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Reviews For: Solarcon A-99

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Solarcon A-99
Reviews: 204MSRP: 57.99
Description:
10-20M Vertical Antenna
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
152043.6
KB5SCK Rating: 2005-08-08
good for 10 meters Time Owned: more than 12 months.
this antenna was designed for 27mhz cb...it works great on 10 meters...better than a dipole not as good as a monobander at 100 ft...i have mine about 20 feet up on a pole, swr is good and always make lots of contacts on 10 meters...i can and have put about a thousand watts pep into this antenna with no problems...as far as a 10 meter vertical, its great...any other bands you will have to use a tuner and is a comprimise at best...i have a hustler ground mounted 5btv vertical up as well for some of the other bands..if you are wanting a single band antenna for 10 meters only the a99 is great but if you are wanting something for use on multibands without fooling your radio with a tuner the a99 is not the way to go..get a hustler instead
N7WXJ Rating: 2005-08-08
Avoid Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I agree with N4RAP. I wish I had read the reviews of this thing before I made my purchase. Save your money! For those who like the antenna, well all I can say is good for you. Compared to a Hustler 4BTV that I mounted at the same height, the A99 is a dummy load. Yes the 4BTV cost twice as much, (got mine for $119.00 on sale) but it performs 10 times better! No comparison. If you've never had a decent vertical antenna, you will think the A99 is great. Once you have a real antenna, and compared the 2, the A99 is JUNK. It seems to be a hit with the CB radio gang and I'll leave it at that. I took mine to the landfill, where it belongs.
N4RAP Rating: 2005-08-02
Aweful Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This will be a short one. I just bought this antenna hoping that it would work out for me. The reviews have always been mixed. I have talked to hams using this antenna on the air, at that time. I have talked to guys using it on a tower, a pole and most are using it as a ground mounted vertical. I tried it with and without the optional ground radial kit, and it did not work very well at all for me. I have this antenna up at my office. My mobile parked outside with a six foot Outbacker does a much better job!!!! I'm an still going to experiment some more with the height and some wire ground radials, but for now this antenna "STINKS" as an hf antenna that is supposed to work on 10-20 meters(with a tuner). Oh believe me the tuner on my TS 50 and my TS 450 tunes it on 10-80 meters, with no porblems, but it just doesn't talk well or hear well.

W5KKJ Rating: 2005-06-28
A direct comparison Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
One of the new guys brought one of these things to Field Day this year. He told us how great this thing was on 10 and 15 meters. Well, after 3 hrs of waiting on this thing to do its magic, a couple of the guys convinced him to take it down and put up a wire dipole in its place. Our new guy made more contacts on 15 meters in 30 minutes with the dipole than he did in the first 3 hours on that thing. You decide.
N4MJG Rating: 2005-06-24
A-99 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
if you have swr antenna analyzer and check your swr 10-20 meters than you sould know ,if your swr is good or not .i check it before you screw the coax into the radio untill you have checked it.other than A-99 is good antenna ! but do a check list on swr before you screw the coax into the radio.i would use it on my camping trip, i love the antenna.i'll keep it lol !!!!

73
Jackie
KG4ORX
KC2IGY Rating: 2005-06-24
It's cheap and it works. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
For less than $50, the A-99 is cheap, works great where it's supposed to, and works fairly well in some places it's not supposed to. ...nuff said.
K5IZ Rating: 2005-06-24
Love it! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have to dissagree with the gentelman who said SWR has nothing to do with antenna performance. If you have a high SWR you are not getting as much RF to the radiator (antenna) as you would if the SWR were matched properly. If you are using a tuner to assist in lowering the SWR and you're only dealing with 2:1 mismatch (such is the case with my A-99 on 20 meters) the loss within the tuner is negligible and again you gain more RF to the antenna. As for the comparison of the A-99 to an oil filled dummy load, I can't see the logic. That's comparing apples to oranges, not apples to apples. I too have a few oil filled dummy loads, Cantennas, and MFJ's and all of them radiate to a certain degree. However, they are designed NOT to radiate the opposite of the A-99. I have Hustler, HyGain and Butternut antennas incorporated into my antenna farm. The Butternut is for 40 and 75 meters only, but the other two are multi band and neither of them can come close to the performance I get from the A-99. The proof is in the pudding and this pudding is flavored Solorcan A-99.
former_K0DND Rating: 2005-06-24
Dummy loads have low SWR too! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This antenna is not much more efficient than a dummy load. It works sorta Okay on 10 and 12 meters, but as for 15, 17, and 20, well you�re just fooling yourself. I see lots of comments how the SWR on 17 and 20 meters is 1.5 to 1. Well folks the SWR on my oil filled dummy load is 1.2 to 1. Does that make my dummy load a efficient antenna, no it does not. A low SWR is not a reflection on how well an antenna works. If a vertical antenna is what you are looking for try the Butternut, Hustler, or a GAP. If youre looking for cheap use Hamsticks with a ground plane. They will perform much better than the A99 antenna.
KD7XXX Rating: 2005-06-23
FANTASTIC Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought one after my good friend, Jorgen Furtmann (DL7CV "Popcorn") told me to try one out. It tuned all the way through 20 meters for me. Tuning is a breeze with the Solarcon disk tuning method. I just moved them to Alllllmost the very edge and from there it tuned up easy. In high winds, it is like a hair in a fart. Just bends back and forth -- no problem.
N7UXO Rating: 2005-05-19
Poor Construction Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This antenna is poorly constructed. If a vertical antenna is what you want look elsewhere. There are much better choices on the market for a few dollars more.