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Reviews For: Wolf River Coils Portable Vertical Platinum

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : Wolf River Coils Portable Vertical Platinum
Reviews: 4MSRP: $225
Description:
Silver Bullet Portable Vertical 80 to 10 meters Power: 100W digital, 300W CW & 500W SSB.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.wolfrivercoils.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0044.8
K6BEN Rating: 2022-02-06
Great Antenna for Portable Work! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Many Flavors
There are many flavors of the Wolf River Coils floating around, along with disparate reviews spread throughout eHam.net. So, let me begin by clarifying that I have the Silver Bullet Platinum which operates at 100 W for digital modes, 300 W CW, and 500 W SSB.

As a quick explanation, the Wolf River Coil ships with a coil, a collar that moves up and down along the stainless steel threads of the coil to electrically lengthen the antenna so as to make it resonant. It also ships with 3 ground radials, and a telescopic antenna. Of course, it also comes with a tripod base, consisting of 3 legs, each with 3/8-24 inch threads.

My Setup
I replaced the poor-in-construction telescopic whip with the much beefier Chameleon SS17 (104-inch stainless steel). By default, it also ships with the shorter legs for the tripod base. I ordered 24-inch legs, which WRC calls the Mega Pod. I run an antenna feed line that consists of 50 feet of RG-213, 10 feet of LMR-240, and DX Engineering connectors, I also have installed 10 snap-on ferrite beads near the antenna feed point to reduce common mode noise. With this setup, I’m able to output 100 Watts on FT-8, per the Yaesu’s built-in power meter.

I’ve had this antenna for a little over a year now. Set up for the Wolf River Coil is a bit painful, but to be expected. I spend a lot of time laying out my ground radials (and having to roll them back up!). The Wolf River Coil ships with just 3 ground radials. I would suggest the more you can lay out the better. Hams have published numerous studies on the optimal number of radials. In general, more is better, even if they are at 1/8 wavelength (as supposed to the recommended ¼ wavelength). After 32 ground radials, you start reaching diminishing returns. I have 10 radials that I manage by coiling up and keeping organized with Velcro.

Of course, the Wolf River Coil is meant for portable operation. So, expect to trade off portability with convenience. You’ll have to find what works best for your particular situation. Oftentimes, this means buying and selling gear. Hey, that’s why there’s swap meets and Internet sales boards.

An Antenna Analyzer Is Necessary
The other downside of the Wolf River Coil is you will need an antenna analyzer to tune the coil to your band of choice. This means every time you decide to switch bands on your radio, you’ll have to go to the antenna and start fidgeting with the collar on the coil and/or the telescopic whip. It does come with a collar accessory, which lets you switch between two bands by moving a piece of wire.

Right now, every time I switch bands, I pace back and forth between the antenna and the end of the feedline to look at my SWR meter. It can take many tries before I fine-tune it to the way I want. The other thing with a coil is you’ll have limited bandwidth, meaning you’ll have to decide whether you want to play on the digital or SSB modes. There are times when you can’t have both. I should add that on 40 M, 20 M, and 10 M, I haven’t had to settle for one end of the band versus the other end. Across these bands, I get under 2.0 SWR in the worst-case.

Stability of Setup
Because this antenna is meant for portable operation, you may wish to stake down each of the three legs in high winds. My setup has taken a crash to the ground in the past because it caught a gust of wind.

Distance of Contacts
The furthest contact I’ve been able to make with my Wolf River Coil is to Chile, some 5500 miles away. I can hear someone in Indonesian during the ARRL International DX Contest, some 11,000 miles away. I even heard one station in South Africa! Alas, it was not meant to be as I could not contact them.

Quality of Contacts
This has to with both your radio and antenna (but more with the antenna). Out of the box, my Yaesu FT dx 10 pipes out okay audio. If I set the proc level setting to 7, leaving all the other settings along, then I sound pretty natural. I’m probably not going to break up any pileups in a DX contest though. How do I know this? I heard myself on websdr. If you want to break through pileups, then you’ll need another antenna, like a hex beam with high gain.

Conclusion
If you’re looking for portable operation, this antenna is the way to go. You’ll likely have to replace the telescopic antenna after some time though. Many other users have reported that the stock whip breaks apart after less than a few handful of uses. I would also upgrade the legs so that the base is more sturdy and less likely to topple over in high winds. Also, the more radials you can lay down the better.

The downside is that you pretty much need an antenna analyzer to tune the coil and/or whip to the band of your choice. This can be time consuming, depending on how your station is set up. You may also be limited to having a low SWR for either digital or voice, but not both.

In short, I recommend this antenna.
W4LDT Rating: 2021-10-13
Exceptional value antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
After shopping for three months and vacation drawing near, I bought one of these for POTA use. Most people spring for the tripod based TIA but I chose this for two reasons.
1 Wind-This sits on a 3/4 inch ground rod. Thought a tripod may blow over or if someone caught a radial on a shoe this is not falling over.
2 Strong whip-They use two five foot long pipes that resemble old 70's or 80's style tent poles you snapped together. There is a short third one to get to CW territory. Packing all the stuff one needs plus extra stuff you don't need to stay for a week means things get underneath things or just plain smashed. The pipes looked indestructible. They are BTW.

First tried it in my yard and results were promising, till it rained. Does not want to tune and reports went through the floor when wet. I was using three 33 foot radials as recommended. Rolled them us to 25 feet and we are back. Should not matter, but in antennas everything matters. Then I tried using six 24 foot radials and we have a bingo!
Took it to GSMNP in NC and at 5300 feet elevation my first 20 meter contact was in Chile. Here comes a thunderstorm. After dark I register the park on POTA website and good gracious what a pile up on 40. That thing works like a charm.

After many Saturdays making POTA contacts from home, there have been many contacts with people using the Wolf River Coil antennas. All are satisfied and many people also run a similar six 24 foot radial arrangement.
A few folks use this one on a taller rod over rocky soil, or on a picnic table if they have a tripod base.

This along with a Yaesu 891 is a nice setup. This antenna is half the price of some portables. I can tune it with a Rig Expert in 30 seconds, what's not to like?
KC9QBY Rating: 2020-10-24
Great for HOA/covenant restrictions Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Have a pair of these mounted on deck rail, pix on Zed page. Opted for dual collar on both, and they are my primary HF antennas. Dual collar yields convenient manual band switching. 6 each 32ft radials on each which drape to ground then staked to mulch and grass; 102” SS whip on each. Tuned easily with antenna analyzer, one for 30/75M, second for 20/40M. Achieved full band coverage on 20/40/30 SWR 1.5 or less; similar on 75M midpoint of General phone segment. Running barefoot typically 75 watts. Kinda center loaded in my case, coil about five feet off ground. Mounting fixture is Firestik SS-204A on deck rail baluster, which is radial attachment spot.

These are waaay superior build to SuperAntenna MP1, really great bang for the buck and have allowed me to reach HF with FT8 DX. Plenty more to explore ahead. Great way to get going on HF. They will be used longer term at my QTH. Unable to opt into Flagpole which in my case was unattanium on cost and physical ability merit. My pair were about 1/10 cost of flagpole not-by-me install budget.

Thanks to Gary (KB9AIT) and Terry (N9AOT) at Wolf River Coils for these great units.
K0INN Rating: 2020-10-23
Pretty darn good vertical antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This review is for the portable vertical which is a different product than the TIA (which has a mounting tripod and collapsible whip). This antenna mounts to a ground rod or pipe driven into the ground and consists of several snap together aluminum sections.

My installation consists of 500 feet of self-burying ground radials ($25 worth of #16 stranded copper insulated wire at Home Depo). The base is mounted to a ground rod driven 4 feet into the ground. The aluminum sections are about 5 feet long and 1 inch in diameter and seem pretty sturdy. The whole antenna is about 20 feet tall. The antenna uses the same tuning system with the tuning ring and stainless steel wire coil as the other WR antennas. The antenna is sturdy and weather proof.

This setup works great for me on 40 and 80 meters, the bands I'm most interested in. If I can hear them, I can work them (dx included) with 100 watts. It seems that even weak stations have no problem hearing me. I work some CW contests and many times I get picked out of the pile up right away.

If I'm not going to be using the antenna, or, if stormy weather is expected, I take down the antenna. The put up and take down takes about 2 minutes. Just unscrew the coax connection, unscrew a few thumbscrews, and take apart the 5 foot aluminum sections to take it down. Reverse the steps to put it back up. I believe the antenna could sustain wind, but, for me, not a big deal to take it down and put it back up. The tuning stays consistent so I don't have to fiddle with that if not changing bands after putting it up. The antenna has a low visual impact but packs a solid signal.

In summary, I'm very happy with the antenna and would definitely buy it again.