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Reviews For: Alpha Antenna HOA Buster for 10-80 meters

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Alpha Antenna HOA Buster for 10-80 meters
Reviews: 13MSRP: 249. USD
Description:
This ‘HOA Buster’ antenna defeats the rules imposed upon amateur ham radio operators by using existing metal gutters as an antenna, and enables external tuners to achieve a near perfect match from 10-80 meters.
Product is in production
More Info: http://AlphaAntenna.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
24.5134.8
WI0JK Rating: 2023-02-06
Satisfied Customer Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I live in a neighborhood with antenna restrictions. I have been using version 1 of the Alpha Antenna HOA Buster for just over a year and am a very satisfied customer. Using the HOA Buster with my antenna tuner, I’ve already worked 143 countries on 6 through 160 meters using FT8 (mostly), CW and SSB.

I first tried the one-story longer run of the rain gutters on my house, and while the results were better than the slinky dipole in my attic, this section was pretty hard of hearing. I was able to quickly move the HOA Buster to the other section of gutters with a downspout with a height of about 28 feet that connects to a 36 foot long horizontal section, resulting in an inverted L configuration. The HOA Buster worked like magic on this section and my rig lit up with DX.

I met and chatted with the founder of Alpha Antenna in Dayton this year, and have seen him interact frequently with customers on the “Raingutter HF Antenna” group on Facebook. I am impressed with both him and the HOA Buster!
N3HKN Rating: 2022-11-21
Works well despite heavy noise from neighbor Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I live in attached condos (common wall). The vertical rain gutter is 26ft tall, ground terminating into a plastic pipe (common drain). Standard install with hot lead laying on top of some ivy. Noise is the problem. It is S9 versus S2, or less, for an attic dipole (20/40 meters). Rig is a 7300.
BUT signals mostly are stronger than the attic dipole. Using the RF Gain helps a lot.

Last night I was playing radio at about 2am and the noise totally disappeared. The next day it had returned. I can only guess a neighbor turned off their LED lights.

Bottom line, despite the noise the signals are about 40% stronger than the attic dipole and in many cases are very readable. Noise reduction and reduced RF gain also help. So it is a keeper for me. A 30 minute listen at 2am had DX and the West Coast on a few bands with S2 Noise Level.
KE0UWN Rating: 2022-08-25
Alpha Antenna HOA Buster 10-80 Meters Very Effective Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The antenna install was straight forward following the manual's instructions. The rain gutter lead, between the rain gutter and Alpha stake supported unit, is supported approximately 18-inches about the landscaped ground.

The manual states to NOT run the rain gutter lead parallel to the antenna cable that connects to the radio. I did a dry run with the antenna lead and the rain gutter lead prior to commencing with the install to avoid that issue.

The SWR was near 1.0 to 1.2 on both 7 and 14 MHZ (bands 40 & 20) using my MFJ-949E tuner at 25 watts TX. Tuning is very similar to a magnetic loop antenna as the tuned point is very narrow and surprisingly a very low SWR at that lowest point. The Yaesu FT-891 SWR meter bars went to "zero" however the antenna turner's SWR meter guided my tuning to the lowest SWR.

I was hearing stations from just about all over the US and a few Euro stations, at times, with up to 5/5 signal readability.

The 110 feet of rain gutter, with all joints electrically connected and measuring approximately zero ohms from end to end are located in NW-NE directions. Picture the rain gutter as an inverted letter "U". The 50 foot horizontal section is approximately 30 above ground (earth) with each 30 foot vertical downspout not in contact with the ground.

It was late so I did not wait for an open net nor performed any CQ's, just SWR adjusting then sweeping the two bands for traffic.

I am interested in seting up for FT8 as a challenge with this Alpha antenna. More setting up and learning for sure. Mostly learning the FT8 program and adjusting my Yaesu FT-891. After all, it is a hobby!!

Thank you Alpha Antenna for your assistance and looking forward to fine tuning my knowledge with the Alpha HOA buster antenna.

The ease of the install, easy to follow instructions, Alpha Antenna's great support and the quality build of the HOA Buster Antenna earned my highest rating. KE0UWN
K2TGW Rating: 2022-02-08
It works Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Easy to set up and my Auto Tuner likes it. I have more than 200 feet of leaders and gutters so it was perfect fit for me.
WB4MWT Rating: 2022-02-07
A fun antenna that works for me Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have always been intrigued with unconventional antennas that could be loaded to gutters or fences that may work or not. I didn't know what to expect, though I was happy to have some fun with the HOA Buster. It kind of reminds me of my childhood rocket crystal radio that I connected to different metal connections around the house for the best reception.

My working conditions are not very favorable. My gutters are very low and 55' feet long front and back of the house. The gutters also make contact to a metal roof that could possibly interfere with the antenna's performance.

I loaded the antenna on all the bands. The forty meter band performed the best and the 80 meter band to some degree. I was not successful making contacts on the higher bands. This might be attributed to the height and length of the gutters, as well as poor propagation on some of these bands.

With band conditions as they are, I work 40 meters most all of the time, so this antenna still works fine for me. The antenna is very directional, radiating North and South, the same as the ends of my gutters. From NC, I have worked stations as far as eastern Canada and some stations into the Caribbean.

When 40 meter propagation is at its best, the HOA Buster performs almost as well as my S9 vertical and 40 meter dipole. This happens when the band is at its peak throughout the different times of the day or night. The Buster performance will drop off over time more quickly than the other antennas.

Hoping to work the higher bands as propagation gets better, I will mention one of those rare and exceptional days of 40 meter propagation. I was listening to G0EVY and he was coming in very loud. I gave him a call, and I received a 5 and 9 report. I could not believe what I heard. On top of that, my antenna does not perform well pointed west to east. Anyone who has worked Dave in England knows he operates a MONSTER beam supported by a crane. I know his antenna did most of the work. Needless to say, I was still thrilled making this contact. The gutter antenna came through!

So far I am very pleased with this antenna, considering my working conditions. It is quiet, reliable, and almost no maintenance. I would highly recommend it.




WB2LQF Rating: 2021-10-13
A Surprise Left Field Home Run! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I live with antenna restrictions. Thankfully, I have permission for a perfectly good wire antenna outside for 40 through 10 meters at 35 feet. What I lack is an 80 meter antenna and a backup antenna in case I lose my main wire to ice, wind or snow here in the northeast.

The Alpha Antenna "HOA Buster" appealed to me because it offered the possibility of filling both of my shortcomings. It is advertised as an "80 through 10 meter" antenna and it uses the gutters and downspout system as the radiator. I ordered it.

When it arrived it certainly was an impressive and heavy transformer, built like a brick-you-know-what! It seemed a bit expensive considering what arrived in the box: the transformer, an eight foot piece of wire with an industrial sized alligator clip and a rather short "ground rod" of perhaps one foot or so.

The instructions were short and sweet. Stick the ground rod into the soil, mount the transformer on the rod next to the gutter and connect the wire between the transformer and the end of the gutter.

Well...it loaded up just fine with a little help from my MFJ manual Versa Tuner -- the internal ATU in my FTdx10 couldn't handle it -- and so I tried it out on 80, 40 and 20 meters. RBN reported a range of SNRs that seemed to indicate it was radiating. Unfortunately, my Bose WaveRadio was turning itself on and off and the LED lights in the house were flickering.

Clearly, I had a problem and it wasn't necessarily the product -- I live in a townhouse and my gutters are very short - about 39 feet in total. They are also installed in short runs and I suspect very poor electrical connections between them. Because of the height of the roof line there wasn't much I could do to improve the situation. Clearly this was not going to work. If I was clobbering my own home, I was most likely affecting my neighbors.

Based on a conversation with Alpha Antenna, I took an alternate approach. First I sunk a "real" copper ground rod into the soil and mounted the transformer on it. Then I connected the coax to the transformer and passed 6 turns of the RG-8X through a Fair-Rite Mix 31 2.5 inch toroid before connecting it to my window feed through. Now, for the best part: I ran a 60 foot wire from the transformer up to the top of a nearby Maple tree - about 30 feet high - and then back down in "inverted vee" fashion to another tree, terminating about 12 feet above the ground.

Repeating my tests, the antenna generated NO RF interference and RBN reported measurably higher SNRs. I made a couple contacts on 80 meters - my first 80 meter contacts in nearly 20 years - and got 579 signal reports. Forty worked great and so did 20. I just haven't had time to try the other bands yet.

In summary, for the money I spent, I now have 80 meter capability and I now have a backup for my main Inverted L antenna. I've accomplished what I set out to do. Additionally, I can see how this rugged transformer, along with the ground spike it came with, could also serve as a portable antenna for POTA, SOTA or just a day trek to anywhere. Sixty feed of #534 Silky from The Wireman thrown over a tree branch is all I'd need.
Mission accomplished!


KB2HSH Rating: 2021-09-07
Not too bad! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I purchased the HOA Buster, not because of any overzealous HOA...I bought it to appease my antenna-loathing XYL. She doesn't mind the hobby, but refuses to have her home "uglied" by antennas and the like. The Alpha HOA Buster seemed to be the thing.

Now, I do have a 150' random that is in the air, over the roof of my house, anchored to the maple in the front yard and the maple in the back yard. It works, but it's stainless steel. The efficiency is pretty low, due to the nature of stainless. It's metallurgy has been suggested by WB2VUO to radiate in the 3-5% efficient neighborhood. Even with such a lousy radiator, I have been able to make QSOs.

The HOA Buster came, and I was amused by what came in the carton: the Alpha FMJ balun, a 3/8x24 mount, what appears to be a gutter nail, and 8' of wire with crocodile clips on each end. Not exactly high tech here. Attaching to my gutters, as described in the instructions, was dash simple. And it loaded fine. JUST FINE. The problem on MY end was that my home is a ranch. I have 180' of gutters, but they are no more than 9' off of the ground. With the QRP power I use, or the 20-30 watts from either of my Atlas rigs...it wasn't going to cut it.

After a bit of examination of the Alpha website, I had everything I needed to experiment a bit. The top of the FMJ has 3/8x24 threads...easy to add whips or whatnot. So, I moved the FMJ to the backyard, at the base of the silver maple, and ran 27' of 4 gauge solid copper up the main trunk of the tree. The copper is fastened to the trunk with nylon cable clips. At the FMJ, I use a 2' jumper of 14 gauge copper, which is attached to the FMJ's top with a 3/8x24 nut, and to the 27' vertical with a copper grounding block. The feedline is RG6/U...the direct bury type to help with keeping it invisible.
THIS incarnation of the HOA Buster has been OUTSTANDING. Using my LDG AT-100 auto-tuner (which I utterly HATE), I can pretty much load up anywhere from 160-10...with a few exceptions. (I have an MFJ Versa Tuner that is ready to replace the LDG once I finally decide that enough is enough with the tuner being unable to match what's being handed to it).

The FMJ is a 5:1 unun, built like a tank, and actually quite beautiful to boot. If you stand on the sidewalk next to my yard, you can JUST see the chrome/metal color of the FMJ at the base of the tree...and THAT IS IT. For a vertical of this degree of simplicity and stealth, I can attest 110% that this vertical beats the PANTS off of the Hustler 4BTV that I owned when I was married to my evil ex-wife and lived in our marital home. The FMJ is a BEAST, and is worthy of experimenting with in case of logistical issues with the home per se....I'm thinking of nylon gutters, etc.

Overall, I have a modular antenna system that I can adapt or improve, as needed. And it keeps XYL #2 happy.

GREAT WORK, Alpha!!
KD5DDV Rating: 2021-08-27
Game Changer For HOA restricted hams. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Living in an HOA is bad enough, but for a ham it’s even worse. Could not find a good compromise until I came across the HOA Buster by Alpha Antenna. All I can say is “WOW”!! No tuner need for 15-40 meters. Getting great reports from all over. If you’re in an HOA and don’t know what to do, do this!!! Get an HOA Buster by Alpha Antenna. You won’t regret it. 73, de W5CVT

True test of my rain gutter antenna. Broke through a pileup on 20m with 100 watts and my FTDX10 and got an honest 59 from Barcelona, Spain. He was just impressed that I was using only 100 watts and my rain gutter. The Alpha Antenna HOA Buster is really proving it’s worth. I also logged Russia, Balize and Germany this weekend on CW. Man this thing is great!!!! Thank you so much Alpha Antenna!!!

73, de W5CVT

Although it was FT8, the HOA buster came through on a phenomenal scale last night. Logged ZL2UB New Zealand. Thanks again for putting me back on the air with an outstanding performer!!!

73, de W5CVT.

disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with or being paid by Alpha Antenna. These are my honest reviews and experiences with the HOA Buster.

WA5MS Rating: 2021-05-05
OMG What a difference Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Excellent HOA compromise antenna. Internal tuner able to achieve suitable SWR on15-80m. "Hears" better than my Verticals. Actually able to hear signals on CW, Digital, and SSB. Makes XYL happy also. Would definitely recommend!
Thanks, Steve and Alpha.
WA7JFO Rating: 2021-05-03
Installed in 60 seconds, performs and hides VERY well Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Over the years I have failed to make very many QSOs with either of my HF vertical antennas from two different manufacturers, both of which peaked the interest of my HOA. I also tried a manufactured end-fed EMCOMM antenna, which was the worst performer of the three. Then along came this HOA Buster last year from Alpha Antenna, which by the way is a real American’s Company. In a side by side comparison with the previous three systems, the Alpha HOA Buster looks more professional and its’ performance outperformed the other antennas on transmit and receive.