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| Reviews Summary for Cushcraft R-8 |
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Reviews: 53
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Average rating: 4.1/5
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MSRP: $450 to $480
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Description: 40-6m omnidirectional vertical antenna
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More info: http://
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write your own review of the Cushcraft R-8.
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N7GR
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 16, 2006 09:54
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Excellent for what it is
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had this antenna in place for over 5 years. It is mounted on a 2 inch pipe about 6 feet above the ground next to the house (about 7 feet away). I had a problem frying a trap, but it was promptly replaced. That was just after purchase. The antenna works as advertised. Hears really well and takes the power. Works best on 30m/40m in my opinion. I chase DX and can work anything I hear. Just takes me alittle longer to get through the pileups than the guys with the big antennas. Still, I have been very successful with it having DXCC 332 Mixed, 330 Phone and 325 cw. Not bad for a pecker-pole! The only caution I would give is to make sure your power isn't excessive. I think that is what caused the previuos failure.
This antenna has been through many Montana winters so I would say it has withstood some pretty harsh conditions. At least we Montanans like to think so! Anyway, I highly recommend this antenna to anyone who wants a small footprint without too much compromise.
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VE4BLB
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Rating: 2/5
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Apr 15, 2006 11:32
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Unreliable and poor support
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had the R8 for four years now. The six meter SWR was always high but all other bands were within specs. However, at the end of the first Canadian winter, the 40 meter trap failed giving infinite SWR. It took 2 years to get a replacement and it was installed in the third year. This year, the 40 meter SWR is again infinite along with 17 meters. I don;t know what will fail next but I probably will go to another antenna.
VE4BLB Winnipeg
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K3ROJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 6, 2006 19:00
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Up 4 years now
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I wrote my first review back in 2001 when I installed the R8. It is still standing tall even with a few stiff winds but during the huricane a couple of years ago I folded it down for 2 days. It is mounted on a 4X4 treated lumber pole which is attached with 2ea 1/2" galvanized bolts and nuts to another pole in concrete. By removing the bottom bolt I can easily swing it down to rest on a short step ladder. The antenna base is only 7 feet above the ground so that I can walk under it. One benefit that I discovered was the ability to operate on 160 meters using the tuner in my IC-756PRO. Am using about 100 feet of RG11 direct burial type cable. Every station that I can hear I can also work and have no regrest about spending the $400.
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N1URE
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Rating: 4/5
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Nov 27, 2005 08:38
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Good but guy it.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Assembly was easy. I put it together in my basement over a few nights. How anyone could find assembly impossible is beyond me. I mounted the antenna on a 3 ft roof tripod with a heavy iron pipe. You will need two or more people to put this up as the leverage is considerable. I did not use guy wires and as a result it has a very slight lean even though the mounting pipe is correct. The antenna has survived 50 mph winds with ice and snow for three years. Only a slight banana effect. If is was not such a pain to put up and down I would guy it to make it nice and straight. Performance is good on all bands. I had a Gap antenna and this is a much better performer. I would give a 5 if it had guy wires out of the box.
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K1YPB
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 17, 2005 17:47
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A very good antenna for an urban lot
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have to agree with N5NJ on rating this antenna a 4. If a guying kit came with the antenna I would also give it a 5. Mine is not guyed, and has a slight lean, but I have not had any problem so far with it over the 4 years of ownership. Mine is also mounted on a ten foot pole on the deck out back, The feed point is about 18 feet above the ground. I have a very small lot with no way to put up a horizontal antenna. This antenna works real well, and has decent swr on all bands. I touch up the swr with the autotuner. For me it is a good alternative because I have all my antenna requirements in one unit. It is expensive, but the build quality is very good, and you get what you pay for. I have never been sorry about my purchase. If you need a lot of antenna for a very restricted area, get one of these.
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N5NJ
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 17, 2005 12:35
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Does the job!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have used several vertical antennas here in "urban sprawl" North Texas, and I am most impressed with this one.
It is top-heavy, and needs to be guyed. I rated it a 4 because of this. If Cushcraft were to include the guying kit as mandatory for the antenna, it would rate a 5.
I bought it second-hand, and the previous owner used "parachute cord" which is thin, very strong, and supposedly will hold up with UV. Works fine.
I took it down Saturday morning at the seller's QTH, took it apart and transported it to my home. It came apart in pieces short enough to fit inside my Chevy Malibu with the rear seat folded down.
I reassembled it and checked all the measurements. As I focus more on CW, I added a little to what Cuschcraft recommended for 40m. More on this later.
I then put it up on a 10' pipe, right next to my house, and checked the SWR. As expected - perfect on all bands, except on 40m, where I made it too long. It is resonant very low in the band, and I usually operate CW or RTTY so it should not be a problem. If I do go to phone, the SWR may be a problem.
I worked a bunch of stations in the JARTS RTTY contest with no trouble including some JA stations on 40m.
The retail price of this antenna seems high, but perhaps that is what it's now worth. Given that you can buy a Hustler 5BTV for less than $200, perhaps it's a bit overpriced. However, in my case, I don't have room for radials, and it seems to work great.
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7Z1UG
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 25, 2005 04:30
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Works great -> With Guy Wires !
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Last week I assembled the R8 - within 4 hrs the antenna was ready to be installed on the roof. No parts missing. All fitted well. Instructions were clear but a picture which shows the complete antenna is missing in the Assembly Manual.
We installed the antenna on top of a 2" - 6m -G5 Steel Pipe. The clamps (to mount the antenna to the pipe) were a bit flumpsy - so I replaced them by more stronger stainless steel ones.
Now we had a 14.5m long piece to bring into the vertical position !! ( 6m pipe + 8.5m R8) - This is really not a 'one man show' - you need at least 2 more guys and 4 more hands to help you bringing up this beast.
Finally the R8 was standing - yes - but unfortunately not vertical. The pipe - were the R8 was mounted on - was 100% straight and vertical but the antenna on top looked like a banana. It was not possible to bring the R8 without any guy wires into a nice looking an totally straight position. So I left it for the time being becaus it was already dark and we have been tired.
The immediate tests of the R8 brought the following results:
1. All bands (except 6m - not tested) were according to the specs. All SWRs were < 1:1.7
Some bands - 40m and 20m gave no power refelction at all = 1:1.0 !! The 'worst' band was 18m - here the SWR was 1:1.7 .... So I have been more than satisfied with the initial results (no tuning after assembling) - the rest will do the automatic antenna tuner of my TS850SAT.
2. I agree fully with some previous reviews which mentioned that this antenna is sensitive with manmade noise. It is very very sensitive. I have some street lamps in front of my house and some powerlines and they are producing an extrem high noise level which could not be eliminated by the built-in noise blanker. It is more than annoying to have a noise level about s5 - s9 !! I have another GP on the roof - a Fritzel GPA 40 which is far less sensitive regarding man made noise. Also a horizontal dipole has been much better.
3. Signal reports with the R8 were all great. Reports less than 599 are more than seldom - even after asking for an exact s-meter report. Stations I hear, I can work. In comparison to my GPA40 groundplane the R8 is mostly between 1 and 3 s-units better.
4. Now we got some wind here in Riyadh - the R8 begun swinging like a drunken sailor. An still looks like a banana. I could not bear this view anymore and decided to take this monster down again. I called my helping hands and we got the 16.5m stick down again. Then we cut a teflon piece into a triangle, drilled a center hole ( 1" ) and a hole in each corner for the guy wires. We put this triangle just on the pipe below the lower trap. 3 guy ropes (polyester) on each corner and brought the antenna up again. After some adjustments the antenna stood straight and vertical like a broom stick. Nice view. I am a bit concerned about the last of the polyester ropes because of the heavy amount of ultra-violet rays here in Saudi Arabia. I was afraid to use stainless steel wire to guy the antenna because of possible negative effects. Certainly I will if it a try if the polyester ropes will be cut by wind or UV rays.
All in all this R8 is a good designed, well working DX antenna - a bit overpriced.
Assembling is not too difficult - but take care about some measurements mentioned in the manual !
Do not install this R8 without a guy wire system.
Cheers,
Manfred in Riyadh KSA
7Z1UG - DK2UG
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K7LA
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 27, 2005 02:34
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Real World Performance
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This reviewer is not an expert in vertical antennas but would like to share with you all the performance of this antenna in the recent 2005 ARRL DX Phone Contest.
I operated on vacation from New Zealand at a friend's QTH as ZL/K7LA with the following results:
ZL/K7LA...517 Q's x 131 Mults = 203,181 claimed score, log filed.
The antenna was mast mounted with radials in the backyard, not even on the roof. TX power 100 watts. As verticals are a bit noisy I listened on a wire G5RV and TX on the Cushcraft with excellent results for the 13 hours I worked the contest.
Band conditions in the South Pacific were challenging but we had good results to North America on 40 and 20 meters, with a brief opening on 10.
Outside the contest I worked several Russian and Ukraine stations along with South Korea and most of Eastern Europe. The Russian stations said the signal was booming in.
The antenna exceeded my expectations and was trouble free during operating.
7 3 de ZL/K7LA Jim
www.qrz.com/k7la
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WA4BWO
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 17, 2005 10:46
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Smooth
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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My R8 sits on a 5 foot pole in the middle of my yard and you can string to Sydney Austalia, draw a circle and thats the radius of my 5-9's, SSB with 100Watts from Central Florida. I've never had a pileup I couldn't work on any (even 20) band barefoot. I love this antenna! The XYL, however, wanted it behind the Avacado tress so she can't see it from the deck. I obliged, much to my chragrin, and found no difference in performance. I'm sure, if it were in an open field on top a hill, I would get more from this antenna, but with my location (in the middle of an old, tree laden town) in central Florida, this setup works great!
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WV2NY
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Rating: 5/5
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May 15, 2004 05:49
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It Works for Me
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've had this antenna on my roof now for close to 3 1/2 years. I have it guyed and it sits atop a 5 foot stand that's about 15 feet off the ground. I live in Buffalo NY, stick a pin in a map, take some string and stretch it out out to the Eastern boarder of Turkey, now attach an ink pen at this point and draw a circle around your map, this has been the limit of my 5/9 reports. It reaches further than this, that's just as far as I've ever received a 5/9 from in any direction. I'm running an Icom 761 using 100 watts. Have never had a problem with it to date.
73 WV2NY JOE
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