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| Reviews Summary for Pacific Antenna "PAC-12" |
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Reviews: 16
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Average rating: 4.9/5
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MSRP: $79
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Description: Multi-band portable vertical HF antenna designed by KA5DVS
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More info: http://www.pacificantenna.com
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You can
write your own review of the Pacific Antenna "PAC-12".
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MI0TJS
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 3, 2008 20:13
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holiday fun
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Hello again. Just to give some info about my PAC-12.
Im just back from Spain and took this antenna with me. Set it up on the roof of my hotel with 1/4 wave radials for 20m. Worked Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and UK. I took it to the beach and ground spiked it in the sand. Using the battery pack in my 817 i worked some more EU stations. I was using only 3watts. I can't say a bad word about this little antenna. I have now a complete portable station in a case ready to go whenever i feel like it.
Anyway thank you James for this. I will be ordering another with the 80m coil.
Tommy MI0TJS
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KC5NWS
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 27, 2008 07:35
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a fun project
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Finally put the pac-12 together this week.Set it up in the back yard .Wound a 20m coil for it and called cq, first contact was Washington state (from Texas).
Its light weight, easy to put together, all in all a rather nice looking vertical only about 8 ft tall.The radio was an icom718 at 90 watts.
K5jyd
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N8FY
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 30, 2008 09:10
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Stationary Mobile
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I love this antenna, I have used this on occasion Stationary Mobile I had signal reports equal to the hamsticks. The best part is all in one antenna without changing it. just adjust the tap. And to the other YL's Out there if I can put one together so can you. Thank You Pacific Antenna for a great product. Kim N8FY
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K1OIK
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Rating: 3/5
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Mar 27, 2008 08:03
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Excellent assembly, less excellent otherwise
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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The antenna is extremely well designed in assembly, however in practice is is very sub par to a dipole. Almost impossible to be heard on SSB. However BPSK31 and CW gives you at least a chance for contacts.
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K7DAA
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 17, 2008 07:38
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Lots of bang for the buck
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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After looking at a number of the "portable" hf antenna designs, I decided to try the cheapest one first--the PAC-12. I'm very pleased with it!
I'm in a "no antennas" neighborhood, and I bought a PAC-12 over two months ago to see if a small vertical might be better than my 22Ga stranded 50-foot long wire hanging out my second story window. It definitely beats the long wire every time.
I am as pleased as I can be with its performance as a low-visibility antenna, but I'm also surprised that it works as well as it does. It's easy to build, only stands about 8 feet tall (you can control that, depending on how many turns you put on the single-band coils, or where you tap the multiband coil). It is thin, and I am using the stock grounding method supplied with the kit, along with the supplied counterpoise wires, with are only 8 feet long. I have used it on 15-80 meters so far, with no matching problems. The antenna is simply pushed into the ground in the middle of my lawn. The soil is quite moist this time of year, by the way, so that certainly helps.
I'm VERY pleased at how efficient such a small antenna appears to be. I've worked anyone I can hear with 100 watts, even some DX. My record so far is Brazil on 20m SSB, and I haven't been trying very hard. I've also had similar good results on 40m.
I'm in the San Francisco area, and I left the antenna up with the 40m coil on it during the torrential rain and winds we had a couple of weeks ago. The antenna is completely unguyed--just the stock little ground stake holding it up. It just stood there, and continues to work fine, even though it wasn't specifically designed as an "all weather" permanent antenna. It's simple enough that there isn't much to be damaged by exposure.
If I leave it up all year, I'll seal a few spots to make sure, but that's all I expect it to need.
Downside? With ANY of these small verticals, you should expect some tradeoffs, obviously. Besides lower efficiency, you will also find lower bandwidth that decreases as you move to the lower bands. In the worst case, I'm getting about 20 khz 2:1 SWR bandwidth with the 80-meter coil on my PAC-12. That's also just about exactly what I get with a mobile Hamstick as well.
I'm getting about 100 khz BW on 40 meters, and about double that on 20 meters. Again, this is to be expected. If you've got a nice autotuner on your rig (I'm using a Z-11 Pro and loving it), then you're good for much wider chunks of those bands--or just go out and move the top telescoping whip up or down a bit.
The 80 meter bandwidth could be improved somewhat by using larger diameter wire for the coil, but you'd have to make your own coil form, since the 120-or-so turns just fit on the existing one. Good news is that it's easy enough to do.
What else can I say? It continues to impress me with its simplicity, ease of construction, and the bonus is that it is very friendly to any modifications I might want to make.
Oh, and it's cheap enough that I decided to order a second one for an emergency "go kit". I'm keeping my original one right where it is--planted in my (small) backyard lawn.
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KA9VHG
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 10, 2007 18:13
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Great Performance
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Bought this at FDIM at Dayton this year. Put it together last night and was on the air this morning. Very good performance, and it all fits in a small roll-up pouch.
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N2XC
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 28, 2006 18:38
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great!
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I bought parts from James about 10 months ago. I got the variable coils and the whips. It performed fine but it was a little "light" for me. I bought 1/4" aluminum round stock and remade the rods. I also had to rethread the the aluminum adaptors at the ends of the coils. The last touch was I purchased the Versa T from Buddipole. Now I have all of the flexibility of the Buddipole at a very substantial savings. Great antenna!
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KD7CJV
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 21, 2006 13:38
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Keeper!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This rugged little antenna enabled me to get my 4th grade class on the air for School Club Roundup this year. I assembled most of it while sitting next to the xyl on the sofa. The machined parts fit together very well. I'm not the greatest coil wrapper in the world, but was able to put 20m and 40m coils together and get them soldered correctly using the excellent directions. I found the extra coil wire comforting as I started the process, hi hi.
But the best thing about this antenna is how it performs. I used it over a two week period, setting it up and taking it down each day in all kinds of weather---winds gusting to 30 mph, rain, and snow. I used the ground mount spike and supplied radials. We ran 35 to 80 watts using CW, PSK and SSB. From our Portland,OR QTH we worked stations coast to coast and managed a few DX contacts in Alaska, Asia and South America--all of this during not-so-perfect band conditions on 20m. It should be noted that our antenna location was a compromise with lots of local qrm from HVAC units, antique computers, and other rf spewing devices. Even with all of this, the pac-12 delivered great performance and helped introduce amateur radio to 25 students.
This is a durable, highly portable antenna that once assembled, can be set up and taken down in less than five minutes. Our classroom will eventually have a permanent antenna on the roof. I'll continue to use the pac-12 during my qrp portable adventures. You can see a picture of our antenna setup on our classroom radio club's qrz.com lookup.
ke7fwy - David Douglas Elementary Amateur Radio Club
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AK0M
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 15, 2006 12:09
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Excellent design
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I recently built my own version of the PAC-12 design but with the base section extended to 11ft. I used telescoping aluminum tubing for the base section, with compression clamps securing each section at the desired length. With my tapped coil, I am able to operate 40-10m with ease. For ground radials I use eight 9ft radials made from 3-conductor rotor cable.
I recently used this antenna during my C6ASB operations from the Bahamas (see www.ak0m.com). Performance was good, and I was able to run EU and US/VE stations at night on 40m using only 10w output.
I haven't used the commercial product, but this antenna's design is sound and excellent for a self-supporting very-portable vertical antenna. I'd expect the commercial product to be as good or better.
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K6FYY
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 5, 2005 20:20
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Neat, practical design
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I built my PAC-12 from individual kit parts: the user-assembled multiband coil kit, which tunes easily with its test clip lead from 40 to 10 meters... two mast sections, telescoping whip & assorted hardware. All parts are nicely machined and lightweight. The coil must be hand wound, and was not especially difficult once I got the hang of it. It's a big coil!
The finished antenna can be assembled in a minute. Great for backpacking and portable operation. I use mine mounted to the side of an IC-703 with a Superantenna MP-1 bracket designed for the FT-817.
A fine addition to any antenna collection. Recommended!
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