidentified noise sources have vanished. I've more than doubled my number of logged stations since I put the EF-SWL up. I now routinely listen to transmissions which are beamed totally away from my location in southern Indiana using moderate power levels including programs from Europe and Asia beamed to Africa, India and SE Asia for example. Daytime reception on low frequencies and night reception on 19m, etc. is now quite good which allows receiving transmissions on frequencies optimized for the other side of the world. USB/LSB reception of radio amateurs and marine/aircraft bands has improved remarkably. I listen on a Kenwood R-1000. The PAR EF-SWL provides as much bang for the buck as any product I've ever purchased. I cannot adequately express how pleased I am with it.
|
|
G0UUT
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Jul 25, 2009 23:55
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
fantasic antenna
|
Time owned: 6 to 12 months
|
after using this antenna for some time
i found it to be the best i ever used
it is much better then the Titanex 80m and i can hear much better then any other i had .
Dale is a Great he will answer any time .
i sent e-mail after 1hr or less he will answer nice company i am ordering 2nd for my 2nd station , and yes i am using SDR and other high end rx from R&S Germany thank you Dale and
PAR Electronics
|
|
F59706
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Mar 2, 2009 10:54
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Really incredible
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
Received in France on February 20 or 6 days later, I am now stuck in my Eton E1 to listen operators to the most distant.
And this in particular 20 and 17m. I note that the direction (in east-west slope) and slope (45 °) were tested to find the best compromise with the help of Dale (available even on Sundays HI!!).
Now some amazing results: Falklands islands 12400 kms, Australia 14300 kms , Paraguay 10035 kms, Brazil 9300 kms , Japan 9800 kms, Swaziland 8700 kms, Canada 8000 kms .
If you like Dx, the antenna is really excellent.
A big thank you to Dale !!
SWL F59706
Patrick
|
|
WA4D
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Feb 5, 2009 16:56
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Surprising & Excellent!
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
The old timers in my youth used to say, "It's all in the antenna kid".
I'm thinking this Par EF-SWL can't possibly be as good as these guys say it is. They're slobbering all over themselves. Still, in the hunt for a wire antenna to an Icom R-75. I buy the Par.
The old timers were right! And so are the previous reviewers.
mike
wa4d.net
|
|
GW1MIL
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Jan 21, 2009 01:58
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Excellent antenna
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
Here is yet another positive review of the EF-SWL!
I use mine as a sloper from the chimney of my single storey house to a fence post about 6ft high. The #2 connection is earthed to a copper earth rod. This results in a low noise signal which is ideal for scanning using PC-ALE and my JRC NRD-535.
The size of the EF-SWL is ideal for a small garden such as mine and the build quality is excellent.
In fact I like the EF-SWL so much that I have just ordered another one!
|
|
IZ4KBS
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Dec 11, 2008 13:14
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
excellent product and excellent service
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
|
Well, there isn't really much else to say about the EF-SWL which has not already been said. I got it delivered a few weeks ago, but I did not have time to put it at work right away. I finally installed it last Sunday and I can attest that the electrical behaviour of the antenna keeps up with its mechanical quality. My QTH is quite noisy, with my ham shack being just one story of a bookshelf located inside my work office, which is packed with computers and other digital devices generating a lot of QRN. My TX antenna is a roof-mounted 31ft vertical with an AH-4 ATU at the feed point, and certainly it isn't the most quiet HF RX antenna of all. The EF-SWL is quieter than the vertical by 6 to 10 dB, that is one S-unit or more, and that helps a lot with the DX, in spite of not having put the antenna high enough, having shortened it by 10ft and having bent it into an L-shape to fit the available space. But I'm greedily looking at a tall street-light pole located some 60ft from my house, and if local authorities will not complain I may give the EF-SWL a better chance to show its true capabilities :-) Oh, and Dale's customer care was amazingly good.
|
|
If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions about Reviews,
please email your Reviews Manager.
|
|
|
