Just brilliant, antenna came through all of the horrendous winter (and summer) storms here on the West coast of Scotland, and it remains as new and the best performing antenna I have ever owned, and the list is long...........
Have suffered extremely expensive catastrophic failures in the past on Gem Quad and Optibeam mast to boom bracket failures, and Tennadyne and SteppIR element failures, all of these events coupled with nil support or worse makes it a real pleasure to deal with the M2 team and their top quality products.
I am about to upgrade to a larger version which also operates on 40mtrs, my present antenna is up for sale on eBay Item number:290930479947 in order to make way for the new kit.
I will be sorry to part with it if a buyer comes forward, meantime, if you are interested in one of these, new or used, you will not be disappointed, I promise you..............
73 John
(END OF MOST RECENT REVIEW)
My third update: We have just suffered hurrendous storm force plus winds over the last two weeks here in Scotland, I know for a fact that my previous large beams would have folded in these conditions. This antenna did not display any of the worrying traits that the other failures did, I was able to get half a turn on the mast to boom fixings a couple of months ago, but no serious happenings so far. If you live under similar w/x conditions as I do, this antenna has got to be the one for you.
(END OF THIRD UPDATE)
Update to my first posting below:- This antenna has now been through a number of storms, and unlike most large beams, it looks comfortable in very windy conditions, I will post again when the really bad weather hits the West coast of Scotland, but for the first time in this hobby, I am not afraid. Some of you may recall that on progressing from 3 and 5 element tribanders to the larger beams, things went badly wrong for me, all previous large antennas from well known manufacturers failed miserably in the Scottish winter weather due to either element failure or boom to mast brackets, the last one was woefully under designed, the message I received from the manufacturer was "purchase a new one, the boom to mast bracket problem has now been resolved".
It is not possible to print my reply to the guy, but we were on the verge of World War 3 breaking out and I will eventually tell the full story!!!
BTW: The M2 antenna is performing beautifully.
(END OF SECOND UPDATE)
I took the plunge and ordered the above from my long serving dealer Ron Stone of Vine Antennas Ltd. The packages arrived from California and I finally got the beam up and running. Make no mistake about it, this is definitely not a toy, total boom length is 30' and is made of 3" diameter quality tubing with a beautifully made internal jointing section, fixings and fittings are a joy to behold, longest element is just a shade under 50' and the whole package looks the business when fixed upon the tower. We have just experienced some powerful winds here in Scotland and I am very comfortable with the way it coped during these times. M2 supply a typical vswr graph on the front page of the manual, it demonstrates figures taken with the antenna at 70' in the air, when I tested mine using a quality RigExpert analyser, I bettered almost all of their figures with the antenna initially at 25', infact, my first call was to a station in China who was under mega pile up conditions, and not using my linear amplifier, I got him first call so I was away to a great start. Had a number of questions for Jason at M2 during the building process and he supplied me with the answers via email promptly. I have photos of the main assembly operation and can email them to anyone who would like to see them either prior to, or during the building phase. I can safely say that I will probably have purchased, built and used more hf antennas than most people, both in the UK and overseas, and I can say without fear of contradiction that this antenna is outstanding, all of my hf and some of my vhf antennas have either suffered storm damage or have been completely destroyed here in Scotland and I feel that this one is a survivor.
Update due sometime in mid winter.
73, John - gm6tvr
http://www.gm6tvr.net
----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by GM6TVR on 2013-01-01
My third update: We have just suffered hurrendous storm force plus winds over the last two weeks here in Scotland, I know for a fact that my previous large beams would have folded in these conditions. This antenna did not display any of the worrying traits that the other failures did, I was able to get half a turn on the mast to boom fixings a couple of months ago, but no serious happenings so far. If you live under similar w/x conditions as I do, this antenna has got to be the one for you.
(END OF MOST RECENT UPDATE)
Update to my first posting below:- This antenna has now been through a number of storms, and unlike most large beams, it looks comfortable in very windy conditions, I will post again when the really bad weather hits the West coast of Scotland, but for the first time in this hobby, I am not afraid. Some of you may recall that on progressing from 3 and 5 element tribanders to the larger beams, things went badly wrong for me, all previous large antennas from well known manufacturers failed miserably in the Scottish winter weather due to either element failure or boom to mast brackets, the last one was woefully under designed, the message I received from the manufacturer was "purchase a new one, the boom to mast bracket problem has now been resolved".
It is not possible to print my reply to the guy, but we were on the verge of World War 3 breaking out and I will eventually tell the full story!!!
BTW: The M2 antenna is performing beautifully.
(END OF SECOND UPDATE)
I took the plunge and ordered the above from my long serving dealer Ron Stone of Vine Antennas Ltd. The packages arrived from California and I finally got the beam up and running. Make no mistake about it, this is definitely not a toy, total boom length is 30' and is made of 3" diameter quality tubing with a beautifully made internal jointing section, fixings and fittings are a joy to behold, longest element is just a shade under 50' and the whole package looks the business when fixed upon the tower. We have just experienced some powerful winds here in Scotland and I am very comfortable with the way it coped during these times. M2 supply a typical vswr graph on the front page of the manual, it demonstrates figures taken with the antenna at 70' in the air, when I tested mine using a quality RigExpert analyser, I bettered almost all of their figures with the antenna initially at 25', infact, my first call was to a station in China who was under mega pile up conditions, and not using my linear amplifier, I got him first call so I was away to a great start. Had a number of questions for Jason at M2 during the building process and he supplied me with the answers via email promptly. I have photos of the main assembly operation and can email them to anyone who would like to see them either prior to, or during the building phase. I can safely say that I will probably have purchased, built and used more hf antennas than most people, both in the UK and overseas, and I can say without fear of contradiction that this antenna is outstanding, all of my hf and some of my vhf antennas have either suffered storm damage or have been completely destroyed here in Scotland and I feel that this one is a survivor.
Update due sometime in mid winter.
73, John - gm6tvr http://www.gm6tvr.net |
