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write your own review of the Sandpiper MkII Walkabout Multiband Vertical.
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MW3CUR
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 2, 2004 07:41
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Send this review to a friend
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Super little antenna
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I bought one of these with the mast option for £74.99 GBP. My intention was to buy two and make a portable di-pole for camping trips, visits and suchlike.
When it arrived I was very dubious about performance. The thing is tiny (but well manufactured). However I thought I'd give it a go in the standard vertical configuration.
Following the (poor) A4 instruction sheet I assembled the antenna and mast in about 5 minutes. Plugged in the band selector jumper, then completely ignored all the set up instructions, stuck the ground spike into the lawn, no radials, no guy ropes, no nothing and got a 5&9 report into Southern Italy from the west of the UK on 10W !! (nearly 1500 Kilometers).
A little taken aback, I then set the whole thing up 'properly' according to the instructions. WOW, for a little lightweight vertical (fully assembled it's around 12' high ground mounted), this does the job perfectly. OK so it has it's downside, you have to change the jumper setting to change bands and tweak the whip length to get resonance, but it DOES resonate and then some. Fully packed up it weighs next to nothing and is only 20" long (including the mast).
For portable use set up with a little care, this little antenna is a belter. Best of all, the whip element comes with a standard 3/8" mounting so it will fit almost any standard mobile mount. Sandpiper also supplied a set of adapters so it can be plugged directly into some mobile rigs, oh and they threw in a di-pole adapter as well. I will certainly be buying another whip element to try the di-pole configuration.
By the way, this antenna seems to be almost identical to the 'Backpackers' sold in Australia for 3 times this price.
Simon.
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