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Reviews For: Packtenna

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : Packtenna
Reviews: 5MSRP: 239.95
Description:
Ultralight, portable HF amateur radio antenna system.

The PackTenna is a light weight, compact, portable HF antenna system ideal for operating on the trail, at the campsite, on Field Day, SOTA activation, air travel, or HOA restricted locations.

The PackTenna uses wire antenna elements that can be configured in a variety of ways including verticals, dipoles, inverted vee’s and long wires delivering full size antenna performance.

The unique combination of backpacking quality hardware, a 10 meter (32’) tall mast that collapses to 26 inches and custom feed points and accessories make this the ideal portable HF antenna system.

PackTenna comes in various configurations including the new PackTenna Mini end-fed half wave and random wire antennas designed especially for travel and trail operations.

Product is in production
More Info: http://www.packtenna.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0055
N7GCO Rating: 2024-06-02
Outstanding! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I own both the Packtenna Random Wire Antenna and the 20/40 meter EFHW linked dipole antenna. Both are extremely well made and perfect for Field Day/POTA/SOTA or any ham radio in the field. In the Salmon Run Contest last September I made over 200 contacts from a park in a rare county. Also the support and customer service is fantastic. You will never regret buying a Packtenna antenna.
W6NIK Rating: 2017-01-01
Quick Deployment and It Works Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Super compact and easy to put up. Was out today with it and worked Japan from California on QRP on 20m.

N7PUG Rating: 2016-07-28
PackTenna Mini- effective & easy Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I own both the 9:1 & 50:1. For now, I've mostly used the 9:1 as a random wire end fed cut to 29'. No problems tuning up on 40, 30, 20, 17 or 15 (which is all I've tried).

As long as I'm not hiking, for convenience I like to use it with a 31' Jackite pole.

I've received excellent signal reports with both 100 watts & QRP.

It's compact & lightweight to carry, deploys in minutes, and teardown is easy because the wire wraps around the frame for storage.

Because it's so easy to setup/teardown I'ved used it at least weekly- from my car in a parking lot, at my HOA antenna restricted QTH, and along the trail. I'm extremely happy with it.
VE3IPS Rating: 2016-07-15
Multipurpose Antenna GoTA Kit Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I was one of the early birds to take advantage of the use of the Packtenna baluns. Finally a well engineered design with the 1:1, 9:1 and 4:1 variants in the now iconic multipurpose balun PCB layout. I can now rapidly deploy a dipole, a vertical, an NVIS style antenna and achieve greater efficiency than a 8 foot short antenna.

I was very pleased with results using a Marconi NVIS End Fed design for Field Day and Picnic Table on the Air on the low bands.

For DX, I can redeploy the wires quickly to achieve a vertical design and work DX on the higher bands.

I have been reaching for this antenna every time I grab my FT-817 and go out looking portable operations and recently used it for Hotel Operations in RedWood City, CA

Connect FT-817 to T1 Tuner, attach T1 tuner to 9:1 PackTenna balun, attach 29 feet of #26 silky wire to balun, toss wire off balcony. Go make some contacts.

Coil everything up and go take the rental car to a nearby park and toss the wire into a tree. Go make some contacts.

If you are not on travel status then you can use the Telescoping pole to hold the antenna up. If you use two poles then you can set up where no trees are to be found

Either way, there is a lot of flexibility to use the PackTenna to achieve different operating objectives, quickly and without a lot of fuss.

Designed by a team of engineers, built in the USA, used worldwide.
AC2KL Rating: 2016-07-14
Well thought out complete set of components for wire antennas. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is a compact portable antenna system that I've used for SOTA and NPOTA activations. I've configured it as a linked dipole on 20m and 40m, and as a verticle on 20m, 40m and 80m. Buying Packtenna allowed me to get a working antenna out-of-the-box. It's nice to make everything yourself, but I needed something in short order. I was able to skip the whole sourcing of parts plus experimentation and debugging. The chokes and baluns are compact (no plastic boxes), the telescoping mast is compact (at 26" it is easy to carry on airplanes), and the method of joining linked segments with small carabines is very convenient (I wouldn't have thought of that if I made it myself). I traveled to and used it in Africa and Europe with excellent results.