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Reviews For: Mosley TA 53

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

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Review Summary For : Mosley TA 53
Reviews: 28MSRP: 812.95 + shipping
Description:
5 band HF beam
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00284.8
KQ4KK Rating: 2006-04-30
Built like a TANK Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had it on the roof since August 1993. Just took it down after almost 13 years. In GREAT shape. No rust, no damage. Almost looks like new. Yea, no front to back, but works great on all 5 bands.
AA2SQ Rating: 2004-04-07
Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Installed the TA53 Two wks ago on a Glen Martin 8ft roof tower with 8ft mast,SWR flat on all bands not much with F/B but overall the beam works great. I had the A3S by cushcraft had to modify the boom a few times when it broke in half I think they should change the name to crushcraft hi hi. I recommend theTA53 will built much heavy than the A3S but strong and sturdy.

Joe
AA2JE
N1JAO Rating: 2003-05-04
What a difference!! ***** Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just had the antenna installed professionally last week up @53 feet on a rooftop tower. Mosley promised the antenna in 3 ½ weeks and that is precisely when I received it. I previously had a Cushcraft A3S up for 8 months, and while that was a very good antenna, the Mosley is built so much better. It is so sturdy, and built of top-notch materials, I can see why people have had these birds up for thirty plus years. When it came to the ultimate test of running in the shack and testing the bandwidths, I was stunned to find an absolute 1:1 throughout all 5 bands! I thought that the installers hooked it up to a dummy load. HI! It is incredibly broad banded. So far, despite the fact that the bands have been mezza mezza for the past week, I have already worked SV9CVY, 7X4AN, JA, EA, IK, and on and on! I sold my Ameritron AL-811 to pay for the install, and the old adage of putting the $ into the antennas really holds true. Antennas first, then the rig and linear. K1NDV, and K1RAW, and their helper are tremendous. They are meticulous, knowledgeable, and reasonable. (Thanks guys!)
Robert
N1JAO
N2EIO Rating: 2002-07-04
Perfect for its purpose Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Reviews for this antenna run the entire gamut. My experience: The antenna is very well made, assembly was straight forward, and it has been completely trouble-free. Performance is as described by Moseley, including the SWR curves. For those reporting different performance, I must assume there is something in the installation that is responsible.

I needed a compact antenna (due to trees), and I wanted respectable gain on all bands from 10m to 20m, including the WARC bands. As Moseley states, the trade-off is F/B, which is only 5 db on 12m, and 10 db to 16 db on the other bands. Frankly, most people want their directional antenna optimized for gain, which is what Moseley has done. What you end up with is a robust yagi with good gain on a short boom (turning radius less than 15 feet) and a small wind-load (6.7 sq. ft).

Bottom line: 7 years of reliable performance and no regrets.
W1ZE Rating: 2001-08-18
5-Bands with bandwidth but poor Front to Back Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had a TA53M up since 93 and like most Mosley products it is built to last. It has weathered the worst Mother Nature has to offer here on the Maine coast. The advantage of this antenna is that it packs 5-bands onto a 14-foot boom and offers forward gain of what you would expect for a 3-element trapped yagi. BUT, the front to back is almost non existant and especially bad on 20-meters. When Mosley said they had to sacrifice something to get gain and bandwidth it was front to back. I would have been happy with a little less forward gain and more front to back. If you are not a contester and still like to hunt DX it is well worth the money. But if you want performance with front to back, try the Force-12 C3 ot Traffie Hex beam.
W4DBC Rating: 2001-06-03
Still Super Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just added the 40 meter add on kit. Everything fit perfectly and swr was excellent throughout the entire band. It didn't effect any of the other bands and everything is working great!
N1TKS Rating: 2001-04-06
Great Antenna, Built Well Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The Mosley TA 53 M was purchased about 4 years ago. I had limited space and wanted to operate on 20 through 10 including the WARC bands using a Roof tower.
Prior to purchasing the antenna I did much homework and decided that the TA53M would satisfy the installation enviorment and the operating needs.
It is true that the front to back is not as good as a monobander or perhaps a tribander but one is dealing with a relatively short boom 5 band beam.
As Mosley states in their description they sacrifised front to back for gain.
The antenna works great and it is built like a tank. The swr is as described but I do have some
high swr on 10 meter CW portion but this is due to some interaction with peaked roof because the
SWR changes as the beam swings away from the roof. This is also discussed by Mosley in their well written direction sheet, that "artificial ground" should be avoided and may detune the antenna.
In general I think the antenna works as described and should be a consideration if one does not have the facility to stack antennae or use full length log periodic type arrays

73 N1TKS
WC4X Rating: 2001-02-22
Poor performance Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My TA 53 never met the published SWR curves and exhibited little or no F/B. Repeated calls with Mosley always focused on what I must be doing wrong. Traps were checked and replaced with the exact same poor results. Mosley finally got tired of me and refunded my money. I took the money and purchased a Cushcraft ASL 2010 Skylog. It works perfectly and the SWR curves closely match the ones published by the manufacturer.

Ask lots of questions before purchasing this antenna!