| KK5RT |
Rating:  |
2020-09-01 | |
| Very good for me. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Antenna works very well for a vertical.
Mine shows swr of less than 1.5 on all bands.
If your are in a antenna restricted area you can
not beat this vertical. Coverage 6 thru 160 meters and
will handle 1500 watts.
I have the antenna on a ham 4 mounted horizontally.
This allows me to raise lower the antenna as I wish.
I have made contacts with the antenna in the horizontal
position at height of only 13 feet. The antenna is on the flat roof of my townhouse. This is my second Fat Spectrum antennas. Sold the first thinking I would not
need it. Tried buying it back from the new owner but he would not give it up. The antenna is not a beam but does work.
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| KN4JGH |
Rating: |
2020-05-05 | |
| Great Antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I purchased the Fat Spectrum on Ebay after talking to Carl concerning the antenna. Back in 01/30/2018, I passed my Technician Licenses. And I Purchased A Yaesu 991A with this I was on the hunt for a Multi band antenna. On 09/18/18 I rented a 40 foot boom and installed this antenna 35 feet on my roof eave facing East The Fat Spectrum antenna works great on all bands.I Enjoy my Fat Spectrum Antenna Great Job Carl and Thank You 73 |
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| W9ZOO |
Rating: |
2019-01-07 | |
| good for aVertical |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Its easy to install, Works like a Vertical should work. Don't expect the antenna to work local stations as well as dx. I get low signal reports local. But get good signal reports for dx. Belgium was my first contact.I live in a condo so it gets me on the air .I had better over all experience with my MFJ-1795 but has limited bands.So works ok, can tune every band to 1/1, price is high, quality good. JUST DON'T EXPECT A FIX ALL. |
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| WA0WIK |
Rating: |
2018-06-14 | |
| Great Antenna for a small space |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| In January, I was looking to get back on the air after being QRT since 2007. While perusing things on E-Bay, I saw this antenna. Since I needed an antenna that was fairly compact, I ordered the Fat Spectrum and it arrived three days later. Assembly was quite easy and the antenna was mounted on a 10 ft., fence pipe six feet above ground. I connected a 30 foot line of RG-213 and fired up the station. The first contact was in Spain followed by a call from Croatia. Five other South American stations followed. Later that Afternoon, I was testing the station on the air on 160 meters. I called CQ three times and someone from out near Tucumcari, NM answered my call. My signal report was 5x8 and his was right at +10. Later I left for a short vacation and returned to find a problem with the antenna. I live in Missouri and am subject to severe thunderstorms. The antenna was showing a high VSWR. I found I had been hit with a lightning strike. A resistor was blown. I contacted Carl and he assured me he would fix the problem if I shipped the antenna to him for repair. It was repaired and returned very quickly. The antenna has endured several very high wind events from the mentioned Storms. Although the antenna does not perform as well as my old Carolina Windom 160, I do not have 365 feet of space or trees high enough to put it back up. I am, however, back on the air again and continue to make contacts every day. I have been impressed with both the performance and integrity of the company. |
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| WS3Y |
Rating: |
2018-06-05 | |
| Expected so much... |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Received this antenna about a week ago, but due to weather conditions, just got around to mounting it and testing it this week.
I was so excited when I read the reviews, that I really expected something similar to my 8 yr old S-9 antenna with an LDG 4:1 unun, which is now showing its age.
Since I live in a community with HOA restrictions, I figured the Fat Spectrum would work perfectly to replace an inverted V that I recently lost to a fallen tree. The antennas are on a deck, 16 feet AGL and are surrounded by trees and hills.
My inverted V gave me something to compare my S-9 to, and you could’t Have dreamed of two better performers!
Both the S-9 and the I V pulled in week signals with little base noise and low SWRs that built-in tuners could easily handle.
Both transmitted well with the IV being able to transmit a wee bit farther - but both could reach the UK and Western Europe when the bands permitted.
When I suddenly lost the IV, I was worried that I no longer had two multiband antennas and no back-up for the S-9.
After going through all of the reviews on eham, I found that the S-9 was no longer available ( much to my chagrin - I almost bought a second one at the time I bought my first, but thought they’d always be around, wrong!), so I decided on the Fat Spectrum, but not without reservations.
So this week the weather broke, and I opened the box...
The antenna had arrived quickly in an approx. 3 1/2’ Box, well packed, but with no instructions. However, tubes were marked by magic marker as to where each section should be tightened with worm clamps.
Assembly, was straight forward and was done in about an 20 minutes.
I mounted the Fat Spectrum on a 5’ galvanized steel mast and placed it in a Radio shack galvanized steel TV antenna tripod and preliminarily tested the antenna with my Yaesu FT-991A connected to the antenna with RG-8u.
As “Carl” stated on line, the Fat Spectrum had a very low SWR across all bands and seemed very quiet at first test on all bands, late in the evening.
I then switched to the S-9, and it too was quiet on all bands and tuned easily on all bands as was usual, and all bands were again quiet.
Since I live with HOA restrictions and wish to keep the neighbors and and the “Board” happy, I wanted to paint the antenna green camo to match the trees behind (the S-99 was green from the factory and is barely visible).
I texted Carl to see what his recommendations were regarding final tuning and paint. He said no further tuning of the antenna was necessary, as were no counterpoises , and non-metallic paint should be fine.
It was at this time I made my biggest mistake - I painted the antenna before fulling testing it under a variety of conditions.
The next day 20 and 40 meters were up and conditions better than they had been in weeks!
I thought, now I’m gonna be amazed!
Wrong!!!
I first tested each band with the S-9, and then switched to the Fat Spectrum for comparison.
While the SWR on the Fat Spectrum was lower on the lower bands, both antennas were similar on the higher bands.
BUT, the Fat Spectrum not only had a higher noise level on ALL bands, but was as deaf as a post on the lower bands and far less sensitive on the higher bands - 40 & 20 were the worst with the Fat Spectrum, and the S-9 out performed the Fat Spectrum on all bands in terms of signal strength and clarity of signal.
I switched coax from 8U to 213 - no difference. I switched masts from 5’ to 11’ thinking height above the roof would be the difference. The additional height made the Fat Spectrum actually worse.
It was at this point I figured nothing was going to get better.
I texted “Carl” for help or advice - and got no reply.
Bottom line - this was an expensive lesson!
Pros: low SWR across all bands
Cons: high price and low performance - very disappointed. |
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| K0CCP |
Rating: |
2015-12-10 | |
| An Excellent Vertical |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I purchased the Fat Spectrum on Ebay after talking to Carl concerning the antenna. It was a stop-gap antenna to cover my HF bands that I lost when an ice storm completely demolished my Hexbeam. I have always been afraid to purchase a vertical primarily because I did not want to place counterpoise all over the place to be able to get good reception. I placed my FS about 15 feet above the ground next to a metal building, trying to keep the pool equal to the pitch of the roof. After I got back into the shack, I was pleasantly pleased with how quiet the antenna was, similar to my Hexbeam. The noise level, even on daytime noisy bands of 40 and 80 is acceptable. To say I'm excited about the FS's is an understatement. Does it reach 12000 miles? I don't think it will, but let's find out! So far I have reached 6000 @100watts. I think that is a testament to the quality of this antenna.
The other vertical that I have had, A Challenger II, was nothing like this antenna. This is easy to park and if you want counterpoise, you can sure use them. Instead, I'm using my metal roof on my Shack! |
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| KG5IQZ |
Rating: |
2015-12-03 | |
| Wx preview |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have had this Antenna for only a short time, but I had to tell someone I was impressed. Which is why I gave it a 5 in this early review.
I am a new Ham and have yet to "stretch it's legs." Reception at my location [N16ak, hope I have that right, in OK, USA]is excellent.
What I wanted to comment on is it's ruggedness. So far it has survived unscathed a 65 mph sustained wind, 75 mph gust front and most notably a 2 in Ice storm that totally clobbered my trees.
It is installed 22 feet up a pole with a 6m hamstick type and a 2m PVC type antenna. The ice completely pulled my 2m apart, the hamstick type was covered with ice and survived. I was concerned for my Fat Spectrum which seems so fragile looking up at it but even with an approx 20% arch it held firm, shed it's ice coat, and looks as new! I Am Impressed!
More to come as my experience grows!
73's Ken KG5IQZ |
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| K1FPV |
Rating: |
2015-12-01 | |
| Not the best vertical ever built, but far from the worst! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I purchased my antenna a little over a year ago. Does it work better than any other vertical I've used? ANSWER NO! However, it is far from the worst vertical I've used. I put it up with the base not that far off the ground, But with plenty of metal used as a ground counterpoise (lots of wire and chain-link fence).
SWR curve was relatively flat over the spectrum it covers. Reception was quite good and transmitting wasn't bad either. I found while experimenting that the more counterpoise I used, the better it radiated.
My feelings on the antenna are it is great for those who live in antenna restricted neighborhoods, areas where you have little real estate to work with, or even for temporary use.
I took mine down because I now have full sized antennas up and a tri-band beam too. But the vertical was carefully repacked and will be at my next retirement QTH where the XYL and I won't be performing any maintenance work for the yard or building.
Carl hit a home-run with this antenna!
73,
Bill
K1FPV |
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| WB9AZ |
Rating: |
2015-10-03 | |
| Great Antenna |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I received this antenna in June had up and working within 15 minutes from start to finish and was having QSO's as far away as new Zealand and more Then it was hit by Lighting totally blew out the antenna called the builder and he said he would rebuild for nothing other than then cost of shipping and a FANTISTIC job he did returned and it works GREAT
WB9AZ |
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| K7JDS |
Rating: |
2015-09-07 | |
| Fat Spectrum Ant |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Well what a Antenna! At first I had my doubts as I live among a lot of High Lines so the Static is real bad. But I have this antenna up 55 feet and seems am away from a lot of noise. I am surprise at the way I can hear with it. It is still new to me but I have made some long contacts that no other antenna I have did. So am giving this a Great Rating and it is super easy to put up Jim/K7jds |
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