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Reviews For: EAntenna VHF and UHF 2/70cm Yagi EA270ZB13

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

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Review Summary For : EAntenna VHF and UHF 2/70cm Yagi EA270ZB13
Reviews: 4MSRP: 119
Description:
EA270ZB13 EAntenna
Single Feedpoint Dual Band Small Yagi for 2m and 70cm
Satellite Bands (not for FM Repeaters)
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.eantenna.es/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0043.3
G0JJG Rating: 2023-08-10
Needs improvement Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have two of these in a small stack. Initially one was installed and I could not achieve a decent match - contacted EA and prompt help suggested not securing coax to the boom - drop from the DE at 90 degrees and good match achieved. Shame that is not in the assembly notes. Added a second aerial for a discrete stacked antenna, 2m is fine but 70cm confused me. I ended up modelling a single antenna and as a result now plan to modify it. The pattern on 70cm has THREE front lobes - main lobe and +- 38 degrees. Modelling and real life confirms this. The main lobe has less gain than the two front sidelobes. I plan to remove the 331.8mm D1 element for 70cm and add a modified D1 closer to the 2m DE. Modelling suggests this will be more acceptable. I am using horizontal polarisation. I will post an update if the mods improve this 70cm issue. Despite the odd pattern good DX has been worked, but there is something fundamentally wrong with the 70cm behaviour.

Update: August 2023. I have subsequently modified the aerials by adding a 308mm D1 of 5mm diameter for 70cm at 50mm from the 2m DE mounted using a G4CQM ' Paraclip'. The original D1 for 70cm was removed. This has improved the pattern as modeled and the peak is now in the right direction on 70cm. The match is also excellent on 432 and 144 after this change. I am using a pair stacked, and on 70cm the predicted improvement is 3dB by altering both yagis. EAntennas - if you read this review, you need to fix this massive error!
W7KRS Rating: 2023-01-12
Great sat antenna. Top notch quality and construction! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Bought this antenna for a simple satellite installation using only an az rotor. Fashioned a bracket to point the antenna 15deg above horizon and mounted horizontally. The vertical 3dB beamwidth is wider than the horizontal so this seemed like a reasonable approach. Mounted it on a piece of PVC and turning with a Yaesu G-450A. It didn't seem very directional when working terrestrial stations but I'm also in the clutter and in a mountainous area. In many cases, the strongest signals seeem to be bouncing off of hills and such. But...it is definitely directional when working satellites! Checked SWR with NanoVNA and all is good on both bands. 60 feet of LMR-400 and a duplexer between rig and antenna. Able to work sats down to 3-ish degs depending on az and local terrain.
N4MQ Rating: 2021-11-04
Poor performance and high swr Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Tested on pvc mast, and 53' crank up, high swr and poor on air testing. Used SHORT leads from coax 1" and added ferrite beads close to feed point. Tested connections, verified length of elements twice, per print. Instructions are marginal - from spain?

Looking for better dual band antenna, tired of playing with this antenna, wish I could return it.
N0AN Rating: 2019-06-27
Excellent Satellite (LEO) Antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Mechanical:

Single Square Boom
All elements in line, interlaced, through the boom mounting.
Boom approx 5 feet long.
Single Feed Point (Studs), Pigtail Feed.

Solid Construction, Easy to Assemble if you have the right tools (7 mm thin socket a big help). Pay close attention to the element lengths, as they DO NOT get smaller back to front on 70 cm side.

Keep pigtail coax for feed as short as possible (one inch or less of leads), or you will lower the resonant freq of the antenna. I also put 5 ferrite snap-on chokes at the feedpoint and supported the coax about 1/2" above the boom (to keep the ferrites from touching the boom). I used LMR-400 Utra-Flex for the pigtail coax feed. This is not required, but I like a choke feed on an antenna like this.

Performance:

SWR in House varied all over the place, but I could find places to point antenna where SWR would be 1.1 to 1 on 2m and 1.5 : 1 on 70 cm.

On top of tower, fixed 15 deg elevation, vertically polarized on 1.5" diameter fiberglass cross boom. Mounted about 5 feet above a 6M LFA 5 EL Yagi

2m: 1.5 : 1 at 145.700
70cm: 1.1 : 1 at 435.500

Performance:

Outstanding! 12 to 15 dB stronger receive signals on 2m from the satellites compared to an M2 2m Eggbeater at 7' Keep in mind the differences in the two setups, especially the height avoiding obstructions and vegetation losses.

Reference Existing Setup:
EggBeater @ 7' > 2/70cm Duplexer > Common Output from Duplexer > 60' of 9913 Coax > 2/70cm Duplexer > ARR 2m Gasfet > FunCube Pro+ SDR

New Setup with EAntenna 2m 5 EL, 70cm 8 EL @ 65'

New Yagi > 15' LMR-400 UF > 80' of 1/2" hardline > 2/70cm Duplexer > 2m output port > 2nd Duplexer input (acts as filter to prevent desense/intermod) > 2m 2nd Duplexer output to ARR 2m Gasfet > FunCube Pro+ SDR

Comparison readings taken in dBm directly from SDR Console v. 3.x software.

I now hear every bird at 0.1 deg Elevation at AOS. This includes CAS-4A, 4B, XW-2A, 2B, 2C, 2F, AO-91, AO-92

A big plus: it receives NOAA wx birds at 137.xxx beautifully. I get perfect wx image recordings at any elevation > 3 degrees! (NOAA-15,18,19)

I am using an ARR 2m Gasfet Preamp in the shack, which also works well on the Wx Sats.

Transmit on 70cm into Satellite Uplinks:

I used to have to wait until > 30 deg EL to get a signal into the birds due to vegetation losses which are very bad on 70cm. Now I have a Q5 signal 10 dB out of the noise at 0.1 deg Elevation on all birds.

Summary:

This is an EXCELLENT satellite antenna. Be sure to use duplexers to prevent your uplink RF from getting into your 2m downlink. This is NOT an option. In my case I had to stack 2 duplexers back to back to get enough filtering to keep the 70cm uplink from overloading the 2m downlink. Duplexers by Comet work VERY well. Since the antenna has only a single feedpoint for both bands, you WILL need the duplexers in the shack to act as bandpass filters.

I now have an exceptional satellite setup. 15 degree fixed elevation, vertical polarization and computer controlled Azimuth. Works well for 95% of all passes of all LEO birds and saves the money and wear and tear of an elevation rotor. See Web Article by Bob Bruninga, WB4APR for details of the 15 degree fixed EL approach.

73, Hasan
N0AN