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Reviews For: Cushcraft AR-6 Vertical Antenna

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Cushcraft AR-6 Vertical Antenna
Reviews: 4MSRP: 99.95
Description:
6 Meter Ringo Antenna
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.cushcraftamateur.com/Product.php?productid=AR-6
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0044.3
WW5F Rating: 2018-06-20
Works GREAT! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After reading some reviews in here, I was nervous. But I followed the directions for 51.0 Mhz. Put it up and there it was! Near perfect match! It's now up 20 feet and I hear folks on 5.090 and 50.125 right now. Let me get out of here and start transmitting!
VE3GS Rating: 2018-01-29
Very Good Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This antenna works great for the price, the gain is 1 dBD, easy to install and tune,

I tried to hustler G-3754 and what a difference!!!, the Gain of 4.5 dBD on FM is noticeable. price difference is $50 from the Cushcraft!


KM4NYI Rating: 2016-01-24
Low Cost And Easy to Tune Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Picked this up and had it tuned and operating in less than an hour. The assembly instructions are clearly laid out, and all of the parts and pieces were sealed in plastic bags in the box.

Tuning the antenna involves three steps (2 involving measurements found in the instruction manual). I set mine up for 53 MHz by cutting the coax jacket and shield of the tuning stub to 3 1/8" (cutting the exposed center conductor and insulation off 1/2" past that). The radiator I adjusted to 106" long before tightening the clamps. I also wound my coax in a three-turn loop a few inches away from the feedpoint (just in case). Fine tuning of the antenna is done by moving the aluminum tuning rod and tightening the clamp screw on the ring. Caution: A relatively minor movement on the ring can have a fairly big effect on the reflected power. You will also need to be gentle when working with the ring and tuning rod as they feel like they would be rather easy to bend out of shape.

I stopped on the third try, and am pretty happy with the results. 52.0 MHz to 53.5 is flat, the low end of the 6 meter band is the highest (2.4:1 at 50.0) and the upper end of the band is coming in at 1.6:1 on 54.0 MHz. Antenna tuners built-in to rigs are not known to be the best in the world, but mine tames the AR6 Ringo antenna down perfectly flat across the entire band.

I have used it two days, and have made contacts on FM, SSB, and AM. It really shines on FM. My benchmark test was to see if I could communicate with a repeater that is about 80 miles away and is currently operating on low power. With the Ringo at 12 feet I couldn't hear a thing, but a move up to 20 feet done the trick. Local repeaters easily achieve full quieting with 5 watts and a few extra watts of power brought full quieting to a repeater about 28 miles away.

If you're looking for a vertical antenna to work FM and repeaters at a fair price, the AR6 Ringo might be just what the doctor ordered. It might do decent DX on SSB this summer when we have a little sporadic E to enhance the band. I will try to remember and post an update.

AK4SJ Rating: 2015-01-23
Very Good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just bought this antenna to use for a local net. It is advertised as covering 50mhz to 54mhz and it does. Just not all at once. You have to cut a stub .... that's kind of permanent, and you have to set the height .... that's not too easy to change .... and then you fine tune with a dinger on the ring. So I'm able to pin my 52.02mhz frequency for the net like I wanted, but it's not very wide band. Just beware if you think it will tune 50Mhz to 54Mhz and cover the whole band. It was not too difficult to assemble. You will need a small file if you want to perfect it. Overall I like the antenna and I'm glad I only wanted one primary frequency. This is the first review here and I wish I had known more before I bought it. Hope it helps you.