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Reviews For: Mosley TW-22-M

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

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Review Summary For : Mosley TW-22-M
Reviews: 1MSRP: $465
Description:
2 element Yagi for 12 and 17 meter WARC bands
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mosley-electronics.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0015
K4TK Rating: 2017-12-09
great two band WARC antenna by Mosley Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had a wire multi band dipole up for all 3 WARC bands, but decided I'd like to get a Yagi antenna for the WARC bands. I had a 14 element 2 meter yagi on top of my tower/mast....and since I rarely work 2 meters (like once a DECADE....literally!), I figured why not take down the 2 meter beam and put up a Yagi for the WARC bands.

The only real concern was separation/interaction between my main HF beam (a HyGain Explorer 14 with 40 meter kit) and the new WARC Yagi. After talking with Mosley engineers....and given my own experience (Ham over 30 years and en Electrical Engineer with over 38 years experience in the comm world), I figured it would be best NOT to put up a WARC yagi that had 30 meter capability. The thinking was, the 30 meter portion would be more likely to interact with the existing EX 14 antenna...plus, all the 3 band yagis had longer booms. The TW-22M covers 12 and 17 meters....and the boom is only 7 feet long. This would give me a considerably smaller surface footprint on the tower/mast.

There was SOME interaction in my setup....as was to be expected since I only have a mere 6 feet of separation. Mosely indicated a few other Hams had utilized similar setups/clearances....with success and little if any interaction. I carefully recorded the before and after interaction on my setup, and the results can be seen on my QRZ.com page. Suffice to say, there was little interaction with my current EX 14 yagi...and the Mosley gives adequate coverage over the entire bands covered (staying well under 2:1 SWR). No doubt, i could have adjusted the elements a bit, and got even more perfect SWR....but no need for me.

The results have been excellent. Given the somewhat modest gain of only 2 elements, I have been VERY pleased with the performance. I can now bust DX pileups (that wasn't happening very often with my wire dipole at 40 feet!). I have the antenna up at 56 ft, on top of the tower/mast. I get excellent reports and work all DX I hear.

Quality is pretty good. I'm not sure if this will hold up as long as my HyGain Explorer 14 (it's been up 27 years now!). The boom to element mast mounts aren't quite as good as the HyGain....in my opinion. But over all, quality seems pretty good. Time will tell! I wasn't pleased with the element and boom cap ends supplied. In fact, I could NEVER get the element end caps on. I went down to Lowes and bought some from Hillman corp that fit perfectly (theirs supplied simply wouldn't go on....as if they were for the wrong size?). The boom caps have BOTH fell off.....after just a few months of installation/use. I asked Mosely if it was any big deal that there are no boom caps (only way to go up and "fix" that....is to do so in a bucket truck!). They said it should be no problem...more for keeping insects from nesting inside....and keeping the boom pipe itself from howling in the wind. We'll see. I'm NOT going to replace those boom caps for several years....only doing it the next time i hire a bucket truck to go up and do routine maintenance. Could be SEVERAL years, to say the least. When I do go up and do it.....I'll buy some better ones off of Amazon that should stay on. That's my only complaint so far, is all the end caps are quite questionable......

Oh, putting the antenna up....on top of my tower/mast....WITHOUT removing the HyGain EX 14 (with that 40 meter kit)....was a real trick! i used 2 ropes tied off the top of the mast....up in a bucket truck....with the two ropes staked out on the ground....2 people on the ground....and 2 of us in the bucket up top....to slide/raise the antenna up and get it to clear the EX 14. It was quite the hassle, as you might imagine...but with some "man handling"...we finally got it done! Pictures of the final install are on my QRZ.com page.

So far, I'm pleased with the antenna....but only had it a few months.Hope it lasts the 27 years my HyGain has!