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Reviews For: Optibeam OB21-3 (High performance Tribander 20-15-10)

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

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Review Summary For : Optibeam OB21-3 (High performance Tribander 20-15-10)
Reviews: 4MSRP: 2,850
Description:
Extremely Efficient Trapless Yagui for 20-15-10m.
Three high performing interlaced and commonly fed
monobanders on a 14 meters/46 feet long boom.
5 el.on 20m / 5el.wide spaced on 15 m / 11 el. on 10 m.
Broadband single 50 Ohm coax cable feed system by the
high efficient "Optibeam direct coupled driver feed
system".
Heavy duty mechanical realization.
The ultimate 20-15-10m tribander yagui for the ambitious
contester or the ham with the highest demands!

Product is in production
More Info: http://www.optibeam.de
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0045
N6MB Rating: 2017-08-01
A reiview of Optibeam OB21-3 high performance Yagi 20-15-10m Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
With much deliberation between SteppIR, M2 and JK, I chose Optibeam. Of course, it cost me more for the shipping. However, this is an outstanding antenna from the box to on the air. The antenna is built to perfection, shipping was great, on-time, and without a bend or scratch.
Installation is simple and performance is more than outstanding, electrically it behaves flawlessly as indicated in the product brochure and modeling data, and on the air. I listened and compared; is very comparable performance to a stack of 2 four element monoband Yagi on 20m nearby my QTH.
The service from Optibeam is certainly well beyond my expectation.
I certainly will use Optibeam again any time.
W4NU Rating: 2016-01-17
Great Tri-Bander Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After using this antenna for a month or so I can say that it's performance is stellar. The SWR curves are good. It is extremely well performing on 10 meters with its eleven (11) elements!!

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Earlier 5-star review posted by W4NU on 2015-11-30

The OB 21-3 is without question the best overall HF Yagi I have ever owned. It combines, without traps or linear loading, three great yagis on a single 46 foot boom. It's construction is the most robust of any antenna I have ever owned. This includes the Telrex antennas.

With 5 elements on 20 and 15, and 11 elements on 10 there is NO NEED for separate monobanders! However, this antenna is not for the faint of heart. It is large and heavy, and really needs a ROBUST rotator.
IK2YCW Rating: 2015-04-30
High performances beam antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I decide to install a fix frequency antenna rather than a Dynamic antenna because the maintenance cost of my SteppeIR is way too high.
I selected the Optibeam 21-3 by incident since I could not find any other Tribander that could handle my tower size elevator, but this one does.
After I received the specification from Optibeam (it was still one of the first prototypes), I decided to try.

The antenna is at 25 meters on my second tower, my first towers has a SteppIR 4 elements also at 25 meters high. Towers are more than 60 meters apart and on clear space.
The antenna is well build and it’s very easy to install, instructions are perfect and in case you need any help, Optibeam people are always available and very knowledgeable. Documentation is also complete and well done.

Of course the comparison between the two antennas was the first thing I did try.
Please be aware that I was happy with the SteppIR performance, I was not happy with the high maintenance cost and the inevitable down time. It’s not nice to have one of the antenna element not working when K1N is on frequency.
The Optibeam 21-3 is definitely much better than SteppIR on 10 meters, I cannot report in terms of how many db’s since it’s a quite difficult type of measurement, too many variables are in place and it’s a real difficult value to measure accurately. Nevertheless it’s absolutely clear that Optibeam 21-3 is much better, this antenna breaks any pile-up that you will find. Of course the direction lobe is narrow, so for contest it does require more work.
On 20 and 15 meters, the performances are better than SteppIR 4 elements, but it’s not so overwhelming better as for the 10 meters band.
In top of better performances, what I also like about this antenna compare to the SteppIR is the fact that it’s always ready to go in TX, no waiting for tuning. With today self-tuning amplifiers and automatic antenna switching, it’s an important features on contest, it gives you the better edge.

I am recommending this antenna for all serious DXers, I only warn you about the size of it and the weight, it’s not a small piece of equipment and it does require a professional tower and professional installation.
On my next tower, for sure I will have again an Optibeam antenna.
EA3AKP Rating: 2015-03-18
Extremely Efficient and high gain antenna!! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I installed this antenna OB 21-3 five months ago, the idea was to experiment with the antenna and compare it with my cubical quads as I’m always trying to improve my antenna system.
Now the OB 21-3 has become an absolutely essential part of my station, because after comparing it with my quads I can tell that it shows a tremendous performance.
I own a 4el 20-17-15-12-10m quad on a 9 meter/30 foot long boom and a 6el dual driven 10m monoband Quad on a12 meter/40 foot long boom.
I can assure that the OB21-3 works better than my 5 band four element quad on 20 meters.
On the 15m band the fiveband quad has four wide spaced elements, and in practice they are close in performance to the five Yagi elements of the OB21-3.
On 10m it looks like the OB21-3 shows more performance than the fiveband quad very clearly in all QSO.
Only my homebrew 6 element dual driven cubical quad outperforms the OB21-3 on 10m just a little bit and most of the times are equal.
The performance of this antenna is extremely good in my opinion after the comparisons not only in forward gain but also with a noticeable F/B and F/S.
The final two interesting advantages of this antenna are the feed system with a single feed line for the three bands which is very convenient and practical and the excellent mechanical construction that ensures durability and withstands of the most severe weather conditions.
I recommend the hams who are looking for the best performance on 20-15 and 10 meters this new unbeatable tribander from OPTIBEAM.