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Reviews For: Palomar Engineering 80M OCF Antenna

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Palomar Engineering 80M OCF Antenna
	Reviews: 3	MSRP: $169
	Description: 80 meter Off Center Fed Dipole 133' long with high power 4:1 Current Balun and 1:1 RF Choke at the feedpoint.
	Product is in production
More Info:
# last 180 days	Avg. Rating last 180 days	Total reviews	Avg. overall rating
0	0	3	4.7

N7AG	Rating:	2023-12-03
'End Fed' windom. 40 -- 6			Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
@30', loads up well on all bands (with tuner) 40 - 6M. One antenna. Works abt as well as a dipole on each band. Bob's got this one right!

HL9GY	Rating:	2023-10-25
Good antenna, SWR could be better			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Palomar products are always top quality. This 80 - 10 off-center fed dipole antenna works great and is of solid construction. I have the 1500 watt model. Love that it includes a 1:1 choke built in. Performance is great, what you would expect from almost 140 feet of wire. My observed SWR is not as good as advertised. I found only two spots on HF that had an SWR below 2:1, a small slice at the low end of the 40 meter CW area, and a narrow section in the lower voice part of the 10 meter band. My Icom IC-7300's internal tuner was able to tune most of the bands, although it would not tune the 17 meter band at all, forcing me to use an external tuner. I have an external tuner, so it isn't much of a problem. My antenna is in a "V" configuration, with the feed point up about 25 feet and the ends up at about 40 feet. Overall a good HF antenna at a price better than most of the competition.

N0AN	Rating:	2020-01-08
Excellent Construction and Performance if a Bit Pricey			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This antenna is mounted on a cross boom at the top of the tower @ 42'. It is fed with the included 1.5 KW rated 4:1 Balun and 1:1 RF Choke at the feedpoint. S0-239 (UHF Female) Coax Connector on the metal enclosure. The antenna is constructed with insulated wire, is pre-cut to length with insulators. User supplies support ropes, which attach to the top of the Balun (center support) and the end insulators. The antenna comes fully assembled and ready to erect. All the user needs to provide is the coax with the appropriate PL-259 (UHF Male) ready to attach to the Balun+Choke box. My arrangement is NOT typical, in that I am feeding at the base of my tower with an Auto-Tuner. The setup looks like this: Shack > 50' LMR-400 > Base of Tower (MFJ-998RT Auto-tumer) > 50' of RG8/X coax > Antenna Feedpoint @ 42'. With this arrangement the Auto-Tuner is always in line, with 50' of RG8/X between the output of the tuner and the actual antenna feedpoint. Therefore the only VSWR losses are in the coax between the output of the tuner and the antenna feedpoint. The antenna tunes up easily on every band from 80m > 10m. It also (much to my surprise) tunes up nicely on 160 meters, BUT, as predicted,it is VERY inefficient. It does make for a decent 160m rx antenna, in that it MUCH quieter than my top loaded vertical wire. It is NOT very good on transmit, nor should it be. Performance: (All using Digital Mode FT8) 80M: Very Good. Lots of easy DX with FT8 Digital Mode Routinely work EU/ASIA and Pacific, as well as SA. 60M: Excellent. Work all areas with 80w output. EU/AF//ASIA/Pacific/SA. Just a super performer on 60m! 40M; Excellent. Siimilar to 60m performance. 30M; Very Good. Not as impressive as how it works on 80/60/40, but still quite easy to work all the DX I hear. 20M: Excellent. Not as good as my Tribander @ 52' but quite good. 17M: Very Good. Outperforms my prior Ground Plane. Work EU/SA/Pacific daily. 15M: Not tested 12M: Works well, but not as well as my homebrew 12m ground plane at 7' with elevated / tuned radials. 10M: Not tested. Overall: Very pleased. Strong RF Performance, solid contstruction, supplied ready to erect, good parts used. Mechanically superior to the Carolina Windom (which fell apart after a few years) and picks up less noise. Caveat: Shipping was a nightmare. Order was ack'd, but then they dropped the ball and I had to ask for my money back from Palomar before they actually took care of it. Very, very Poor Customer Service. Another customer reported a similar experience to me. Very fine antenna, A bit pricey, but nicely designed and produced. The Balun/Choke combo is very heavy duty and nicely housed in a metal enclosure. I have no problem strongly recommending this antenna if it fits your budget, just be prepared to follow up on your order ... 73, N0AN Hasan

Category:

Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

Product:

Palomar Engineering 80M OCF Antenna

Summary:

Rating:	Time Owned:
Great! Good OK Needs Help Poor Awful!	0 - 3 Months 3 - 6 Months 6 - 12 Months More than 12 Months

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