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Reviews For: Cushcraft A503S

Category: Antennas: VHF/UHF+ Directional (Yagi, quad, etc.)

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Review Summary For : Cushcraft A503S
Reviews: 24MSRP: 99.95
Description:
Enjoy the new popularity and exciting contacts on the 6 meter band with one of the S-series Cushcraft Yagis. The A503S, A505S and A506S may be mounted vertically for FM use.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.cushcraftamateur.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00244.5
W9ZX Rating: 2021-10-20
Good dependable antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought mine years ago and it has been up at 65 feet since it was new. I have had no problems with the antenna. It has decent directivity and decent front to back rejection. If I needed 3 element 6 meter beam I would buy another one.
N7NWP Rating: 2021-01-23
Good deal Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I researched 3 element beams as I am relatively space limited. This seemed to fit the bill.
Purchase: Easy as some had it in stock. Price $160 +shipping.
Assembly: Easy. Read the instructions. They can be sometimes confusing as all can but lay out your parts and read each step. Together in an hour or so (distractions).
One hex nut was missing for the assembly of the element to the boom. This was unfortunate but not a deal breaker (a zip tie was used temporarily as I did not have the size at my QTH and did not want to go out to get nuts). One really negative: The user manual appears to be a copy of 1,000 copies, in other words it is very difficult to read as the printing is not sharp. I used the on line version to assist.
It is not heavy by most standards and I was able to put it up 15 feet on a temp mount.

Match was 1.5:1 so I moved the match and got it to 1.1:1 Satisfied. No messing around.

I used it on Meteor Scatter with 100 watts and a Yaesu FT450D - I made a contact in the evening with a station
about 450 miles away and several received signals. In the morning I used FT8 and hit a receiver 700 miles away. 9conditions not optimal) and MS was good sending signals.
I am still putting it through the paces of 6M and want to use it on SSB to see how much improvement there is from a smaller 6M I have used.
This antenna is small enough to put in th epick up and work roving(may have to break some parts down - but easy to put up). I will follow up with more.

Overall short time I have had this antenna I see a vast improvement. It is worth the purchase for someone looking to get into 6M or needing to keep a low profile.
AH6FC Rating: 2020-06-04
works well Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
6/3/20 - just bought another one...stealthy and not terribly expensive ....$200. Expect performance will be as before. During assembly....some holes not drilled, hardware missing...no not major but, come on guys....just because it is not terribly expensive, please include all the parts and drill the holes. Not the end of the world but an inconvenience.



I wanted to have an antenna with some gain and FB that was small, i.e. stealthy, and reasonably priced (temporary QTH)...thus the A503S. It's been up about a year, all of 8 feet above ground on a 1.5 inch PVC pipe attached to a small garden gazebo. Electrically it works quite well. Flat SWR, handles full KW without difficulty, and good reports. Even with lousy conditions I've worked 28 states and a little DX in the past year. Mechanically, well, it's only $99. It's held up to our pretty strong and consistent winds, i.e. 20 - 30 mph nearly every day, but it's only at 8 feet. Not sure how it would do with ice ?? Nevertheless, it's a good antenna, particularly for portable operations. Perhaps not for the big gun 6 meter dx station, but not bad for those who need to hide their antennas! (which is too many of us).
73 & Aloha,
Bill
N8FVJ Rating: 2018-05-22
Great 6 meter Antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had this antenna many years ago. Bought another one. Easy assembly, good design & construction.

I tuned the gamma match stub for a flat 1 to 1 SWR on 50.125mHz.

I know it is only about 8dB gain, but it is also a wide enough beam to hear weak stations off to the side vs missing all together with 5-8 elements and a very narrow beam. Receivers are so sensitive now that ultra high gain antennas are not necessary except perhaps moon bounce. Simply use 1KW out on 6 meters with an amp and this 8db gain antenna. They will hear you & you will hear them.

A bargain at $139 shipped.
K6RB Rating: 2012-12-29
Good antenna, lousy company Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The A50-S3 is a pretty basic antenna. The manual is okay with respect to the boom and element assembly. However, the part they call the ReddiMatch is a small rod parallel to one side of the driven element where it specifies an X dimension and a SET dimension. The X dimension is supposedly the amount you pull out the inner tube, and the SET dimension is the position of the tuning strap that connects the outer tube to the driven element. The ReddiMatch as sent was sealed on both ends, so there was no way to set dimension X. I tried to call Cushcraft for 3 DAYs straight - the phone was busy from 9 AM to 5 PM and rang without message machine at other times. I sent a trouble ticket which was acknowledged but never answered. So, I just went ahead and mounted it on the mast, and played with the dimensions of the driven element and tuning strap until I got something I could work with. I will NEVER deal with MFJ, Cushcraft, or any other Martin F. Jue companies, again. They have absolutely no concept of customer service.
KD5PDN Rating: 2012-07-25
Stealthy 6M beam Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This antenna was selected for an attic installation because it requires only a 6 foot radius to turn. I found a sweet spot where it just fits in my attic and it functions as a stealth antenna.

It sits atop a Yaesu G-450A rotator and hooks up to my second antenna connector on my Kenwood TS-480 which rememembers which connector to use for 6M (sweet).

I have used this now for 6 months. It was a fun build, being small enough you can do it in an evening indoors. It acheives the SWR the factory specs give it - use the manual to tune the lengths of the elements for optimization.

6M band can vary and I would say it has 1/10 the activity of a 40 or 80 M band - probably because 6M requires it's own antenna as most multiband antennae can't do this band. It's fun though when the band is open and you can hit states across the USA on 100W.

Still waiting to make my first international contact but it's just a matter of time. Good antenna.
KJ6QVB Rating: 2012-01-28
Gets the job done 30' up Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased used for $65 on ebay, I cleaned it up and replaced one missing element with an identical diameter aluminum pole. Put it on top of a 30' Army surplus tower with an old tv rotator. It seems to be working ok with my Heathkit SB-110A the SWR is 1.4 to 1 across the band but only 2 contacts so far because 6 meters isn't happening right now. Glad I didn't spend twice as much on a new one!
N5XTR Rating: 2010-06-15
A good antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this antenna to replace my vertical dipole at home for 6 meters. It is my favorite band and the June VHF QSO Party is my favorite contest. Bought the A503s from Universal Radio who had it $10 cheaper than anyone else and they actually had it in stock. I put it up on a 35' mast and a small TV rotator, CDR from the 70's. I had a great time testing this antenna against my vertical dipole and I ended up taking the vertical dipole out of service. Even though the receiving stations could still copy me just fine on the dipole, the Cushcraft delivered a much better signal. This is probably due to the gain of the yagi but still any improvement on 6 meters will pay off big time. I made over 700 contacts this year to over 200 grids from DM83 using this antenna. Many stations asked my power and number of elements, I had lots of reports of 20 over 9. I can only give this antenna a 4/5 because I know there are better antennas out there but I haven't tried them. Also I set the match in accordance to the manual but it was a little off but not bad, SWR got better when it was raining, HIHI.
KZ3X Rating: 2010-05-02
Sturdy and performs Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had a A503S since the late 1980's and I have had absolutely no trouble with it. After following the directions for assembly, the antenna SWR was right on the button.

I achieved VUCC in the early 1990's using my FT-726R running 10 watts on 6 meters on CW and SSB just to see if I could do it. The tower was usually cranked up to only 30 feet at this time. The antenna was fed back then with 9913 coax and I am now using a combination of SMR 600 and 400 feedline. Anything I hear I can usually work running 100 watts. Of course it won't perform as good as a 30 foot boom 6 element model, but you can have a lot of fun with this antenna on the bands.

I live in a very high wind area that also gets its share of sleet and freezing rain and I can honestly say this antenna never let me down. The winter of 2010 was particularly bad with at least a half a dozen Nor'easters, some with gusts as high as 60 mph+ and it never missed a beat. Now, if the sun spot cycle would just get going.....
N8LB Rating: 2009-08-21
gamma match deteriorates Time Owned: more than 12 months.
After several years my gamma match gave me problems. This is the third time I will be redoing it...may go to hairpan match.