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Reviews For: Great Lakes Antennas All-Banders

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : Great Lakes Antennas All-Banders
Reviews: 12MSRP: Uncertain, but ~$90.. plus or mi
Description:
All-band coils for portable/mobile antennas.
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00123.8
WA8QFE Rating: 2017-05-15
Portable Use Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have both of the coil versions and use the version with the slider adjustment in operating from the Charles Deam wilderness area in Southern Indiana.
With a MFJ telescopic whip it operates better than my Buddistick and the MP1 Super Antenna.
KB2CWN Rating: 2017-03-02
Works ok, but I think a simple dipole works better Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Works ok with my 817. Guess they made their money and ran. Can't find their business listed anywhere.
KK4RAG Rating: 2015-08-16
Poor Quality won't last Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I've been a ham operator for 3 years have owned this antenna for 4 months and I can't use it on all bands with one whip. You would need to use 3 whips one for 80 meters one for 10 meters and one for the rest in between. I have put no more than 500 watts through it on a daily basis and the coil is failing and is bending in half. It is now on a 15 degree angle. I don't believe it will last 4 more months of daily use. I worry that when it fails it will take out my Ameritron 811H. As I stated I haven't put more than 500 watts through it and it is rated to 600 watts. I no longer have an Ebay account and have no way to contact the seller to use the warranty. Buyers beware of the extra expense to buy and tune whips and to put too many watts through it on a regular basis. The coil must be made of plastic and not metal. I only use it for no more than 4 hours a day. My suggestion to the manufacture is to redesign the coil with a more sturdy material. I hope this helps.
WD8LIC Rating: 2014-12-28
excellent!--works great Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
i live in an antenna restricted area. bought this and set it up -ft off the ground with only 3 radials on the side of my condo next to the neighbors condo. Not an ideal setup. Works great!. SWR about 1.2 and sucks about 18 amps from my power supply for a full 100 w out. Works so good I bought another one for portable/Bug-Out use.

i am putting plenty of entries in the log book.
KI5PO Rating: 2014-05-10
Best mobile set up ever Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Wow! I have ran hamsticks, hustler coils and a screwdriver antenna in the past. I have had several mobile hf rigs from pickups, big trucks and cars. My present set up is on a Kia Optima with the mfj 3 mag mount and the 392M coil with either a 10m hamstick or 102" whip. This antenna rocks! It is easy to tune...I use the capacitive matchbox mounted in the trunk. I mainly operate 40M and 75M and run a 400 watt amp. I get great signal reports everyday! This thing works better than any mobile antenna I have ever used. If you get one, you will not be disapointed. Easy to tune and a snap to mount. Great job Great Lakes Antennas!
N8OX Rating: 2013-10-10
Great Product & Price. Easy to Use. Made in the Good Ole USA! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This review is for the 10-80P portable antenna system. I read the reviews, watched the YouTube video, did some research, and decided to give it a try. I wondered, since this was a continuous tune antenna, if it would be possible to get to one of my MARS frequencies that was outside of the lowest part of 80 meters. I called Dan and asked about this. He told me he makes the coils with extra turns and it may tune without any additional work. I received the antenna, assembled it in my back yard, put the analyzer on it to check the lowest frequency. The analyzer showed a resonance right at 3.00 MHz. This told me it could work the MARS lowest frequency but I thought I may need to extend the counterpoise to compensate for the lower frequency. My tuner did bring it in. I will have to wait until a net on that frequency to check the operations. I setup everything for 14.250 MHz. Moved into the shack, started tuning across the band, found a pile-up working CR/Portugal on 14.260 MHz. I couldn't compete with the big guns but I was hearing the Portugal station 5/8 and MT, VA, TX, FL, MD, and SC 5/9+. Then I setup for another MARS frequency. Using the analyzer I got a 1.38:1 match almost exactly on my net frequency. My tuner brought it to a perfect match. The frequency was noisy but I could hear net control and I did work his station. Changing frequencies is already getting easier, especially since I can quickly verify resonance with an analyzer. I am looking forward to the long weekend and running this little gem through its paces.

Dan, awesome job!!! Thanks for the communications and ideas. Keep up the great work on a Super Product.

BTW, for those that don't always think outside the box when it comes to antenna tuning... if you are at the top of the coil and your resonance is still out of tolerance for the frequency you are attempting to tune, like trying to tune say 29.100 MHz, try removing the top brass section. If the SWR is still too high, take off the second section. Eventually you should get close and possibly have to move the tap ring back down the coil a little. However, it should work... After all, you're just looking for a resonance that should be based on the electrical length... Shortening that length may mean removing some of the rods and using the coil to compensate. Just experiment. I do.

73,
Hoppy
VK2LC Rating: 2013-08-21
Well made, not like a cheap chinese clone Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I used mine on a SOTA (summits of the air) event with great success. I made a small modification, I have resonate counterpoise cut for the bands I work and I feel it improves the performance. I also own a Super antenna but if you compare the two, the great lakes antenna is so much better built and designed to last many years. I always worry about stripping the thread on the plastic wing nut on the super antenna.
I took a camera tripod on the summit in ACT Australia and it made a very easy to erect self supporting antenna.

The brass whip made of 6 short sections is easy to put together, I used a piece of plastic water pipe with caps to store them in my tripod bag.

So overall putting up a portable antenna in the Australian Bush, you need something light strong and easy to put together. Tuning is a bit fiddly first but once you get the hang of it, it is quick and easy.

I have just ordered the tapped coil from Great Lakes Antennas, I was so impressed with the first one, I want to use one on the car with a long whip
KK4NWW Rating: 2013-08-21
VERY PLEASED Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Hi there, i recently purchased a portable coil for mobile or field day, 80-10 meter by great Lakes Antenna, this coil its built like a tank, i really enjoy put it on top of my chevy tracker's roof with a simple 5" magnet mount, and a 102"whip on top.
i used my antenna analyzer to tune it, and was a breeze. pretty easy to tune, and the performance awesome,a friend of mine sent me a text "hey, there is an IOTA expedition to La Orchila Island in Venezuela, they are in 7.170Mhz right now TX FROM THE VENEZUELAN NAVY SHIP ND THEY ARE QRP" i said WHAAAAAATTTT??? could i expected a better moment to try my new toy???

so,with no time to lose, i went to my vehicle, i maked my coil and antenna setup, i put 7.170 on my mfj analyzer. i moved the tuner cap a couple inches up and down and.... there we go!! 1.8 SWR, not perfect but my autotuner did the work.
i WORKED THE QRP STATION ON THE BATTLE SHIP 5-9!!!!!!!! GREAT JOB GREAT LAKES!!!!!!! i definitelly recommend this great product PROUDLY MADE HERE ON THE US!!!!! 73 de KK4-NWW
VK2FJEF Rating: 2013-08-19
not good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought one of these instead of a BUDDISTICK, bad move.
This antenna is very hard to use, gets 80meters ok, gets 40meters ok, but cant seem to get the rest.
The maker claims you can get down to 10meters, dont see how this is posable as then you move the turning ring to get the right swr and if you have the turning ring right on the last run of wire on the coil it still is a swr of over 5, there is no more movement so you can not get it lower.
The antenna is built well, and maybe its just me but i had 5 other hams in my club at our last day out and no one else could get it to work. So not saying it is bad just saying i can get it to work on any thing other then 80 and 40meters.
KD0SYB Rating: 2013-08-02
Great HF Portable/ Mobile Antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have been using a "screwdriver" type antenna for a while now and after having to replace the motor and the contacts a few times; I started looking for an alternative. I purchased the All Bander 392M coil directly from the manufacturer’s website, greatlakesantennas.com. I found the price to be better there then what I found on EBay and a couple of other sites that carried their coils. I was very pleased at how easy it was to set up for the bands I use most often (40m and 75m). This seems to have similar signal reports as my big screwdriver did and I was also able to mount it higher on my truck than the screwdriver (which may explain the efficiency). I did make an inductance coil at the base to achieve 50 Ohms, much like the one I used on my previous screwdriver. I noticed they changed the style of the tap wire, so I contacted them to see if I could order the new ones and they sent them to me at no cost, I was very impressed with the customer service. Very happy so far!