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Reviews For: VAN GORDEN 'ALL BANDER'

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : VAN GORDEN 'ALL BANDER'
Reviews: 19MSRP: 29.95
Description:
160-10 meter long wire antenna
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00194.6
KE4ZHN Rating: 2004-08-01
a timeless classic Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The only reason I bought one is because by the time you buy the wire, the ladderline, and the insulators, it costs you more to build then to just buy this one. Mine has been in use for about 4 years now. I have worked ZL, VK, and DX all over the place with this simple 1930`s classic. Many DX contacts with only 100 watts or less. While it is true that a long dipole will put out numerous lobes on the higher bands, I have enjoyed working the world on this antenna and for the cost, it simply cant be beat.

I use this dipole mainly on 80 mtrs. at night but can tune it up most anywhere and work any station I can hear. The only modification I did to this set up is to remote mount a balun outdoors to avoid running ladderline into my shack because of the difficult routing at my location. After some careful pruning of the feedline, this beast tunes up great 80-10 and works like a champ. My apex is at about 40 ft. and the ends are at around 15ft tied off in 2 trees. No, this isnt a monobander on an 80 ft tower, but I cant put anything like that up here so this fills the bill quite nicely. It has survived numerous violent thunderstorms, and wind and still keeps on performing as good as day 1. I`ll take this over the G5RV anyday.
KA2DDX Rating: 2004-08-01
Works Great! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used this dipole with:
Icom IC725 transceiver and MFJ949 tuner
and now
Yaesu FT920 transceiver and MFJ969 tuner.
The antenna tunes 160m thru 6 meters with no problem. I earned my DXCC with this dipole. I have no other antenna. The feed point is up 35 feet and the front part goes straight to a tree (parallel to the ground). The back part goes down to a fence where is it about 8 feet off the ground at the end. There are also a bunch off power lines above the back part. I paid a whopping 30 bux for this thing. If you saw my logs, you'd wonder why I'm not on the honor roll yet. I keep trying to talk myself into a better antenna like a vertical, but this little setup keeps performing nicely. There you go, nothing sophisticated, no amplifiers. Most of my operation is cw, so that helps.
WA1KBE Rating: 2004-04-09
It simply works great! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had very good results over the years with the all bander. It is a very effective antena on 80m, 40m and also on 30m where it has shown DX potential. As you would expect it is not a substitute for a beam on 20 - 10 meters but it does work in a pinch. It is very hard to beat for the money. Use it with a good tuner and short ground connection for best results.
N9QZD Rating: 2004-03-14
Works and it is inexpensive Time Owned: more than 12 months.
135 foot dipole fed with ladder line. Hook it to a good tuner and you are in business. I use it on 40 and 75. Half wave on 75, and two half waves in phase on 40. Put it up 35 feet. Quiet and works like a bomb in close.
WL7BDO Rating: 2004-01-27
Fine performing Dipole Time Owned: more than 12 months.
See I am cheap. And have used this Antenna for 20 years. The one I have now in Alaska has been used in Israel 4X and as my primary antenna when operating from J87CF St. Vincent. During my 6 years in the Carribean about 150 feet from the ocean this antenna needed replacing every 3 or 4 years. Salt spray. I have a DXCC from J8 land off that puppy. Running only 100 watts. Granted a J8 prefix is good for quite a few S units.

The main problem is no one wants to use head phones anymore. I really respect the big station that will try and listen for those weak signals.

This is one fine antenna and when used with a tuner works great. I have added a few wire verticels in the yard so I can switch between verticle and horizontal.

Sure if you spend 10 or 20 times more money you will gain 3, 6 maybe 9 db. But you can gain most of that with a $10 pair of headphones. Just how do you get the other stations to listen???

Carl WL7BDO
JAMES_BENEDICT_EX_N8FVJ Rating: 2002-01-16
I installed Wrong Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I gave a 3/5 report a while ago. Then I extended to 160 meter length hoping for better performance on 75m + getting 160m as well. This made the antenna directional in the direction I did not want. Second, adding coax & replacing the ladder line made it worse for efficiency. Get the antenna up about 55 feet or higher as a dipole or inverted V and the antenna has to perform well & no coax!

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Earlier 3-star review posted by JAMES_BENEDICT_EX_N8FVJ on 2001-01-28

Receives well and has a flat match from 160-10 meters with a tuner & balun. My installation is an inverted 'V' with a new balun at 30 feet below top of 'V' and then converting to 35 feet of new RG-213 running to my transceiver. The transmit signal is poor compared to other operators in my area. I need 600+ watts to compete with 100 watts from others. I am going to replace this antenna! My installation could be the problem.
K7FU Rating: 2001-08-05
Long dipoles have odd characteristics Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Modelling long dipoles will show odd radiation patterns. On 20M, if you get it high up, it has all sorts of odd lobes and nulls. I have very little good to say about my 'All-bander' antenna.

I thought it was me until I climbed my friend's tower and put a long dipole up about 80' (the other end is up in a tree at an equivalent height. It can't hear anything on 20M! We compared it to a loop I miscut for 15.5MHz and the loop was much, much better.

It's not Van Gorden's fault. Long dipoles just are squirrelly.

I really need a quad. :)
N2ETJ Rating: 2001-06-01
GREAT BANG FOR THE BUCK Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I HAVE ONLY HAD THIS UP FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS BUT ALREADY AM VERY SATISFIED WITH IT'S PERFORMANCE. ON 80 METERS, PERFORMS AT LEAST AS WELL AS MY CUT TO FREQUENCY DIPOLE, WITH ABOUT 2 S UNITS LESS NOISE. 40 METERS IT IS A KILLER. WORKS WELL ON 20 AND 15 AS WELL AS WARC BANDS. I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO LOAD ON 160 BUT HAVEN'T TRIED AS A MARCONI WHICH I AM SURE WILL FUNCTION OK. IT IS UP AT 55 FEET WITH ENDS ABOUT 15 FEET ABOVE GROUND TO TEN-TEC 238A TUNER. CONSTRUCTION IS VERY GOOD........NOT WORTH THE SAVINGS TO BUILD YOURSELF.........LESS THAN 1/2 HOURS WORK AND YOU WILL BE UP AND RUNNING...... GIVE IT A TRY... THINK YOU WILL BE VERY SATISFIED
WB0FDJ Rating: 2001-02-28
Well made... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Bought my first All Bander back in 1988 while living in N.Dakota. Came well put together, good quality products were used. It's a basic 80 meter dipole, fed with ladder line to reduce loss. My N.Dakota antenna had one leg that I couldn't get up enough, so I cut it off and utilized it as a "real" Zepp. Had a lot of fun with the antenna that performed well.
If you haven't ever used ladder line, read up on it. It's not coax, take care where you route it.