| K6TGT |
Rating:  |
2024-02-16 | |
| One improvement |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I have one of the 66 foot folded dipole antennas I put up about 9 months ago. It is up approximately 50 feet at the middle and is strung between two trees with no center support. Yesterday morning I found it laying on the ground after winds of about 40 mph that night. Examination showed that one of the swivels had failed. I was a little suspicious of the swivels when I first put it up as they didn’t seem all that robust and were not ball bearing. In any event, I have now replaced the swivels with #10 ball bearing swivels rated at 660 pounds. They cost me $11 for the pair on Amazon. Not only are they far more robust but they swivel far better making it much easier to put up the antenna without the wires twisting. I suggest this improvement to anyone using this antenna. Otherwise, I am completely happy with it and would buy it again. |
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| WM4RB |
Rating: |
2021-11-29 | |
| GREAT Antenna! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I purchased mine 8 to 10 years ago without any problems. Use it daily for my Winlink RMS. |
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| W7LB |
Rating: |
2021-11-28 | |
| Low SWR Across the Bands |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Update 11-28-2021:
Nine months after my initial review, I can provide a more seasoned point of view on this antenna. In the meantime I have strung up two OCF multi-band antennas in different directions. They have been able to provide points of comparisons in multiple conditions and on multiple bands. First I will say that the Terminated Folded Dipole (TFD) continues to provide low SWRs across all of the bands. Second, in terms of performance, I have found that one or the other OCF antenna of mine tends to out-perform the TFD in head-to-head competition where their lobes of radiation are lined up. The difference is usually 1 to 2 S units. So I do believe the design of the TFD inherently soaks up some of the power that is put to it. Regarding the B2Engineering TFD's construction, I do not agree at all that its construction is cheaply done. In fact, I have been impressed with how sturdy it is, and how well it remains stable in high winds. Also, the antenna came well-packed and ready to roll out for raising. Having said that however, the folded over design is inherently unstable during the antenna raising process. The wires do have a tendency to roll over on themselves. So the TFD required several attempts, and about 2 hours, to put up. But I was able to do it by myself. And the antenna has remained solidly in place ever since. Summing up, I would say that the primary benefit of the TFD, compared to another multi-band type of antenna such as the OCF, is its broadbanded SWR across ALL of the ham bands from 6 meters to 160; and by broadbanded I mean low to moderate SWR across the entire band. I use the TFD now mainly for access to 80 and 160 meters and when needing to quickly jump to a different band and begin transmitting. Based on my experience, I continue to Recommend this antenna and a 5 star rating.
Original Review: I bought the 122 foot version after much research and have been very pleased. It seems pretty amazing to skip around the bands without ever having to worry about tuning the antenna. I am now also using an MFJ Intellituner with it and the automatic tuning will sometimes kick in when the SWR gets above 1.5.
Since there is much debate about terminated folding dipoles sapping some of the power away, I finally have been able to put up a multi-band doublet to compare it to. What I have found is that there doesn't seem to be much of a performance difference between the two. Sometimes one is better ... then othertimes the other is better. Since the two antennas are oriented somewhat differently, I presume the differences mostly occur because of the variance of radiation patterns.
The one caveat I would mention, as others have, is the relative difficulty of raising the antenna without getting the wires crossed. I put it up by myself and had some difficulty with it. It took me several times of raising and lowering it, and flipping it around to get it up straight and true. Having experienced the antenna's proclivity to flip over on itself, I was quite worried how it would survive strong wind. Somewhat to my surprise, it has been completely stable and has survived several strong storms.
Others have mentioned how quiet the antenna is. I can't speak to that yet in comparisons with the doublet. The noise floor on both is about the same.
I would strongly recommend the antenna if you are looking for a multi-band setup that will be your only antenna. It provides the benefit of flat to low SWR across all of the bands, including 160 meters; and there doesn't seem to be any trade-off in terms of lost power.
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| VE4SW |
Rating: |
2021-11-28 | |
| cheap materials, unreliable, bad manufacturing |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Got the 122' version. Far too expensive for what you get, flimsy with loose spacers that move around and allow the wires to twist in strong wind. Not weighted on the bottom to keep position. Cheap plastic frame for mounting. Packaging for shipping was awful. Just thrown in the box! Worst of it all is that SWR is all over. AVOID! |
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| PY2RAF |
Rating: |
2019-07-13 | |
| Works as advertised - STURDY antenna. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Bought Terry's T2FT after a lot of research. After comparing with the Yaesu YA-30 and Icom AH-710 counterparts (which shares the same design), reading eham.net reviews, I gave B² T2FD a try.
Due to space limitations, I bought the 66 ft version.
Terry was kind enough to pick up my phone call and ship it expedite to the hotel where I was staying in Boston.
Without further ado, here comes the results:
* My antenna sports a Palomar Engineering 3 kW Balun, as well a industrial grade resistor. Good and sturdy stuff.
* We are in the middle of a all-time sun-spot *LOW*. And I have installed the antenna in a less than optimal scenario, surrounded by a building and a metal fence.
* By using a 100W Yaesu FT-991A I was able to close FT-8 contacts (check my QRZ logbook, callsign PY2RAF) with a good lot of countries, including transoceanic.
* I was able to work every frequency that the radio supports. The low SWR works as advertised, but since FT-991A sports a internal tuner, I do use the internal tuner to give the rig a bit relief (and avoid ALC tripping the power output).
* For completeness, I compared the antenna performance with my homebrew 40m half-wave Dipole Antenna. I compared the TX strenght by monitoring my signal in a remote SDR; the RX checking the noise floor and received signal strenght.
- The TX level was pretty much the same: I did not found any difference. Check.
- The RX level provided two less S-units in noise floor. WTH, is the antenna deaf? By no means! The signals come stronger. Allow me to explain:
* Dipole: NF: S7. A QSO net coordinator signal strenght: S9. 2 S-units SNR.
* T2FD: NF: S5. The coordinator signal strenght: S8. 3 S-Units SNR.
Yes.
HINTS
If storing and moving somewhere else, SPARE YOU THE HASSLE and do yourself a favor: TIE and WIND PROPERLY each side. You will not WANT to spend a hour trying to untangle the antenna and then giving up and resorting to the wire cutter. Yes. That broke my heart. ;-/
If you radio has a built-in tuner, you will want to check the SWR figure in the selected frequency and make good use of it, for your transceiver comfort sake.
CLOSING CONSIDERATIONS
Some may say that the antenna gives good SWR because the resistor burns the mismatch.
Yes, that is true. So, what? If I wanted a good antenna to perform **very** nicely in every advertised band, I would need a lot more of estate space and visual impact.
Now you get off my lawn.
VSWR figures in https://rf01.co:8443/q/t2fd-vswr.png
Happy and recommend. Good stuff. Tips my (Red) Hat to Terry.
73s de PY2RAF. |
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| VE3OSY |
Rating: |
2018-11-03 | |
| Impressive and Quiet |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I have limited space, and for years had been using a sloper. There is a Hydro transformer close to me and at times anything below 40 meters was a write off. Since putting up the T2FD I have been able to hear signals again on the low bands. The instant QSY is wonderful. Could not be happier |
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| KI7QVR |
Rating: |
2018-05-10 | |
| Update...sending it back |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is an update to an early review...
After giving this antenna 4 days to do something good, I finally gave up. In theory, this antenna is supposed to alleviate the well-known problem of the resistor dissipating power in terminated dipoles. Because, according to the website, a null in the signal happens to fall right on the resistor. It seemed like the perfect solution as they had redesigned a military antenna to perform on ham bands. A 'holy grail' so to speak...
After thinking about it, if a 'null' in the RF falls on the resistor, then there would never be any current flow through the resistor and therefore the resistor wouldn't be necessary, if my thinking is correct. Wouldn't that make the resistor look like an 'open' circuit? Zero voltage, zero current equals infinite resistance? But then that didn't make sense. If you look at the model of a half-wave dipole, the current is maximum in the center of the antenna at resonance. How do you have max current with zero voltage? But, I could be missing something, I'm not an engineer.
The night before last I attempted to check into a net. It took several tries and somebody had to relay for me. Out of 50 operators on that net, perhaps 1 or two weren't below the noise level. When my turn came up, I tried to call two different states. Neither responded. Then I went "up for grabs". Usually when somebody does this, a hilarious pile-up ensues. I got NOTHING. I did it again and....NOTHING! Not one person could hear me. And this was on 40m; the band this antenna is built around. Sigh. Last night, when NCS was doing check-ins, he was 5-7. Usually when they're that strong, they hear me without issue. I tried several times and he couldn't hear me. Nobody even heard me to relay.
I wanted to like this antenna. I put a lot of time into making a pulley rigging, burying some rods in the ground to anchor it to etc, (there was 6' of 50 lb. test fishing line and an insulator between the antenna and the copper anchor rods). (In 102 degree heat) But, it wasn't to be.
I do want to say, it is VERY WELL BUILT! Great materials and nothing is cheap about it. It uses bare 1/16" stranded, stainless steel 'rope' (or cable if you prefer). It wasn't unwieldy to work with, either. The cable itself is so strong, it kind of acts like two more guy wires and the tension helped keep my mast straight.
Some folks seem to have good luck with it but not in this case. |
|
| GW4PJQ |
Rating: |
2016-03-22 | |
| Low noise |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
The TFD is the best kept secret in ham radio. Yet if you tell anyone you are using one, you get lectured about the huge losses in the resistor and your mental health is opened to question.
These complex aerials are at worst one "S" point down on a dipole cut for the band of operation. You actually get a subjective improvement in receive signal level, because the noise level is about five "S" points down on an open circuit (not folded) dipole.
Someone should investigate why these aerials perform so well in this respect. The maths is very complex and beyond me.
But seriously, these aerials are not dummy loads. In fact if I want to ascertain the knowledge a radio ham has of antenna theory, I ask them "what do you think of the TFD" The usual answer is "load of crap" which is a good description of their antenna knowledge!
BUY ONE you wont regret it. |
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| WB4TJH |
Rating: |
2015-08-25 | |
| i'm pleased with the 122 foot version. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I recently moved to a rural area with lots of room and decided to dig out my 122 footer. My first mistake was trying to erect it by myself. It took several hours of struggling to get it untangled from being stored for 3 years, and to get it up without it twisting on me, but I stayed with it and now it's up about 35 feet and working like a charm. It's really nice to QSY without having to reset my tuner settings...now I don't need the tuner. I have made careful comparisons with the B Square and a dipole fed with balanced feed line and I get the same signal reports as before but I enjoy not only the tune-free aspect of this antenna, but receive background noise is much lower than before. I said "lower" not absent. You can still hear the static, but it is much less annoying than on the straight wire dipole and I can hear weak stations much easier now. I'm glad I bought the 122 footer several years ago, because I spend a LOT of time on 75 meters and the 122 footer is resonant there with no losses unlike the 66 footer, which is a compromise on 75 meters. The 122 footer is also a compromise on 160, but it will work. If you are contemplating one of these antennas, get the longer one if you have the room...you won't be sorry with its performance. This antenna is expensive, but it's a real winner. It's a true no-tune antenna with exceptional performance and it optimized for the ham bands, unlike the old standard 90 foot models other sell.
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Earlier 4-star review posted by WB4TJH on 2012-11-10
I have the longer, 122 foot version of this antenna and have had it up for several months now. I have it in an inverted V configuration, with the center at 50 feet, one end at 20 feet and the other at 25 feet. The antenna is a fine performer, and like the manufacturer claims, seems to indeed be optimized for the ham bands and seems to exhibit little or no loss due to the terminating resistor. I run about 400 watts SSB, and the antenna performs at least as well as a 140 foot dipole I had up fed with 450 ladderline on all bands. What is so neat about the B Square is that I no longer have to tune for each band, I can hit the band switch on the radio and talk. SWR always is below 1.5, and I get very good signal reports, at least as good as my old all band dipole. The only problem I had is that the antenna would twist in the wind. I finally added three more spreaders to each side and things seem OK now. You MUST keep this antenna pulled taught to prevent it from twisting in the wind and shorting out the two wires. Once I learned this, it has been a sterling performer, and being made of stainless steel cable, I think it will last a LONG time without problems. It is definately worth considering, and unlike the BW models, the longer length keeps losses on the ham bands to a non issue, and the price for stainless steel makes it an antenna that should last for many touble free years. On 160, it does work, but not as well, being only 122 feet long. If you are tired of having to fool with an antenna tuner every time you want to switch bands, this antenna is the answer. |
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| KB1TLC |
Rating: |
2014-12-15 | |
| Great multiband antenna |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I was looking for an inexpensive tuner-free HF antenna which could cover 80-10m including WARC bands, mainly for digital use, so I did not require particularly high power handling. I have been intrigued by the TFD design and found B-Square Engineering's offering which is optimized for amateur bands.
I got the 66ft version, and I'm very impressed with the results. I have the antenna slung between the house and a tree, about 20ft up, with a DX Engineering fiberglass pole propping up the center. Without the center support you need quite a lot of tension to stop it sagging significantly in the middle.
To tension the antenna I ran the support cord over a pulley in the tree and used a storm door spring and washing line tightener (both from Home Depot) anchored at the bottom of the tree to set the tension. I can easily raise and lower the antenna in seconds with the tightener, the center pole just hooks on to the center assembly of the antenna.
Using the WSPR beacon mode, it seems to get out very well on 40-10m including WARC bands, with significantly more compromised performance on 80, as one would expect. Running just 50-500mW of WSPR from coastal Maine on 40/30/20/17/15/10m, signals have been received in Europe, South America and the west coast USA with dBs to spare. I'm currently building up some stats to compare send/receive S/N reports to see if I can draw more accurate conclusions as to the transmit performance compared with other antennas in use on WSPR. Will report back if I find anything useful!
The SWR is less than 2:1 on all bands, and most are better than 1.5:1. It is great to be able to QSY instantly between bands with no tune up required.
This is of course a compromise antenna and there will be some losses, but B-Square seem to have done a great job of minimizing these in the amateur bands. Recommended.
Chris, KB1TLC |
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