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Reviews For: Force12 Delta-4SXL

Category: Antennas: HF: Yagi, Quad, Rotary dipole, LPDA

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Review Summary For : Force12 Delta-4SXL
Reviews: 3MSRP: 1999
Description:
8 element Quad Band Yagi
Product is in production
More Info: http://force12inc.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0035
EA6LP Rating: 2002-01-12
performance & satisfaction Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have mine since 6-nov.1998, it has survived the most desvastating wind storm in EA6 land in 40 years (100.000 trees fallen), with minor damage
(40 m wires loose).
Very close to the sea side I had to change only
all the aluminium wire holders in the 40 m elements, replacing them for stainless steel scrath build ones, not difficult.
The antena is valid to get almost all awards in
HF, great in contests, no tuner in 1o-15-17-20-40
m. TX/RX internal tuner in 12m and external tuner
in 30 m. Performance great in 10-15-20-40 m, rather good in 17, good in 12 m. And it works also in 3O m (not a word in manual). Multiband per
formance in only ONE antenna.
Breaks the pile ups and the reports are very good.
To upgrade, change to C4XL, or a tower with 3 beams if you can,....
In the less performing band 12 m I worked Kigman Reef and Jonston Isl. who can ask for more...
When FO0AAA I broke the California pile up with
only 100 W in 20 m.
But, demanding a lot of work to adjust to europeans bands, to install 40 m stiff wire, to
adjust 40 m band, SWR complicated to understand
as changes with the height. Once up in the air
you forget all. Superb if you have a tram tover
(I had to made mine from scratch building), then
the problems are minor. I have replaced the special 40 m wire, installed ordinary plastic covered heavy gauge copper electrical wire, and
adjust the jumpers to this, all OK. When I ordered
the antenna I had no previous reference, now I congratulate myself for having it during this high
sun spot cycle, I have worked incredible DX.
If you are an internet multiband/multimode Dxer you never will have a moment to relax. Buy it
and you will remenber me.

ZL1DD Rating: 2001-05-23
Excellent Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I moved to the C-4SXL after good experience with the C-3S. Mine is on a 15m tower, feed approx 30m RG213. My main interest is CW. I used F12 baluns since experience taught me that some other commercial baluns gave swr problems on 10m. Coax coil baluns should be good, too. I found the 10m and 15m DE a little too short for best SWR on the cw ends of the bands. Otherwise is right on specification as far as I can tell. Remember that local sigs on 40m come in at a high angle and the antenna will seem to lack directivity for that reason.
The documented 40m linear load settings seem only good for a guide, be prepared to experiment to find the optimum.
My only criticism is that the way of fitting the alumaweld 40m loading wires by simply looping through the supports is primitive and lacks adjustment. The wire is brittle and likely to break if you change things. One day I will make something better.
My QTH overlooks the sea. A TH-5 beam only lasted three weeks before salt got into the traps. My C-3S played perfectly for two years and survived the tail end of a tropical cyclone with winds well beyond rating before being sold to its present happy owner. He lives in a windy location and has since reported some of the element bracket to boom rivets failing. If living in a high wind area might be smart to replace these rivets with ss bolts.
Results from both the F12 beams have been excellent. If going for a compact installation I would seriously look at the C-4S or C-4.
KT4WW Rating: 2000-09-23
BIG bang for the buck! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a GREAT antenna. I'll admit I haven't had any other beam antennas to compare it to but, judging from the excellent signal reports I've been getting, it's a real performer! I would also like to comment on the ease with which the antenna assembled. All elements are riveted together which made things incredebily easy. The antenna performed almost exactly as advertised except I seem to be getting an even better front to back ration on 20 meters than expected. The 2 40 meter elemnts are shortened to about 38 feet each and they employ a linear loading scheme instead of traps to achieve the necessary electrical length. This reduces the useable bandwidth to about 130 khz but, with a little work, I was able to tune this to exactly where I wanted it on the band. I will say that the F/B ration on 40 is not quite what I had hoped for but the F/S rejection is awesome and the gain is definately there (I had a dipole on 40 before and there's no comparison!). The only real criticism I have (and its a small one) is that the documentation could be improved. I guess it was good enough though because I was able to assemble the antenna without any mistakes. Force12 has EXTREMELY good tech support (yes Natan I'm talking about you!!) and this made all the difference to me. I am definately a Force12 believer!