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Reviews For: CHAMELEON HYBRID SERIES

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : CHAMELEON HYBRID SERIES
Reviews: 41MSRP: 225
Description:
The Chameleon HYBRID Series is the next generation of Chameleon Antenna. This new generation of antennas and accessories will be fully compatible with almost any previous and future products.

The Chameleon HYBRID design revolves around a specially designed antenna base: the Chameleon HYBRID Base. This special base offers instantaneous bandwidth performance from 6M to 160M which will depend of the selected antenna configuration. The base is mainly designed to fulfill multiple tasks, enhance performances of the antenna system and facilitate antenna installations. It also has an integral broadband impedance matching allowing broadband waveforms to be utilized even after the addition of higher power amplifiers up to 1500W SSB.
Product is in production
More Info: http://chameleonantenna.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00414.9
KG7TUZ Rating: 2015-09-11
Great Antenna for a HOA Station Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I am using the CH Hybrid + V1L lower + Cap Hat + MIL and counterpoise kit.

I have the antenna mounted on a heavy duty 10 foot photo tripod with 2 additional counterpoise wires. Because of HOA restrictions I have to assemble and disassemble the antenna each evening after use which takes me only about 5 minutes, it’s a breeze to stow away

Even in very tough propagation conditions I have been able to reach stations consistently in the 2,000 mile range and have had several DX stations in New Zealand, Australia, Chili and Venezuela running QRP on JT65 and JT9

Carl has helped me all along the way with responsive replies to my novice questions. He even replaced a part even though I purchased the antenna from HRO. All the antenna components are very well built and high quality.
KU6A Rating: 2015-08-23
Still evaluating... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've lived in an HOA restricted neighborhood for the past 16 years. When I was first licensed, I made an inverted V fan dipole out of 28AWG silver plated, solid copper wire to get on HF(10m-40m). I'm limited to 60ft antenna length and have to use the peak of my second story roof as a single support 25ft up; elements were tied to the wooden fence on each side of the property with fishing line (inverted V). It worked pretty well but always difficult to hear other stations; EU and AF stations were rare for me. That was 8 years ago and my antenna fell down and the dog ate it (yes, really).

I decided to setup my station again a couple of months ago and ran down to the candy store to buy a G5RV jr. I worked a lot of DX with it but still unable to work 160m and 80m. I also had to buy another antenna tuner because my Kenwood TS-2000 could not match the high SWR of the G5RV jr. Anyway, I was hoping I could find another antenna with better SWR that was less than 60ft long, could work the top bands, and difficult for the HOA Nazis to see in my back yard. I decided to give the CHA Hybrid a try.

The CHA Hybrid is a mobile base that is only water resistant, but since it never rains in southern Kalifornia I felt it wouldn't be a problem. I initially installed the antenna as a sloper with the provided 30ft wire. SWR was less than 3:1 from 160m to 6m. Wow! I've never seen anything like that and was concerned I bought a really expensive dummy load. I installed this antenna on a day when band conditions were extremely bad, but I was able to hear (barely) a station in Florida and S. Cook Islands on 10m; this is good because I rarely hear anything on 10m. For testing, I replaced the 30ft wire with 80ft of 20AWG like an inverted V with an extra 20ft leg running along the top of the fence 6ft above the ground. Again the SWR was <3:1 from 160m to 6m except on a couple of WARC bands, the SWR went up to 4.5:1. In this configuration I found the antenna was extremely noisy and I could barely hear stations above the noise. My assumption was that the 20ft of extra wire was too close to the ground and decided to cut it off. SWR changed and I get 5:1SWR on 160m and <3:1 on 40m to 10m. Most of 6m is 3:1 but can get as high as 5:1. It's OK, I rarely use 6m anyway. So over the next 7 hours I worked 14 DX stations on 15m, 20m, 30m and 40m(mostly Hawaii), New Zealand and S. Cook Islands! (I always have a pipeline into the south pacific) The antenna doesn't seem as noisy as it was during the first installation, but it's still noisy and may be due to band conditions. I did get a (real)signal report from a station 500 miles away on 40m who said I was hitting S5 on his rig using a double bazooka antenna, so I know this CHA Hybrid antenna does radiate. But I also had several "attempted" QSO's on 40m and 80m where the other stations heard me but couldn't make out my call. I've had the antenna for less than 24 hours, so I still haven't decided how well it works in comparison to my old antennas.

I will say this... I have never seen another antenna product made with this level of quality. Wire is wire, but the transformer looks like it was designed to be used in an armored vehicle. Very well made!
KD8IIC Rating: 2015-04-24
Performs Great and Well Built. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Got a Hybrid second hand. Put the wire up invee @ 15ft and one counterpoise wire.Tunes and loads FB WARC and HF bands to 80m. Need to add more wire to be effective above 40m but that's an easy feat.
Hybrid is a great investment considering its' versatility as mobile or base in vert, zepp and loop
configurations.Plan to use mine as portable with an auto tuner ultimately.
Very well thought out design and looks indestructibly built. Should outlast me easily.
K0FTC Rating: 2015-02-01
Works great in low profile set up Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Still using Chameleon products for my QTH antennas in a restricted neighborhood. For example, just participated in The Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) end their month (January) long K3Y Special Event. I've participated in this CW event since its inception as an US Area 0 rep, using the call sign K3Y/0. I made 407 QSO and completed what was call a "Grand Sweep" in which you have QSOs in all 10 US Areas (0-9). KH6, KP4, KL7, Africa, Asia, Europe, Canada, Oceania, and South America. My home set up is 2 Chameleon Hybrid antennas, one ground mounted Chameleon with 116' of wire running west to east, over a 31' twin sloped roof to the fence on the other side (116' end fed inverted V with a 31' peak), and the other is a horizontal 33" wire running south to north along the peak of the roof in the attic (end fed 33' horizontal at 31') using a 33' counterpoise. Good results for my circumstances and this SK event. 73, John K0FTC


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Earlier 5-star review posted by K0FTC on 2013-01-26

I've been playing with the ARRL 160 meter CW contest this morning. In just a few hours I've got 110 QSOs with 30 different AARL sections. About 25 different states, east coast, west coast, north and south. Canada, Mexico, and .... HI. Two HI QSO's on a 75' foot wire thrown over the peak of the roof on 160 meters, that's amazing to me. Anyway, it is my Chameleon Hybrid and random 75'/25' wire and 100 watts and it just continues to perform. I've also been doing the SKCC K3Y SK special event as a K3Y/0 operator - folks try to fill in all Sections for all bands as well as Asia, Africa, PR, and other places. Anyway, I work all HF bands, including 6 and 160, and closing in on 400 QSOs using that random wire and my Hybrid vertical. And it is always satisfying to tell the op that sure, I can meet them (anywhere) so that they can keep filling in those /0 slots. Not that the QSO always happens (propagation sometimes is just not there), but the ability to be so flexible in responding to frequency requests is because I've got a couple of Chameleon Hybrids that allow me to operate anywhere on the HF bands. 73, John K0FTC
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Earlier 5-star review posted by K0FTC on 2012-01-13

I posted the following on the Chameleon forum with pictures. Again, 5 for quality, 5 for customer service, and 5 for performance that meets/exceeds expectations. "I recieved my second Hybrid from Chameleon on Wednesday and went out to the Pawnee National Grasslands here in Colorado at dark-thirty to do a portable set and see how it performs. I used the jaw mount on a tripod with legs almost flat to the ground. I used my counterpoise kit from my V1, I ran a ground wire to the Jackit mount that was driven into the ground, and since I was using my own random wire at my home for the other Hybrid I own, I ran my extra 30' wire out as a radial also. I removed the rubber grommets on the antenna mounts and replaced them with stainless washers, thus when the Hybrid was mounted the bottom of it went to the radials and ground I just described. I placed a mounted 31' Jackite fiberglass pole and it was just about the excact right heighth for the 30' wire provided with the Hybrid. It tuned all bands 160 to 10 (60 excluded). Pictures of the set up are below. I did propagation tests using Reverse Beacon Network with 3 sets of CQ RBN CQ CQ DE K0FTC K0FTC RBN on each band of interest at 50 watts, once at 1530 UTC (0830 MST) and once at 1730 UTC (1030 MST) (40 mtrs only done at 1530). This portable set up was picked up on 40 mtrs in WV, PA, CO, UT, and NV, on 20 mts - WI, WV, NV, NH, NC, PA, AK, on 15 mtrs - Virgin Islands, PA, NH, GA, MA, WV, OH, NC, AK, on 12 mtrs - WV, PA, Curacao, on 10 mtrs- NH, PA, MA, WV. I did work straight key CW for about and hour and a half, with interest in the SKCC Special Event (K3Y) and worked Spain, France, MA, MI, and LA. I made one paddle contact with France. These are very casual non-contest type contacts. Deployment was a breeze, spent about 30 minutes in a non-hurried - first time fashion, and it all came down and was packed away in about 15 minutes (of course the wind was about 50 mph and it frooze the fingers by this time - so it was taken down with more urgency then the set up -HI). I was impressed enough with the Hybrid at home and am glad I got another for my original purpose of using it for portable set ups. Great job Chameleon. 73, John"
DL2FDJ Rating: 2014-12-09
Fantastic! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I recently received a complete Chameleon antenna set consisting of:

- Hybrid Base
- Mil Whip
- Mil Whip Extension
- Counterpoise Set
- Tripot
- RG58 Cable with RF Choke
- Clamp

I purchases this set up for emergency communications with my FT-897D. My focus was on fast deployment, all band capability and rugged design. Well, let me tell you, it took longer to unwrap all the parts of the antenna system then setting it up. I was on the air within 5 minutes!

The quality of the system is superb. All parts fit as they should. My first test was if the LDG tuner on my FT-897D was able to tune the antenna from 80 to 10 meters. It worked without a problem!

So I was eager to actually try it out. First QSO within Germany on 40m worked like a charm. I reached another German OM about 300km west of me with 5/8 on 40m with the 20W supplied by my 897D. This was actually good because the noise level on 40 during the day was really high.

Next test on 20m, a station from EA9 gave me 5/9. Several UA stations all gave me 5/9 as well.

Next test 10m, here the excellent performance continued. Within minutes I was able to work G, EA, OM and OZ and OM. Since I did not buy the antenna system for DX I have not tried any DX yet. For the intended purpose, it works great. I am happy with the system. Ultra portable, fast deployable and rugged design. Thank you Chameleon!

More testing, especially the DX capability, to come...
KI4GIS Rating: 2014-12-06
Versatile! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I'm moving to a smaller house and lot in a couple of years and need to experiment with different antenna arrangements. The Hybrid provides versatility with horizontal and vertical antenna configurations. I can set up the Hybrid as a NVIS wire 15-ft above the ground one minute and change it into a vertical with my V1 antenna in another minute. The Hybrid provides me with an excellent base for experimentation for current and future antenna needs. Well worth the investment!
W3NRL Rating: 2014-10-20
Fb on CW & Phone Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Since the day I put the antenna up
I have been non stop well until the guy who cuts
my cut lawn also cut the coax with his weed Wacker
Then I ordered new coax and still going,
love this chameleon system

73 DE
W3nrl

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Earlier 5-star review posted by W3NRL on 2012-06-30

I have ordered the HYBRID with the 30 feet of wire
although i did not use the 30 feet of wire that was supplied with the kit, i used 84 feet of wire in several configurations and all have awesome result, my latest config was splice in on top a section of wire 41 feet to one side and a second side as well ( thinking of adding a 3rd leg.. hmmmm) this all soldered to a 46 feet of vertical wire and lots of counterpoise i been making contacts from 160 to 6 meters, from 1200 miles to 7900 miles all with no problem, thinking of getting a second HYBRID i have some other ideas, highly recommend Carl's products
KV9WMD Rating: 2014-10-16
Chameleon HYBRID Base Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Use Chameleon HYBRID Base and CHA V2 for mobile and portable NVIS. Love this combo for restricted space.
VE3FAL Rating: 2014-10-14
Excellent Product Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I own a number of Chameleon products and am very happy with all of them. The products are well designed and built to withstand some harsh conditions for field deployment.I currently own the Hybrid Base, HyBrid Mini, HyBrid Micro, EMCOMM II, V1 Whip,CHA MIL Whip, CHA CAP Hat and a number of the jaw mounts. The HyBrid base is currently used in a permanent location atop a 15' pole that is grounded, about 180' of wire taken out in a "L" shape with the short end dropping to within 5' of the ground giving me some NVIS use as well. I operate all low to regular power(QRP-100w) and have not seen any issue with heat. A great product built to last.
NU6Y Rating: 2014-02-07
Great small footprint antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I finally decided to install my Hybrid antenna as a permanent base antenna, It sits on my roof at +26' I have Four (4) 25' counterpoise/ground plane wires and I am also grounded to my solar panels. I am using the Hybrid with a V-1 and Mil-Whip attachment. This antenna is quiet and picks up better than any of my Dipoles and wire antenna's. On the transmit side I push up to 400 watts with no problem. It's not a Yagi sitting on a tower but I give it a 5 for what it does based on size and cost