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Reviews For: MapleLeaf Communications - Shorty4020 dipole

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : MapleLeaf Communications - Shorty4020 dipole
Reviews: 3MSRP: 60
Description:
2 band linear loaded dipole.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mapleleafcom.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0034.7
WB8ICU Rating: 2023-04-25
ideal for limited space Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
great antenna. i put it up at 20 ft height and checked with nano nva. Right out of the box, 20 meters was under 2:1 across the band. on forty meters, its 1.5 to 1 from 7.000 to 7.100---perfect since I only run cw on hf. i was surprised as the length is 39 ft , which seems to be about 7 ft too long on 20 !!
VE3WGO Rating: 2019-07-15
Nice short dual band dipole Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is a cleverly designed linear loaded dipole on 40m, and essentially a full size 1/2 wave on 20m. I bought mine at a Toronto hamfest from Bob at MapleLeaf. My results are similar to A22EW ... about 300 kHz on 20m, and around 110 kHz on 40m. The best SWR I got out of the box in my setup was 1.2 on 20m (at 14.170) and 1.4 on 40m (at 7.210), which were very good and close enough to my targets that I did not need to adjust anything. I put it up as an almost level dipole at 23 feet, and it is a nice performer on both bands. I bought the assembled version for the $20 extra and it went up very fast. It seems like a good antenna for portable operations too, being less than 40 feet long, and easy to pack up and unroll when needed.

The connections were all weatherproofed and appear to be solid and tough enough to stand the weather. I also bought the 80m + 40m version as a kit, and that will go up a little later in the year for winter operations. It is 70 feet long, but I designed my mountings to handle the longer antenna too.

I would say it is a good value antenna.
A22EW Rating: 2014-07-08
Well built and works Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this antenna from Bob who owns Maple Leaf Communications up in Ontario. The intent was to have a multi-band dipole which did not take up much space and did not use traps.

Bob produces a 40/20 dual bander which makes use of linear loading for 40m; plus capacitance that gives 20m capabilities. There are two version - as a kit or pre-built. I opted for the kit as i wanted to add additional bands which all good.

The kit comes with darcon ropes, ceramic egg insulators, heavy duty insulated copper wire which you have to cut into half, ladder line which too needs to be cut, 13m of RG-8 coax. All that is left is to measure, cut, weave the wire through the ladder line and solder the connections.

First impressions were the materials used were very good and instructions straight forward. It took me around 1.5 hours to complete the antenna and tuning it was straightforward on 40m.

Bandwidth is around 100kc on 40m and around 250kc on 20m. My next task is to add 10m, 12m, 15m to this antenna. The length end to end is around 13m which you can easily make into an inverted V or regular dipole.

The antenna is sitting around 9m above ground and i have been able to make good contacts with this.

I do recommend this antenna if you are short of space and want to put something that works. Bob was gracious in answer any questions i had prior to putting it together.

He has several other antennas also available. I am sure they would also be as good as this one.

Look up Mapleleaf Communication (NOT Maple Leaf Studies at E-Bay).