| SP6CYN |
Rating:  |
2022-12-11 | |
| Excellent Product A+++ |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Excellent antenna with a very good price, does not take up to much space in the yard, very good quality components.
Amazing Peformance !!
I'm very pleased with this antenna. I can easily make contacts, and often break through pile ups on the first try. The antenna was simple to assemble upon instruction step by step, a lot of pictures
Low SWR, they coax for 6 bands was as advertised - with no tuner required on any bands.
High quality of materials
My antenna has endured winds of 120km per hour, often at my high winds
Very fast response from Waldi with any questions
It is a fantastic antenna with incredible receive ... get it up in the air and enjoy.
I highly recommend it |
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| K4EPH |
Rating: |
2022-08-30 | |
| Great Antenna - Hard to Get Yours Hands On, Though |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
About this time last year (2019) I started considering buying a Hex Beam antenna. I researched all the American manufacturers, and was not impressed with the build quality of the photos and videos I saw. They all looked rather flimsy. I then became aware of the ones produced by Waldi in Poland. I studied his website, which, frankly, is rather confusing and difficult to decipher; but, I found the look of the antenna to be much more substantial than any of those made in the U.S. I started emailing Waldi, and though difficult to understand sometimes, I think due to his not being a native English speaker, we managed to communicate and I decided to order an antenna from him. Before ordering, though, I did check out his reviews on eHam.net. Most of the reviews were from Europe, however, there were a number from U.S. hams. I then looked up the U.S. writer's of some of those reviews, on QRZ.com, and emailed them to get their verification of what had been posted as their review. Without an exception, they all praised the antenna, but warned me of the delay between ordering and the delivery. With all that knowledge in hand, I pulled the trigger and ordered an antenna, using PayPal for the transaction. This was on December 14, 2019. Waldi verified he had gotten the order and told me in mid January that he was working on my antenna. I emailed him in early February, to check on his progress. I told me that it took customs in Poland a long time to approve of the shipping, but that the approval process was underway. The next time we talked was in March. By this time, Covid 19 had reared it's ugly head in Europe and all shipping (according to Waldi) was shut down, but he did say the antenna had been shipped. I asked him for a tracking number, as he said it had been shipped via FedEx. I received not reply. So, I waited. About every 3 to 4 weeks, I would contact him again and ask for status of the shipment. This went on until around the first week in June, 2020. I then contacted PayPal to see if they could help me get the antenna, as the period during which they would intervene was about to expire. They sent me, the next day, a copy of their email to Waldi and his reply. I then got an email from Waldi saying the antenna had been shipped. I received it 3 days later - obviously no problem with shipping. Back in March, I had investigated buying a rooftop tower, manufactured by Glen Martin Industries, here in the US. It was 4.5' high, and since it would be mounted on my roof, about 25' above the ground, that seemed to put the final antenna height just about perfect. But, when I attempted to order the tower, I found that everyone who seemed to be selling them indicated that they had none in stock, and had no idea if they would ever get any, though someone had apparently gotten one only two weeks earlier . I then attempted to contact Glen Martin Industries to order the tower, finding out that their 800 number was no longer in service. I don't know if they have gone out of business, but it certainly appears that way. I decided that I needed to build one like their design on my own. I found a company in Kentucky that sold metal shapes online. I ordered the aluminum angles and flat bars from them. I bought the stainless nuts, bolts, washers and lag screws from Home Depot. While waiting for that order to arrive, I looked at the mast diameter on the Hexbeam antenna. It's O.D. was a fuzz greater than 1 3/8 inches. That was too small to be held by the clamps on my second hand Daiwa rotator. Also, the distance shown in the Glen Martin download (which was still viable) of the directions to put together their tower, indicated that the distance from the rotator shelf on the tower to the top of the tower was 37" +/-. The mast on the antenna was only about 10" long. That meant that there must be some sort of mast extension employed. I did not want to drill a hole in that stainless steel mast to thru-bolt an extension, so I started looking for some sort of coupling device. I did not want to use U-bolts, as that would make the antenna off-center with regard to the rotator. I finally found a sleeve type coupler, apparently made only in one country - Ireland. I ordered one, and was informed that due to Covid, they could not ship to the US. I searched around on the internet for another supplier, and finally found one, again in Ireland, two weeks later, who could ship to the US - i ordered the coupler. When it arrived, I found that it, also, like my rotator, would not hold a mast as small as the hexbeam. I then found that DX Engineering sold shims for the purpose of getting masts and rotators to play well together. I ended up having to get two sets of the shims to fill the mast out to make contact with the coupler. To hold the shims to the mast, inside the coupler, and to make sure there was no slippage when the rotator was turning the mast, I got a piece of discarded bicycle innertube, cut off a 6" long section and stretched it over the mast and shims to provide a tight fit to hold the shims to the mast and also to increase the coefficient of friction between the shims and the coupler. All the while working on cutting, drilling, etc. the aluminum angles to build the tower, I needed a strong mast extension that would fit in the rotator, would fit through the thrust bearing (that I also bought from DX Engineering) and would fit tightly into the coupler. To be sure that after mounting on my roof, I would not have the mast bent by the wind, at the top of the thrust bearing, I went back to the company I ordered the aluminum angles from and ordered a 4' section of 2" O.D. aluminum tubing with a wall thickness of 0.25". By the time I got the tower completed, the coupler installed and the rotator attached to the mast, and then got my son and grandson to come to my house to put up the tower and install the antenna on it, another month had passed and it was now the end of September. On September 26, the tower and the antenna were installed. Now, to get to the review of the antenna - It had SWR below 1.5 on all 6 bands; using my old inverted V HF antenna on 20 meters, I had a big problem being heard when I would transmit - now everyone seems to hear me just fine. Have made many contacts in US, and some DX with the antenna. The directionality is remarkable, especially compared to the inverted v dipole. I love the antenna. I wish the whole saga to get it, to build the tower (I found that I am not a metal worker), to get the mast coupler and extension, to get the blocking between my rafters done and to get the tower mounted had been much easier, but I got it all done and the antenna works GREAT. I give it 5 Stars. Thanks, Waldi. Thanks Kent & Lorrie. Thanks Elex and Conor.
August 30, 2022 - I have now been using this antenna for 2 years. I can't praise it enough. It has withstood 2 winters and summers here in north Georgia with no problems. SWR still below 1.3 on all 6 bands. Front to back signal ratio is still great. I just love this antenna. |
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| VA3LUK |
Rating: |
2021-10-10 | |
| Good quality but need some tuning on 6,10 and 12 m |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I waited for an antenna for about 2 months, which is not bad for me. Easy assembly and very good workmanship. I only had 2 problems with the antenna. After installation, I had to spend about 2 hours tuning up the 6m band because the SWR 1.1 was much below 50 MHz. At the time of tuning 6 m, the SWR on 12 meters went to the top but I also managed to do it. A 10-meter band also needed matching to 28,500. which took a few minutes for me too. I did everything, and now it's ok. The antenna is working great. 2 weeks ago I had gusty wind up to 80 km/h and the antenna survived. Although I had to devote some time to tuning 6m 12m and 10m I still recommend buying the antenna from SP7IDX. UPDATE: I HAVE 2021 AND 3RD YEAR WHEN I USE THE ANTENNA, STILL WORK GREAT EVEN BETTER SINCE I MOVE THE ANTENNA ON THE 44 FT TOWER
As of July 2021, I lost the antenna to a lightning strike. Probably all the knowledge of my colleague Waldek SP7IDX died in April and just at this moment I do not have any spare parts for this antenna. No one responds to my emails from his family. Unfortunately, I had to replace this antenna with another one. |
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| VK4KPM |
Rating: |
2021-05-08 | |
| Excellent antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
An excellent antenna. Easy to assemble and SWR on all bands except 6m was very good. Had 20 over into Tasmania and 5/9 into USA on 20m.
I have just noticed on QRZ that Waldi is now silent key. Hopefully someone will take over where Waldi left off.
He made an excellent antenna. Will be missed. |
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| HA3MAK |
Rating: |
2021-02-12 | |
| Great antenna! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| The delivery time was very long: I ordered the antenna in june and it arrived in december but it was worth to wait. I installed the hexbeam on the 19th of december and my first QSOs was to New Caledonia(~16000km) and Reunion(~8300km) and since I made a lot of QSOs to new DXCCs! I'm very satisfied with it and I can recommend! |
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| DG1PM |
Rating: |
2020-12-14 | |
| Excellent Antenna! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| At the beginning of the year I ordered a SP7IDX hexbeam from Waldi. The delivery time is a bit long, but it's definitely worth the wait! The antenna is superbly made, very well constructed and delivers very good results on the bands. If you have any questions or problems, you can always contact Waldi, he answers quickly. SWR is very good on all bands immediately after assembly, easily tuned. If you can live with the delivery time, from my point of view it is definitely the best Hexbeam on the market! |
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| 2E0OPS |
Rating: |
2020-11-12 | |
| Could have been better |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have one of the new hexbeams from waldi and even though it looks good and seems to perform as it should, there are a few things to be careful of.
WARNING: use hand tools only to assemble.
Pro's:
Centre post construction and materials are very nice.
Centre post mounting hardware is of a nice design and the post fits snugly.
Spreader hub is nicely cut with apertures for coax.
Spreaders and the assembly of the 3 sections is good.
Con's:
Over tightening of the bolts for the spreader clamps, even with hand tools, will result in a fusing of the nut to the bolt (quality issue), this will then shear if any attempt is made to remove it.
The metal pipe clips with rubber surround, page 5 of the manual, supplied with mine, are not very nice to work with, very fiddly and take alot of time to fit, you will have to add amalgamating or pvc tape to the spreaders where the pipe clips are fitted to prevent them from sliding down the arm, i would have preferred the plastic clamps seen on other versions of this antenna and other makers.
In the box was a bag containing the nuts, bolts and washers for the pipe clips, each bolt had a washer and a nut screwed on making the assembly time unnecessarily long as you have to undo all 36 and separate, individual bags of nuts, bolts and washers would have helped speed things up.
The number 1 spreader has some clips fitted and some vinyl tape supposedly to represent the fitting location of clips for the wire elements, i found these to be mostly incorrect, also the information relating to the spacing of the elements could have been included in the manual to clarify things better.
All the above increases the assembly procedure to many many hours unlike other makers, the previous hexbeam i had took just 1 1/2 hours to assemble and install.
The swr/tuning of the individual elements is very good, even though the manufacture could have been better, i had to add heat shrink to the sections where the wire joins the spacer line to help with the assembly, due to constant snagging.
I am on my 3rd hexbeam, all 3 from different makers, if you have any savy you wont need the manual as there are various high speed videos out there, but Request a copy of the assembly manual from Waldi as its NOT included in the box!!!
Overall i am happy with the antenna, looks and general build quality are good, but it could have been much better.
The assembly manual insists that we leave a review of this antenna or there will be NO WARRANTY cover, Page 67 ("not issue an opinion within may result in loss of warranty") many call this blackmail, any reviews should be voluntary and should not come with terms.
If the warranty is not honoured because of this honest review, then the warranty offered is a lie.
Update: Since my original post 2 of the spreader arms broke at the point where the alloy tubing meets the fibreglass and trying to get replacement parts or even an answer from Waldi is just a waste of time, instead i had to buy replacement parts from MW0JZE to repair the antenna, this purchase has turned out to be a nightmare deal and many others have been experiencing the same. |
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| 4Z1JJ |
Rating: |
2020-11-12 | |
| Fantastic antenna! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I had been thinking about a directional antenna for some time now, but I was concerned about my neighbors and city ordinances. I finally bit the bullet. I needed something relatively small and light, and decided on a Hexbeam. I had read the positive reviews about Waldi's antenna, and I also was aware of the long lead time from order to delivery. As it turned out, Covid-19 and the Polish post office added to the wait time, which would have been longer had Waldi not intervened (with the post office, not with Covid-19).
When I finally received the antenna, I was blown away by the build quality. Truly impressive, and well worth the wait. The instructions were a different story, they need to be revamped for the new model, but I succeeded in putting the antenna together. Ground measured SWR was good on 20 but high (above 2.5:1) on the other bands, especially high on 10 meters. I was a little concerned that I may have done something wrong, but Waldi assured me that after the antenna installation on my roof (about 8 meters or 25 feet above ground and about a meter or 3 feet above my roof) the SWR would drop. And sure enough, it did.
I installed it last week, and my first contact was with the US on FT8 on 20 meters. I have not had any contact with the US in several years due mainly to poor band conditions. I have since spoken to Brazil, Costa Rica and other countries that had been "out of reach" for me for a couple of years. Yesterday I had a SSB QSO with a US station in California which even during good conditions are not so easy from Israel. And the reports I get from Europe are phenomenal. A couple of hams said I was so strong that they fell out of their chairs when I called them.
This is truly a fantastic antenna. Waldi really cares about build quality and it shows. HF is fun again!
73 de Rich, 4Z1JJ
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| DK4XW |
Rating: |
2020-10-05 | |
| Good price and service! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I ordered the Hexbeam Mark IV from Waldi at the end of April 2020. The antenna arrived more than 4 months after payment during the Corona crisis. The material looks good and stable on the outside. I haven't set up the antenna yet. Once I do this, I will report on the functionality of the antenna. |
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| CT7AKL |
Rating: |
2020-09-27 | |
| Good antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| After a long waiting I received the antenna. Easy to assembly, the material looks good, swr between 1.1 and 1.5. Applied a G 450c rotator at 10m high, works very well. |
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