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write your own review of the PAR Electronics, Inc EF-10/20/40.
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N9HHH
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 14, 2010 16:54
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Additional comments
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Let me add to my previous review by adding the following - The antenna most surely works exactly as the directions say it should, which is quite refreshing and I guess something others have come to expect from Dale and his excellent products. Dale has explained to me the design objective of 40 feet for the overall length of the antenna which accounts for the short (7 foot) 40 meter tip with narrow bandwidth. Compare that to the needed 66 feet to make it wider on 40 and surely it takes the antenna from unusable in confined spaces to quite usable in a variety of spaces.
The end insulator design coupled with the wire gauge makes it easy to change the 40M frequency resonance with the antenna deployed if one wants to make sure the optimum SWR is attained in the portion of the 40 meter band which you intend to operate in. I plan to pre-mark mine so that in the field I can change the frequency without needing the analyzer.
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N9HHH
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Rating: 4/5
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Mar 14, 2010 13:00
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love it for 20, narrow on 40
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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My first experience with this antenna was when using my MFJ259 for the first time while giving a new ham friend the basics on setting up a QRP rig and tuning the antenna with the MFJ. We started in my driveway here in downtown Colorado Springs late in the afternoon on a Saturday. We put it up as a sloper on the only tree/open space combo on my small lot and went on to tuning. The antenna behaved exactly as it said it would in the instructions. It was resonant at about 6.65 mhz, so we went about shortening the 40M end. 20 was good with 1.5 or so SWR in the middle of the band.
On 20 meters the antenna is very broad; good SWR over a wide frequency range. 40 is another story. Getting just under 2:1 SWR takes place at a narrow range, so rather than cutting the wire I just doubled it back and wrapped it around the antenna so I could tune it in the future to a specific frequency, phone versus CW. Maybe cutting some of that off will broaden it up some. We'll see.
Anyway, after getting it trimmed we listened in on CW on 40 but since my new ham friend knows no code it was on to 20 meter phone to make some contacts. With the sloper pointed SE it was no surprise that I was picking up Atlanta area stations. Within a few minutes I got back a 59+20 out of Atlanta on 5 watts. For grins I cut the power back to half a watt and worked the other station for another 10 minutes with the S level coming back S7 to S9! After copying the mail on the other station's next contact I learned of a QRP operator working out of Alaska so went to that frequency. He was coming in 48 but I did not try to break the pile-up of folks working him.
All in all the antenna is going to do what I want for a QRP HF Pack setup. No need for a tuner is a nice feature of this antenna - just be sure and use the analyzer for the first several uses to make sure your tuning is good for the configuration and surroundings. This thing could be real hard on 817 finals on 40 meters if care is not taken.
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W7SAT
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 21, 2010 17:54
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Great Antenna!!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I tried many different antennas for my bottom floor apartment. I tried for months putting up different antennas with poor results and RF into the home. I read great reviews here on eHam about Par Electronics antennas. I emailed Dale, and he got back to me within an hour. I decided to order the 10/20/40 version of the end-fedz. The antenna is built like a tank and the instructions could not be easier. A clip here and a clip there and the wire is tuned. I fired up my eBay special the Yaesu FT-840 and tuned around the 20m band. I heard a CQ coming from California. I figured why not try. I put my radio at 10 watts and gave my call back. A few seconds later I received a reply, by this time I was almost jumping around the room. My very first HF contact with 10 watts to a California station 900 miles south. He gave me a 5 and 6. We had a great 10 min ragchew.
Not bad for an antenna setup as an inverted L only 10 feet off the ground running under the eave of the balcony. 8ft vertical and roughly 27ft horizontal.
Thank you Dale for such a great product!!
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KC2TAU
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 11, 2010 23:29
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What a fantastic antenna!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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When I first purchased my Icom 703 I needed a good antenna to go with it. After searching around and reading the good words posted about the EF 10/20/40 I decided to give it a go. I emailed Dale and requested that I would like to order one. He responded quickly and stated that,although he was currently busy with government orders,because I was a new ham he would ship one out for me so that I could get on the air as quickly as possible.
The antenna itself is very rugged in construction and really is made to withstand outdoor portable operation. I cannot recall how many times I've thrown this antenna into a tree and then pulled it down at the end of the day and yet it has still stayed together remarkably well.
Trimming the antenna to size is quite easy and when done I was able to get a match of between 1.2-1.5:1 on each band. Performance wise it has been fantastic with my 703 I have achieved about 80% of my 100 DXCC's worked with this antenna with the furthest contact being either central Russia or Argentina both of which were a distance of about 5,400 miles. This is quite impressive considering this was on 20 meter SSB during a cycle minimum.
When 20 meters is open and with this antenna throw up into a tree about 25 feet in the air in the peak and then coming down to the ground in a sloper configuration Europe is open to me with an average signal report of between a 55 to a 58. The stations at the other end are always very surprised when they hear that the working conditions are only 10 watts into a comparatively small antenna. The antenna may not be as long as other antennas but that does not seem to hurt it's performance.
Dale has always been helpful and responsive with me when I have had questions or have made requests for spare/replacement parts. Overall I cannot recommend this antenna enough for someone looking for their first portable antenna or even for their first antenna period. Dale's service is great and the product itself works very well and is extremely durable.
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G4ICB
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 8, 2010 08:12
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Exellent antenna
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I already have the EF20 and EF40 which I use with my main rig but wanted something to use when I go out portable with my IC703 in the hills and dales round here. I use a couple of painters poles for supports where there's no trees. Iv'e been using this portable set up through spring, summer and autumn/fall during 2009 with exellent results and a surprising amount of DX considering the poor propagation that exists at the moment.
I am impressed with the exellent construction and materials used and of course the results from this antenna.
There is little more I can add about what has already been said about Dale, his friendly, helpfulness and customer relations are an example many others could learn from.
Thanks Dale
73 from Brian G4ICB
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IZ4KBS
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 23, 2009 09:19
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Perfect antenna for QRP/P
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I have been owning the EF-10/20/40 for almost one year now, but strangely enough I had not yet posted a review here, so high time to catch-up. I'm mainly interested in QRP /P operation on 20m and 40m bands, so this antenna seemed worth a try. And it was! Not that I had major doubts, as I was already an happy owner of a Par EF-SWL, so I knew both the quality of Par products and the outstanding customer service provided by Dale. What I wasn't 100% sure about was whether the actual concept behind end-fed dipoles was really going to work that well, as I expressed on a related thread at http://www.eham.net/forums/QRP/3472 . What I was a bit skeptical about was whether a counterpoise provided mostly through stray capacitances was really enough to make this an efficient TX antenna. Well, in spite of different opinions by very respectable people I must conclude that End-fed dipoles *do* work, and the subject one works especially well. Beside it's excellent electrical properties, the EF-10/20/40 is one of the most field-friendly wire antennas I know of. I simply toss it into a tree with a throwbag and a suitable length of throwline (http://www.newagearbor.com.au/shop/category55_1.htm) and I'm ready to call CQ. A 5 minute job! Not having to bring a tuner is a great plus of Dale's wires. Once the radiator has been cut to freq the first time, in the open and as vertical as possible, SWR does not degrade dramatically even in quite unfavorable setups, say with the wire zig-zagged in a limited space and at a low height, a situation that may occur inside a hotel room and that. In any case I detected that constrained setups never increase the resonating frequencies of the antenna, but they rather cause it to tune lower in freq, with SWR increasing to say 4:1 at the normal operating freqs. One does not need a tuner to recognize that a particular setup is probably a bit too convoluted, and that the wire needs to be shortened a bit to get things straight again. Not wanting to cut the wire (of course!), this simple trick does the job: http://www.strozzi.it/users/carlo/hamradio/epsn4322.html (the diameter of the loop is about 5", not critical). As you see, no tuner and no cuts! You may not get a perfect 1:1 match, but who cares to even measure it ? What you know beforehand is that it will be lower than 4:1, probably 2:1 to 3:1, provided you laid out the wire with a grain of salt with respect to surrounding objects. A 3:1 is still perfectly acceptable, especially when /P and at QRP power levels, most likely with almost no (lossy) feedline in between either. So, beside posting a review, I wanted to provide also some (hopefully) useful tips to the other lucky owners of this excellent product. The EF-10/20/40 build quality is superb, which makes the antenna survive to the severe conditions that may occur when portable (bushes, trees, mud, tangles in the wire, you name them). The shortened length of the radiator with respect to a full-size End-Fedz, as well as not needing a tuner nor extra counterpoise wires make for a very lightweight backpack/portable QRP station! And, last but not least, Dale is a pleasure to deal with and both him and his shop really stand-out from the croud.
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M6RDP
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 12, 2009 07:47
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Outstanding
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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There are a huge number of standard companies out there. But very occasionally you come across one that is outstanding. Par Electronics is one such company.
After a few emails to Dale, all of which were answered extremely quickly, I decided upon an EF10/20/40 with the extended 66' radiator for higher gain on my favourite 40M band. The 66' version was for permanent installation in my QRP shack here in England where I run an Icom 703.
The package arrived within 10-14 days, I paid the VAT & customs fees which I knew about in advance and really are no big deal if you build them into your budget, especially given the superb quality & performance of this antenna. When I opened the package I was delighted to discover that I had both the smaller, standard 40' version of the antenna and the extra 66' radiator, which will be really useful if I ever move to somewhere with less antenna space and can't put up the 66' wire.
I have it installed running from my shack window at a height of about 6 meters above the ground, sloping down to the 2 meter high garden fence.
I am fairly sure I could have tuned it using only the 703's built-in SWR meter which is big and bold and a joy to use (unlike that of the 817 which I am not a fan of). I was however lucky enough to be able to borrow an antenna analyser from a friend at my radio club which I'm sure made the job a lot easier.
The standard 40' EF10/20/40 was a doddle to tune and I managed it easily, closely following the supplied instructions.
The 66' wire was a little trickier, but with Dale only an email away and with his supersonic response times the job was done in an afternoon.
In use it far outperforms my old longwire and unun. My first 20m contact was to Algeria (my first QSO to Africa) on 10W SSB. On 40m my 10 watt SSB signal has crossed the Ural Mountains and I spoke to a station in Ekaterinburg at an amazing distance of 2,564 miles away. All this at solar minimum with a solar flux in the low 70's.
When tuning the 66' version of the antenna several emails passed between Dale & I all of which, without exception, were answered within the time it takes to make a cup of tea. Dale is helpful, friendly & patient and even sent me some additional antenna parts across the Atlantic at his own expense.
Companies like this with such superb after-sales service really are very few & far between, and he positively puts to shame the big amateur radio companies in the UK, a couple of which I have experienced this year as mostly unhelpful, rude and impatient.
Par Electronics were personally recommended to me and I unreservedly recommend both the Par End Fedz antenna and Par Electronics.
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N8TJC
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 30, 2009 10:22
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A Great "simple" Antenna
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I purchased this antenna and was not sure about it when it arrived, it seemed so small that I thought it couldn't work. I put it away for 6 months and then got it out to use on a hike on around my property. After the first use with a Yaesu 817D, I realized that my first impression was very wrong. This "little" antenna works great. I made contacts on 20 and 40 meters as far away as Texas and Maine with 5 watts. I got good signal reports every time I use it. This antenna is very simple to setup and use. This thing is so compact that it is so easy to carry when traveling.
Like others have said, dealing with Dale is very easy. I am now deciding which other Par End Fed antennas to purchase for use with a Yaesu 857 using it at 100 watts. This antenna is a winner for me.
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EHAYNES
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 11, 2009 04:48
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EF 10-20-40 Continues Supremacy
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have used this antenna for over 2 years now, and it continues to be my preferred portable antenna. This is in the context of also owning the MP-1, BuddiPole, manual ATAS and several other well known portable antennas. I travel internationally extensively on business, and also enjoy camping/back-packing – and take my Ham “travel package” with me on any trip more than one or two days. My travel package consists of the FT-817ND, and the EF 10-20-40. I have tried other combinations over the years, and found this antenna to be the best combination of size/weight/flexibility and performance. Whether hung outside a hotel window in the middle of a city or draped over a tree during a hike - QSOs are always there, with far less set-up and tuning fiddling. I often also take a small SWR meter to help expedite any required antenna tuning from site-to-site, although most frequently tuning is not required once the initial tuning is done after receipt of the antenna.
The end fedz is very sturdy – mine has been dragged thru trees, pulled across sharp structure edges outside of hotel room windows. The wire even survived a small child yanking and playing “Tarzan” on it at the ground level from it whilst I was operating it from a hotel room balcony
Dale Parfitt's outstanding and personal service are the "icing on the cake" for this dandy little wire antenna. I highly recommend the EF 10-20-40, and the other single band End Fedz antennas in any portable environment.
Erwin
ki4tbd
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G3VSK
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 30, 2009 04:26
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Excellent Low Power Antenna
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have been using this antenna now for over 12 months with an IC-703 and it has proven to be an excellent low cost, easy to install, low power antenna, especially on 40 metres. Terry, G3VSK
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