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| Reviews Summary for Blue Star Antennas 6 Meter 4 Elements Yagi Beam Antenna |
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Reviews: 12
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Average rating: 4.2/5
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MSRP: $100.00
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Description: Covers 6 Meter Ham Band.
Maximum Gain 9 dBd Front / Back 20dB
SWR > 1.5:1
* Easy to set up and use. Delivers outstanding results.
* Computer designed, SWR tunable.
* Can be horizontally or vertically polarized,
* Uses standard 50 ohm coax with PL-259 terminals.
* Heavy Duty, weatherproof construction:
* Boom is machined from 6061 T-6 Structural Square Aluminum Tube.
* Elements are machined from 3/8" Solid aluminum round 6061 T-6 stock and attached to the boom with stainless steel hardware.
* Clamps to masts up to 1 1/2" in diameter.
* Adjust for any frequency from 50 MHz. to 54 MHz.
* Mounts Horizontal or Vertical
* Elements grounded for lighting protection
* Approx. Turning Radius 80 inches
* Power Legal Limit
* Approx. Wind Surface 2 SQ Feet
Antenna is optimized for number of elements and size.
Use for 50-54 Mhz, Ham radio, or Packet Radio.
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Product is in production.
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More info: http://bluestarantennas.com/sales//catalog/index.php
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write your own review of the Blue Star Antennas 6 Meter 4 Elements Yagi Beam Antenna.
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WB0HCH
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Rating: 3/5
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Jul 28, 2011 12:41
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Firm & Definate Maybe
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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For as long as I can remember, there has been a tendency on the part of ham equipment manufacturers to market products that are just good enough, somewhere between poor and ok. This product is no exception which is too bad because it really has the potential to be a very excellent product. That said, there simply isn’t another comparable product out there for anywhere near the price.
The concept and design of the product is excellent. It could be a truly great product except that the fit and finish is downright poor along with an overall lack of attention to detail. However, once assembled and the various problems are corrected, it is a nice heavy duty product.
I purchased a pair of these for a stack. First of all, the boom to antenna brackets are designed for 1.5” mast. Due to the increased wind load from stacking, I made up a couple sets of brackets to accommodate 1.75” thick-walled mast. No big deal. However, if I had planned on using 1.5” mast, I would have been terribly disappointed with the factory brackets. Most of the bracket assembly was great but the mast saddles were absolutely hideous. They were a mass of sharp edges and burrs.
The boom splice was surprisingly rugged and effective – Very tight and no wobble or sag.
The elements are manufactured from solid 3/8” aluminum rod stock with one end threaded to screw into a coupler located inside of the boom. The little plastic plugs used to secure the couplers in place inside the boom are ingenious. Don’t throw away these plugs if you ever plan to disassemble this antenna! The threads on the ends of the elements were not de-burred well, especially at the ends and some work with a die & a wire wheel was required to ensure that they would start straight when mounting them to the boom.
Other reviewers have complained that the sleeve for the gamma match was flimsy and easily bent. Perhaps, but once securely clamped to the element, it doesn’t seem too bad. Unfortunately, the gamma match has other far more pressing problems. The gamma match clamps which were manufactured from aluminum bar stock and looked to be heavy duty, turned out to be a poor design. It’s difficult to describe, but there just wasn’t enough metal after the 3/16” half-moon was machined from each half of the clamp. When the clamp was tightened, the thinnest section would bend and it was impossible to achieve a tight, secure fit. Also, Phillips head screws were used to tighten the clamps which didn’t allow one to apply sufficient torque to the clamp. I ended up cutting plates from 1/2” X 1/8” stock and applying one to each side of the original clamp to give them enough strength to prevent bending and replaced the Phillips fasteners with stainless bolds and nuts. They now grip the element and the gamma sleeve like a vice and are far superior to the sheet metal straps that other yagi manufacturers seem to like to use.
Inside of the gamma match tube is another story. Where in years past manufacturers would use a coaxial cable center conductor & dielectric to feed the gamma tube, this antenna used a 12AWG solid wire with a microscopically thin nylon jacket. Good enough for 100 watts or so, but hardly up to QRO standards. I ended up replacing this with a length of HV test probe wire with a 10KV rated jacket.
The inside end of the gamma tube has no provision to seal the tube to prevent invasion by those nasty little tower spiders so the end of the tube should be sealed with either coax seal mastic or a small glob of RTV after tuning is complete. While I was at it, I replaced the factory SO-239 which was of the mobile antenna/CB variety with a standard bulkhead unit more suitable for QRO.
These are not a plug & play kits. A drill press, bench grinder, sawzall and various taps and dies are handy to assemble these into usable products.
These were time consuming upgrades but now the antennas are virtually indestructible and should stay together for many years.
Steve
NE0U
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WD4AB
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 19, 2011 05:10
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Follow-up Review
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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This is a follow-up review to my May review. If I could rate higher than 5 I would. I have made over 1000 contacts since May with this antenna, my reports are great 59+ or better 99% of the time and reception is superb. My swr is flat and has not moved since the antenna was put up. Currently I am copying much better than a couple of hams in my area that have bigger beams and the sent signal reports are better too. I have been amazed by the performance of this relatively inexpensive antenna. Just google my call and see or look me up every evening on the Dx Sherlock site and you will see my contacts. Canada, Europe,the Azores all over the US including the west coast, South and Central America all the way down to Argentina, the Carribean etc etc. If I can hear them I can work them. I will recommend to all my friends.
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W5JET
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Rating: 4/5
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Aug 28, 2010 08:35
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OK+
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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It was cheap and it works well so I guess I'm happy. It's made out of very light weight aluminum which bends pretty easy. I had to rebuild some of the parts of the matching assy to make it work right. It took about an hour to mount regular female 259 in place of the supplied "feed assy," soldering the wire to the back.. I don't expect anymore problems.
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KD8GKR
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 17, 2010 10:06
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SOLID
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Antenna= 5 best priced beam in it class, solid built
Customer Service= 5 Great, Quick Response, shipped part out same day, NO charge
I found this antenna on ebay from bob-and-linda. The antenna is very well built. I have made many contact with this beam only at 25', soon to be put up permanently on the tower. For the price of this antenna($90 on ebay), you cant go wrong with an antenna that is directional, versus loops that cost the same. If your looking for a smaller 6 meter beam, please take a look at this antenna, it fits the bill. Take a look at videos of this antenna in use, search KD8GKR on youtube. Thanks for a great product Bluestar antenna....
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K4KD
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Rating: 5/5
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May 16, 2010 04:08
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Well built antenna
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Got my 4 elm 6 meter beam last week. Had a minor problem with one of the elements. Emailed customer service and got an answer back within 30 minutes.
I was going to homebrew a 6 meter beam but would have spent more money and a lot of time. I am glad I found the blue star web site.
The antenna was easy to assemble and even easier to adjust gamma match. The elements are 3/8" solid aluminum. The hardware is stainless steel.
The antenna is up at 25 feet. I have only been using it for three days and have worked every station I have called including a VE3 at 1150 miles and ground wave as far as 125 miles.
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WA2QIC
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Rating: 4/5
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Jun 28, 2009 14:04
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Good value for the money
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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First - performance rating is 5.0. Bought this antenna as a light duty portable FD/contest 6m beam (but I may wind up getting another and mounting at the home QTH).
A few minor gripes:
First, like just about all antenna manufacturers these days, the assembly instructions were not the best. Not as bad as some, but certainly not in the top tier. Room for improvement - and not hard or expensive to do. However, having said this, I did assemble the antenna correctly. But I can see how a green-horn to beam assembly could easily incorrectly assemble the antenna. Note the antenna matched the documented swr projection with the various gamma match settings included. So tune-in after assembly was a slam dunk.
From a contesting portability standpoint - I like the fact that the boom comes on two sections with a splice at the mid-point/mast mount bracket. Makes it easier to transport to a remote operating site, and reassembly is not difficult.
Deburring could have been a bit better, as some, but not all, of the through holes the elements screwed into were blocked by burrs. Recommend having a de-burring tool handy to address this as needed.
Overall this is a solid antenna that will stand the test of time, but the gamma match is a bit flimsy. I don't know why Blue Star settled for the tubing they did, but it is so easily bent...I can see a larger bird landing on the thing and bending it. How much would it have cost to use a more rigid tubing for the gamma configuration? Or perhaps two to three non-conducting UV resistance cross-bars to hold the assembly in place once set? One other note - it would be nice if Blue Star offered a 2" mast mount option. The 1.5" mount didn't work well for us this FD as we stacked beams on a 2" mast and had to improvise a solution (but hec, that's what FD is for, right?)
As I said, I am already contemplating buying a 2nd, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend to someone looking for a 4 element 6m beam.
PS. Would also like to see an N-connector option for this ant.
Of course, I have to follow the eHam rating system, but my 'true' rating, factoring in my minor gripes, is 4.5/5.0.
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W5JAO
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Rating: 4/5
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Jun 4, 2009 09:22
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A good yagi for the $$$
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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My first 6m yagi ! I purchased my Blue Star 6m 4el. beam on E-bay for about $90.00. about what buying new material would cost then fab. It arrived in fine shape about 8 or 9 days later, and the day it arrived, I set it up per the instruction booklet in about an hour and up on a 8 foot test mast, achieved 1.2 to 1 at 53 ohms over most of the SSB frequencies in another 30 min. Much better than the inverted "L" I have up
I give two thumbs up to this antenna. W5JAO
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G0KSC
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Rating: 5/5
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May 26, 2009 23:52
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a nice little Yagi for the money
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I design antennas myself and have commerical companies sell antennas of my design. I live in the UK but travelled to Georgia in the US for 6 weeks last summer visiting my parents and wanted an antenna to use my ft857 while I was there. I found the Blue Star on Ebay at a very resonable price so bought it.
It was very easy to contract, rugged and light weight at the same time. One of my first contacts was a multi-hop E skip QSO with the West Coast.
I was happy with the performance of the antenna and it is now packed away in the garage at my parents awaiting my next vist.
Justin G0KSC
www.g0ksc.co.uk
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FM5BH
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 3, 2008 05:31
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A very good ant
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This is my very first 6m antenna
and I was QRV on the magic band this week with this antenna for the first in my ham life.
I followed the instructions and put it on the tv mast on the roof beaming to the north.
after several cq I worked EA7 - CT1 - EA6 - HI3 - FM5.All the dx in CW with 559 report.
My tx is the FT897 bear foot.
I learned that CW is very useful to work the DX like on the top band (160M);
The blue star antenna is very rugged.
If you want a low budget and a vedry good ant to start on the magic band you can buy it.
I will put it higher with a rotator very soon.
I have the 6M virus
73
Laurent FM5BH
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N6NKS
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 27, 2008 16:54
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Great beam - works fab.
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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My first 6m beam too! I purchased my Blue Star 6m 4el. beam through the 'bob-and-linda' store on E-bay for about $90.00. It arrived in fine shape about 8 or 9 days later, and the day it arrived, I eagerly set it up per the pretty decent instruction booklet. Since I have yet to obtain a rotor and to undergo the effort of mounting it really high up on a pole I have, I opted for a temporary set-up whereby it is on a pole only 8 feet above the ground, in horizontal-polarization fashion, to an cnecrete unbrella stand in the back yard. I simply hand-turn the beam whever the skip is coming from.
Even with my modest setup, running 100 watts into this low-beam, after eagerly awaiting 6m to open up this past spring and summer, the 6 meter fun began! On several occasions, I got a "strong signal" report from even mobils. The big fun was during the ARRL VHF QSO Party when 6m opened up double-hop to FL from my California desert location. SO this beam, in its totally sub-optimal location in my yard, ha sproven to be a great performer. Tuneup was a snap. per instructions - I just set the element via the instructions, and was happy to have very excellene (low) SWR. That was probably the hardest part of set-up, and it was easy too. So I give two thumbs up to this antenna! Steve N6NKS
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