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You can
write your own review of the ZX-Yagi Mini Beam.
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G0KOM
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Rating: 1/5
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Oct 28, 2007 08:23
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Rubbish
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This antenna fitted all my requirements, small footprint, decent specs, looks good, unfortunately that was the end of it, poor swr on 15 and 20m, have tried everything, is 1:1 on 28.000mhz dead, (at least thats something) what I cannot work out is the directivity, I get stronger signals with this antenna when its pointed everywhere but the intended location, I simply dont know whats going on, mine is the version with the plastic boom plates, Ive grounded the coax outer to the boom and it makes no difference whatsoever, also it seems to go haywire on 20m every so often, the only way I can describe it is like a trap is failing or shorting, I will be talking when all of a sudden the SWR will go haywire, I stripped the antenna and checked everything, stripped the trap, (there were quite a few alliminum bits/shavings inside the traps, I had hoped this would be the cause but it made no difference
Anyway im glad others have had good experience with this, for me it simply does not work, Ive got it up for sale, but Ive probably screwed up any chance of a sale now with my review :-)
Adrian
EA5/G0KOM
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OZ1GCT
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 11, 2007 04:49
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Good so far
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have owned this antenna for a couple of weeks, and I must say I have struggled with it to get it in resonnance on all three bands. I have had it up and down from the mast a lot of times. The biggest problem has been water. It have rained a lot in same period and the resonnance freq dropped
far far out of the desired bands. I took it down again and emptied for about 25 cl. water. Reassembled the antenna, sealed all the connections, screwholes etc. with self-fusing rubber tape and I hope it will be waterresistant now. It has not rained since I put up again. But I have a directional antenna again and I have already worked a few Dx-stations I never have heard before.
The background-noise is almost nothing compared to my vertical antenna.
I wish to say thank you to M0RNR - Brian for his help and suggestions.
vy 73 de OZ1GCT
Niels
P.S. It must be a good antenna, because yesterday,when I put up in the mast again, a guy in the neighborhood complained over TVI I had made friday and saturday evening. When I stopped laughing- he became quite angry - untill I told him that I haven´t used my radio those days
because of the water in the antenna.
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GM0ONX
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Rating: 3/5
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Aug 10, 2005 09:50
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Good but MA5B's better
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I purchased a ZX2000 second hand quite cheaply as it needed a little work done on it. Wimo provided the required parts quite cheaply and it was the main HF antenna here for about 9 months. Performance was about 2 S points up on my inverted L but f/b gain was a little disappointing. I replaced it with Cushcraft MA5B which too be honest is a much better aerial.
If you’ve got a choice go for the MA5B but the ZX2000 is still a fair second choice and earns its keep.
Len GM0ONX
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M0RNR
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 25, 2005 01:36
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Exceeded Expectations
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I knew when I entered the market for a mini beam that I was accepting a compromise on all bands in terms of bandwidth and performance. However, this little antenna has exceeded all my expectations.
I’ve had my fingers burned before with multiband antennas, and have always had problems with tuning, poor bandwidth and lack lustre performance, and to be honest approached this project with some trepidation. That said, the choice was, a mini beam, or no directional antenna at all, my XYL’s beautiful new house didn’t really lend itself to a full size yagi so a mini beam it was.
I chose the ZX 2000 over the MA5B for a number of reasons, but the main one was looks. No disrespect to Cushcraft but is an ugly antenna and when you are trying to woo the XYL and your neighbours, the MA5B is not the antenna that’s going to do it. I’ve used ZX monobanders before and find their construction very robust so thought the ZX 2000 should be no different……..I wasn’t disappointed.
Construction is excellent, a 50mm boom with very robust elements and traps, nicely made and they provide extra nuts, washers, screws and end plugs…..all the sorts of things you drop and loose in the grass when you are building and antenna !
I live in a 3 storey house so the antenna was going up 11m, an 8.2m access tower was hired to do the job so I had to ensure that the thing worked by the Sunday or my tower was going back to the hire company! The antenna went together in about 90 minutes and the instructions are easy to follow. It was assembled as per the instructions and I grounded the coax braid side of the driven element to the boom as per the instructions.
With the antenna in place in about 5 hours, and the tower only 3 m below it we tried the antenna for the first time. Worried about the tuning, given my past experiences, and the affect all that aluminium might have, I keyed up on 20m. You can’t imagine my delight to see an SWR of 1:1.5! The 1.5 SWR bandwidth on 20m is about 120khz but is less than 2.0 across the entire SSB portion of the band and with the auto tuner obviously across the whole band. 15M and 10M are even better with an acceptable SWR across the whole of the SSB portion if each band and no further adjustments were required.
Performance is good, at least 2 S points up on my ground mounted vertical and it has good directivity. Front to Back is not fantastic but hey, I’ve got directivity again! First contacts into Brazil on 15m with 100w first call! And many stations in the USA on 20m again first call.
Sales Support from WiMO Antennas in Germany (the Supplier) is second to none, a very friendly team more than willing to help out. If you are looking for a good price, nice performing, well made antenna then for me, look no further than www.wimo.com
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EC2AHB
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Rating: 3/5
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Aug 21, 2003 06:52
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Nice size, nice result
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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When one of use decides to buy a minibeam is always to improve the signals of our dipole or vertical.
(and have not enough place/possibilities to put a normal sized beam).
My first impression when I saw the mounting scheme is that the shape was quite strange (2x5 meters. The elements seem to be too near one to each other (only 89cms of separation betwen them).
The antenna mounting is very easy with all elements/traps funnily coloured. And the antenna seems to be strong, the boom is a 50 size tube.
Once the antenna is built it is like a toy (size and colour).
My antena is in the roof of a 7 floors building on a 8 meters tower.
The antenna gains 2 S-meter signals to my V-inverted dipole and has a nice directionability.
The only problem I see is its too narrow bandwith. I found a 1.5:1 swr point in all the 3 bands but moving about 10 kHz up/down the swr increases but not more than 3:1 in the rest of frecuencies. So my automatic tuner can easily tune.
I am happy with my new toy.
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DU1UTD
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 13, 2001 05:27
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works great!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I was in the market for a miniHF antenna and I was choosing between an MA5B and the ZX. turned out that a cousin was coming home to the Phil. so I opted for the ZX inspite of the review.my apprehensions turned to appreciation when I work it and had immediate good reports to the US, Finland and Russia also Alaska
the construction was simple including its design and i am amaze that it works great even at about the height of 60 ft. working with 100 watts max.
only question were swr readings that were a little high than advertised. well my antenna tuner is busted but i can do without it for the moment....
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W0FMS
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Rating: 2/5
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Aug 28, 2000 12:45
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Not quite there yet...
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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The antenna seems a little lightweight, but otherwise well designed.
It does have some gain- it is about 2 S-units up from my ground mounted vertical-- mounted
on the roof of a two story house. Directivity is good, and I can even null out power line
noise (which I'm having big problems with currently) somewhat with the antenna.
Unfortunately, I'm having the same problems with SWR as N0FGK had. It has a dip way low
in the CW portions of the bands on 20/15 of no lower than 1.5:1 SWR much more narrowband
than is advertised. Otherwise the rest of the band on 15 and 20 is showing 3:1. On ten it
is 3:1 - 4:1.
I've seen three versions of the manual for the Mini-2000 and older Mini-1020 and some say to
short the ground side of the driven element to the boom, and some say not to.. I didn't-- I will
have to try the other way (up on the roof again) and see what happens.
The good thing is that the XYL really likes the looks of the antenna, and except for the SWR,
the performance is what I expected, so I would really like to try to get the thing to work right.
Also I found out today that MTE isn't going to carry it anymore, meaning that there is no US
dealer anymore. I figure that I'll probably end up getting screwed if anything ever breaks
or I need warranty work done.. Plus I imagine for US hams, the Cushcraft Mini-Beam would
be easier to get. BUT the XYL didn't like the way it looked.
I've had the antenna since May, but I didn't have the time to put it up until now.
I'll update this if I can/can't get the antenna to work properly.
Fred W0FMS
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N1VEK
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 7, 2000 14:36
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Met and Exceeded My Expectations
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Time owned: unknown months
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I knew when I entered the mini beam market that a compact beam on a short boom does not compare to a full size monobander. I was pleasantly surprised with this antennas gain and directivity characteristics. Also, the construction quality is good and easy to assemble. I have yet to get it mounted permanently but plan to tackle this in the spring.
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PA1ZX
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Rating: 3/5
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Feb 4, 2000 00:01
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Correct what N0FGK told.
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Time owned: unknown months
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Afther reading the artikel of N0FGK i must told that he have correct. He have a old version with aluminium el/boom plate's the new version have plastic plate's. The old alu. plate's make a C to the coil in the mid trap and that the piont the res.Freq. are not o.k.Contact MTE abd they send you plastic plate's afther install this the antenna are o.k.
Ron Eberson
PA1ZX
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N0FGK
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Rating: 1/5
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Feb 3, 2000 23:29
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Better than my vertical...but not by much
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Time owned: unknown months
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I have given the zx-yagi a low score due to my initial problems with it. Out of the box it had a ridiculous swr on all bands. In order to get it down at all I had to short one of the feed points to the boom. So I had to choose to have high swr on 10, low on 15/20 or vice versa. I also had to put a longer set of screws in the driven elements to make good electrical contact. I got this advice from Roy/WA4DOU who was extremely helpfull in troubleshooting my problems.
I know there has to be some compromises on short beams. I have learned from this. The antenna does put out a signal, it does receive, I have worked Russia. So it is performing as an antenna with directivity, it works better than my vertical. I now know I have to sell my house, buy a house with 20 acres, put up a 75ft tower with stacked mono-banders :) Seriously though the antenna does work but not as well as I thought it would. I would look at other mini-beams out there or build my own next time. Ain't experience a great thing? :) (As long as you don't go broke getting it!)
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