| HA7WX |
Rating:      |
2013-08-30 | |
| Good when no tree around... |
Time Owned: N.A. |
I took advantage of my trip to the US in May and early June to jump in HRO Oakland to buy this one, and i am very satisfied with its performance. Gave me a nice contact to Florida from Hungary on 10W phone 15m portable (just an example). You can make a 1/4 wave out this thing from 20m to 4m bands whatever the frequency you use.
It will tune up to 60m with the coil.
I did not try since i am not into QRO, but they claim it can handle up to 1 kW.
This product is light weight and complete with a telescopic whip, a 2 inch diameter coil, a pipe mount and a set of 4 radials.
Easy to set up, to bring in a backpack (whip is around 70cm retracted) or in the trunk of the car.
I give it a 5 even though i had to re-solder the aligator clip. No pb, it's an MFJ, i expected it HI HI.
I just had to record the size of the whip and the position of the clip on the self for each band with my MFJ-259 (excellent product by the way) in order to easily change bands (if your conditions are the same your settings will be valid an other time).
I fully agree with the previous reviewers: 1)sometimes there's no tree to support a wire antenna and this one comes handy.
2) high winds could bend the antenna if not guyed.
I recommend this product to anyone into portable ops.
Nice job MFJ, it's an excellent idea, well worth the money! Best 73s HA7WX Christophe |
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| RSHIRE22 |
Rating:      |
2013-08-29 | |
| Great for no tree applications |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is a product from MFJ that has fine quality. The 17 foot telescoping whip is stainless steel and extends and retracts without issue
I strapped a 1" pvc to the side of my travel trailer and mounted the MFJ 2286 as a grounded plane vertical about ten feet up. I used 4 tuned radials per band and got my share of garden variety dx from the east coast - mostly Euros and So Americans.
This is a fine stealth solution that works well if you can't throw an end fed wire into a tree. Probably useful also in the lower bands using the high quality coil.
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| VE3JSO |
Rating:     |
2013-07-15 | |
| good antenna |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I have got the mfj-2286 back in january with the mfj-1919ex it's a good antenna for the price and i was able to set it up in about 15 mins and i was able to make contacts all over north america cayman island south america greenland europe with 100 watts highly recommend this antenna for those who don't have the space or have space restrictions for the other antenna counterparts |
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| WU9F |
Rating:      |
2013-07-05 | |
| Surprising performance |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I bought this to use at this years field day. It arrived barely in time to use it. I unboxed it at the field day site. It was very easy to assemble and set up. In about five minutes we had it up and ready to use. It had a good low swr and worked very well. We had no problem. Making contacts all over. It is a great value for the money. I look forward to using it more in the years ahead. I have recommended it to several friends. |
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| N9CPF |
Rating:      |
2013-06-28 | |
| Great Little Antenna for HOA Restricted Communities |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
In coming back to ham radio after a long hiatus, I wanted to pull my Kenwood TS-940S out of the basement and find an inexpensive antenna to go on the air with. My attic really won't facilitate a multiband dipole like the Alpha Delta DX-EE, nor will my yard hide it. I was starting to go down the path of doing a thin long wire when I came across the MFJ-2286 in the advertisements in QST. I had looked at other vertical antennas that were stealthy but most of them were expensive. In addition to being affordable, this one has the additional benefit of collapsing down to a couple feet. Thus I ordered one from AES and it arrived the next day. I held off on ordering a tripod for it and just used an old camera tripod to get started.
My first night on the air, I talked from Chicago to Detroit. Next night to Ontario, then North Carolina, New York, and Maryland. For what it is, it works pretty well. The first contact was without the included radials, however, I did add them shortly after that. Also, I purchased the MFJ 1918 tripod for something sturdier to mount it on.
I can put up this antenna in a few minutes and take it down just as quickly. It's small foot print draws little attention when up and it's easy to store when it's not in use.
I don't spend a lot of time perfectly adjusting the loading coil. I usually eyeball it and let the tuner in the radio finish up the job. While it's not optimum, it saves drawing attention to me standing in the yard fiddling with it.
Overall, this is great compromise antenna for HOA situations and portable use. Very happy with it and happy with the price. |
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| KG4NVV |
Rating:      |
2013-05-13 | |
| Very Nice Portable Vertical! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I purchased the "Big Stick" recently to use on portable operations. Currently it is attached to a 6' long 1/2" diameter steel pipe driven into the ground in my backyard. To prevent (or at least reduce) RF traveling into my shack, I wrapped about 30' of coax around a 4' diameter PVC pipe and set it over the steel pipe and underneath the antenna. I set the antenna length to resonate on the 20m band, with SWR being about 1.5 or so according to the antenna analyzer and using NO counterpoise other than the pipe to which it is mounted. I am also not using the loading coil (the clip is adjusted so it is shorted out). In this manner, I have made many DX contacts in the Carribean, Europe and South America over the last few days on the 20m, 17m, 15m and 10m bands, all from my Alabama QTH and using the antenna tuner on bands other than 20m. Most of the time, I cannot detect any difference in RX on these bands between this vertical and my trusty inverted vee doublet that I've been using for years.
I found that by adjusting the clip on the loading coil I was able to get the antenna to tune on 40m without a counterpoise as well, but RX seemed to suffer some on the higher bands (maybe some loss from the loading coil?), so I switched it back to shorting out the coil. I haven't yet tried it but I'm sure the antenna tuner will get it to work on 40m while set resonant for 20m, although maybe with some degradation in performance.
I highly recommend this antenna. For 20m and up, this antenna is a definite winner and you can work good DX with a "Big Stick" that takes up very little space in your yard. It seems to be very well constructed, although I also have concerns about the longevity of the loading coil for windy QTH's, as others have stated. Nevertheless, for $100 or so, this is a good bargain! |
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| K9ADB |
Rating:      |
2013-03-06 | |
| Excellent Antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I live in an antenna restricted, HOA property. I have tried dipoles across the roof, end-Fedz antenna over the roof, dipole under the eaves, my Superantennas MP-1 in the garden and none of them really cut the mustard. I have used wire delta loops, inverted Vs on top of a 31' jackite pole when PTP and these worked out great but could never put them up at home.
I was just about to consider risking launching a random wire vertical up into the palm tree next to the house when I came across the MFJ-2286 and bought one to test. It came with a pipe mountable base, a base loaded tuning coil, a 16.5' telescopic whip and a 12' x 4 wire counterpoise system.
At 7:30am on a California morning, I mounted the base to a camera tripod, screwed the coil into the 3/8" x 24 base thread, screwed the stainless steel telescopic antenna into the coil, extended it to full height, connected the coax to my FT-897D, tuned the coil for max band noise on 20m and tuned the LDG Z-11. A QSO was underway between an Alabama and east coast station and I called QSK with 50W. I was copied at 55. I could not play longer, I had to rush to work but this quick QSO convinced me that compared to what I had been using, this antenna totally rocks. I immediately sold my Superantennas MP-1.
This is now my portable antenna of choice, quick to deploy, multi-band, under $100, rugged and lightweight. Not sure how much the coil can stand up to wind stress but I get the impression it may not be that expensive to replace. I really like this antenna and the coming months will see how well it holds up to hiking. |
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| W3AFC |
Rating:      |
2013-01-10 | |
| Works very well for me |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
My 5 rating is based on other antennas in its class.
I use this in my minivan as part of a portable station along with a Kenwood TS-130S. Check out my QRZ page for pictures and more info. At lunch time I sit in the back of our parking lot 60 feet above sea level and work stations in places like the Canary Islands, Croatia, and Ukraine on 100W or less (the Kenwood throttles back power on some bands due to the SWR). Unusually low noise floor for a vertical! The only issue is that in moderate to high winds (over 30mph) I worry about the coil because the long whip creates what is know as a "bending moment" on the body of the coil which could break it. But on 20M and above you can simply leave the coil out and screw the whip right into the base.
If you look at my QRZ page you will see a mount that I made for a standard trailer hitch tongue. I also made a copper "push-in-the-ground" adapter for the mounting post, but I haven't tested that yet. I'll try to do it this weekend and when I do I'll post some info on my QRZ page. I would and do recommend this to fellow HAMs. |
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| K4FMH |
Rating:      |
2012-05-02 | |
| Outstanding! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I've been working portable with my Yaesu 857D, PowerPort battery backpack, and various antennas (including a coil-loaded vertical). When I learned that MFJ was coming out with a "big" version of a buddipole-style antenna, I visited the factory to see a prototype model. The stainless-steel telescoping rod is a change from plated brass for MFJ. I had purchased a 16' telescoping rod from them at the Jackson (MS) Hamfest in January for my High Sierra screwdriver antenna, upon Martin's recommendation, and it's been a champ, not to mention a great improvement to that antenna.
When I got the 2286 home to our temporary 2nd floor apartment while our house is being built, I assembled it and attached the 3/4" connector to a small tripod I obtained from Blue Star Antennas. I did not attach the counterpoise radials that came with the 2286 due to space limitations. All this was in a small clothes closet. My first contact was on 40M to a ham in Little Rock, AR with a 56 signal report! I've used it extensively since then, both on the 857D as well as on my base rigs (TS-940SAT and Drake TR-7). The clip lead on the heavy-duty wire loading coil is easy to move...I'm using different color plastic tape to mark settings for different bands.
This antenna can be "doubled" as a coil-loaded dipole---a la the Buddipole---but far cheaper at $99 x 2 ~ $200---and handle QRO power. On the other hand, MFJ also came out with a Vee-style dipole using these materials called the Big Ear (MFJ 2289). The small dipole that I'm temporarily using in a closet won't work very well out in the wild (too short) so I'll probably pick up one of the MFJ heavy-duty tripods (e.g., MFJ-1919).
So, I guess my experience is to modulate softly but carry a Big Stick! Couldn't be happier, especially for the price.
Frank
K4FMH |
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