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Reviews For: Compactenna HamR-7Digi

Category: Antennas: HF Mobile & Accessories

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Review Summary For : Compactenna HamR-7Digi
Reviews: 2MSRP:
Description:
Multi-band base (or mobile) antenna for limited space applications. 46 inches tall, uses 3/8 inch magnetic mount, with at least 3 foot by 3 foot ground plane or counterpoise recommended. No assembly nor adjustments required. Covers the 40m, 20m, 10m, and 6m HF bands, as well as the 2m, 220 & 440 VHF/UHF bands in one antenna. The "Digi" model comes tuned for the lower portion of the HF bands where most digital mode activity occurs, but it is tunable to the entire 40m, 20m, and 10m bands with external and internal ATUs. Supports up to 100 W at 50% duty cycle.
Product is in production
More Info: https://compactenna.com/#40M20M10M6M2M440
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
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WA8JBT Rating: 2020-10-14
Excelent antenna for stealth or apartment use. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Although I purchased the R-7 tuned for the phone portion of the bands I am now using it in an apartment mainly on the digital portion of 40/20 & 10 meters therefore the review in this forum. Using my tuner I am able to tune it close to a 1:1 to 1 match on those digital frequencies.

I have no access to put an antenna outside so everything has to be indoors. I am on the sixth floor with large windows facing the west and put the Compactenna in the window on a metal stand I fabricated out of aluminum. It is bent to fit over 2 shoe racks in my bedroom and they are strapped together to form an area of about 27" x 48” total. The shoe rack has steel rods as shelves so a mag mount is able to hold the antenna securely to the top, through the aluminum. I have attached pictures of the installation.

Even though this is the R-7 for the phone portions of the band I have been working mostly FT-8 on 20 & 40 meters with it using a tuner. In the last 3 months I have logged over 400 contacts with this antenna, mostly in the U.S. but some in Hawaii, South America, Mexico, Canada, Caribbean area and Spain & France. Using PSKreporter my signal has been heard in Japan, New Zealand, Africa and all over Europe. I don’t think that is to bad for an antenna that is completely inside a steel framed building.

I do have another portable antenna (Comet 350) for 80 – 10 meters and a couple of times have compared it to the R-7 on 20 & 40 meters but the Compactenna always performs better. When I do compare, I can switch from one antenna to the other for quick testing. I use the other antenna mostly for the WARC bands and sometimes on 80 meters.

It is also helpful in an apartment situation that the R-7 also covers 6m, 2m & 440 and works well on those bands too. When I first purchased it we tested it on 2 m with it setting on the first floor porch and were able to work several repeaters including one about 30 miles away. Then we did a simplex test and we worked my mobile station out to about 15 miles with full quieting with the R-7 still essentially setting on the porch at ground level.
AK6OM Rating: 2020-09-08
Great for apartment/HOA working HF digital and local repeaters Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The HamR-7Digi works for me. As an apartment dweller, the band coverage lets me work HF digital as well as local VHF/UHF voice repeaters with one antenna/cable that occupies a small footprint, without attracting attention to itself among the other vent pipes, chimneys, etc. on the roof of the building. This review is based on remarks I shared with Janet from Ham Radio Outlet when she reached out to see how I was doing with this relatively new product.

For best results I had to follow the directions that came with the antenna, specifically, to place the mag mount on a 3’ x 4’ piece of metal flashing, well away from other metal structures. Once I did that, the built-in tuners on my KX3 and 991A were able to tune to VSWR < 1.2 on all the specified HF bands. For VHF/UHF, the VSWRs that I measured from my tranceiver location were around 1.5 to 2 over the amateur bands.

Results speak for themselves. I tried the WSPR digital mode, and just 5 W transmit power from Los Angeles with my KX3 and its internal ATU (similar results were obtained with the 991A). My signal on 20m and 40m was heard as far away as Canada, the Canary Islands, Antarctica, and Melbourne. The Melbourne spot on August 10 was recorded on 20 m with SNR=-26dB. At that (12,712 km) distance, I estimate that the signal must have made 4 ionospheric hops, with a low takeoff angle (10 deg) from my station (it's not just a "cloud warmer") and it leaves little room in the link budget for any large losses due to antenna inefficiency. Using both VOACAP online and a simple ionospheric propagation model, there are less than about 6 dB available for transmit and receive station losses, so these results are consistent with the Compactenna performing at the full efficiency expected from an electrically small (for 20 m) antenna.

I’m happy with the HamR-Digi and would recommend it to anyone with (a) a good internal or external ATU, (b) need for small footprint, and (c) interest in mostly HF digital modes and local VHF/UHF activity.