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Reviews For: Innovantennas 7EL LFA WOS

Category: Antennas: VHF/UHF+ Directional (Yagi, quad, etc.)

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Review Summary For : Innovantennas 7EL LFA WOS
Reviews: 1MSRP: 333.29 British Pounds w/o taxes
Description:
6 meter loop fed yagi
Product is in production
More Info: http://https://www.innovantennas.com/index.php?lang=en
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0015
N8RR Rating: 2019-03-27
Excellent Performance Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Four of these 7 El loop fed yagis were purchased in the spring of 2017 for a 6M EME array. Shipment was prompt via FedEx. Assembly was simple and no problems/missing parts were encountered. The buik of the time was spent designing and building the H frame and elevation assembly because of never having seen an EME array before. The LFA was chosen because of local noise rejection. At my rural QTH, there are occasional bouts of power line noise. The EME array was commissioned in September 2017.

The VSWR is very low and flat across the bottom 500 Khz of the 6M band. There is no VSWR variation with weather, it is always stable.

Initial testing revealed the presence of CW EME echoes using only two of the antennas. My first attempted Dxpedition QSO was with VK9XGJ. Due to inexperience on my end, and some local powerline noise at moonset, we could not complete. However, VK9XGJ was decoded several times, and I was decoded on the DX end every day we transmitted. Other than V84, since that first attempt, we have contacted every known DXpedition on 6M including 3DA0MB,VP6D, 5R8UM, 7P8Z, ZA5V along with E51WL and several 100W VK stations.

The 4 antenna array also works very well on E skip. During 2018, 80 DXCC entities were worked
between E skip and EME. Best E skip contact was 9K2MU. More than 70 JA stations were worked from WV on FT8.

The other antenna here is a M2 6M7jHV at 68'. This is a great antenna, and was responsible for confirming 6M DXCC in 6 years. During the 2018 E season, local power line noise reduced the effectiveness of this antenna compared to the big LFA array. No contacts were made on the single yagi at all.

No testing was done comparing a single LFA to the other antenna.

Bottom line, on 6M EME, the 9 element arrays have the edge for sure but if my local power line noise behaves, these LFA antennas can hear the weak stations very well and usually manage a QSO. Transmit power output is 1.5 KW from an 8877.

I like the performance so much we just ordered 4 x 14 EL 2M LFA antennas for 2M EME and expect to have that system operational by summer 2019.

73 Charlie N8RR
March 2019