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write your own review of the Comet HA-750B.
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G8XLH
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Rating: 0/5
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Nov 9, 2006 18:03
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Not fit for purpose
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I too agree with the other comments, I thought that perhaps there was some clever balun, but it works like a dummy load with the wire at the hot end.
I removed the whip and replaced it with 15ft of wire supported on a "roach pole" and it was not bad, but then I replaced the dummy load bit with a 4:1 home made balun and it was great, so a home brew £15 antenna out performs £130 commercial one. I am due to visit the dealer next week and see if I can get a refund.
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G8KHF
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Rating: 0/5
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Nov 6, 2006 15:03
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I should have known better.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Yeah ok, I know, 32 years licenced and I bought one. Serves me right.
Put it on top of van connected to IC703 and ran it for a week on my journies around the midlands.
What did I hear? well a fair bit to be truthful.
How many contacts? Not one single QSO was had. Not one person on any band from 40M to 6M, not a jot. I could hear 'em 59++++ but they couldn't hear me.
Best idea i've had is to remove the sticky up bit of metal on top and use the other bit for what god intended, a dummy load.
You can't defy the laws of physics captain.
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M0PSH
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Rating: 0/5
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Sep 28, 2006 05:26
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A Dummy load with a whip wedged in the end
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Rang Nevada ( http://www.nevada.co.uk ) in Portsmouth, UK to ensure they had the antenna in stock. "We have plenty" came the reply.
So off I went and drove the 90 miles to Nevada feeling quite excited at the thought of a new antenna that works almost everywhere on most bands.
Arrived at Nevada and made the purchase and then headed off on to the beach with the family.
I'd brought enough equipment to test the antenna (just in case) before leaving as I didn't want to drive all the way home to find a fault with the item.
So I'm parked at the seafront with the new Comet and a tatty old CB aerial to use as a vague comparison - not an ideal test but I'd expect the Comet to outperform the CB aerial in all cases except perhaps 10m.
WRONG!
The Comet performed as well as a dummy load. I spent an hour listening to signals on all bands from 7Mhz to 50Mhz. The CB aerial outperformed the Comet on ALL BANDS SIGNIFICANTLY on receive.
Next, a test on transmit. I plugged a CB into the CB aerial and spoke to a local station (1.5 miles away). S9 R5 both ways. Swapped to the Comet - nothing - unable to receive or be heard by the station at the other end - this test was repeated four times just to be sure.
The CB aerial outperformed the Comet on 6m (transmit & recieve) with a local station afterwards - CB aerial S5 R4 and Comet... S1 R2. Appalling.
I must point out that the antenna gave a pretty constant SWR across the band (as advertised), but VERY VERY poor radiation.
The comparisons say it all. I was extremely disappointed. So after packaging the family back into the car we drove back to Nevada.
The salesman in the shop didn't seem too concerned about the antenna and offered me a replacement. I immediately tried the replacement - equally as bad.
Went back to the shop and after nagging the salesman, he agreed to let me try out the extra long HA750 (which wasn't for sale as he only had one in stock).
I tried the long one out - just as bad.
Back into the shop. Salesman said "OK, we'll give you a refund".
Nevada are good at refunds, but what amazed me was that I slated their aerial that they were selling, and they didn't challenge me at any point, or even go out to have a look at my car to check out my installation. It felt as though they knew what they were selling..........
The base of the antenna is an aluminium finned assembly (not dissimilar to a cheap 15W dummy load). I wish I'd brought my multimeter with me to test for a 50 ohm resistance across the base of the aerial!! I am very much of the opinion that the antenna matching is achived by means of a resistor across the base, nothing more.
You can achive far better results with a £10 CB antenna... my tests proved that.
I would not recommend anyone to buy this antenna due its VERY VERY poor performance. This must be why there are no specifications on the gain (or lack of) of this antenna.
I'm happy to accept that it would not peform as well as a full size antenna, but the performance of this unit is absolute rubbish.
I'm angry at having to drive nearly 200 miles to find that the reseller was selling equipment that they hadn't tested and no knowledge about. A wasted day......
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