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Reviews For: WiMo GP-3W

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : WiMo GP-3W
Reviews: 2MSRP: $130
Description:
The GP-3W is a trapped vertical antenna setup for the 12/17/30 meter WARC bands.
Product is in production
More Info: https://www.wimo.com/en/gp-3w
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0023.5
N8RAT Rating: 2024-06-08
A Good Performer, But Weather Proof it Before You Install Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
As WB4DW mentioned in his review, the trap assembly is prone to water intrusion.

After installing the antenna on a Sunday and experiencing a better than 1.5:1 match on all 3 bands, by Tuesday the VSWR had climbed to well over 2:1 on all bands after a moderate rainstorm. Dismantling the trap assembly a few days later revealed significant moisture inside. After drying out the assembly, I applied silicone sealant to the factory weather boot above the trap and reassembled. The match had returned to better than 1.5:1 on all 3 bands. While I had the antenna back on the ground, I replaced all hardware with stainless steel as it is just a matter of time before the supplied hardware begins to corrode.

As far as performance is concerned, the antenna works quite well. Mine is ground mounted with the factory supplied radials on a high point overlooking my home with no obstructions. On 17 meters, it is on par with my Inverted Vee at 40 feet making contacts into Europe and Africa with a hundred watts. Signal reports appear to be fairly reciprocal with stations I have contacted running similar power levels.

Performance is similar on 12 meters. If I can hear them, I can work them with signal reports being equal to what I hear. I have yet to operate the antenna on 30 meters, except for testing. The antenna handles my kilowatt amplifier without any problems.
I plan to add a significant number of radials over the summer.
WB4DW Rating: 2021-10-19
works ok, but subject to water problems Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased this antenna as a WARC band supplement to my Hustler 5BTV antenna which has performed very well on 80-40-20-15-10 meters. It was installed on a separate 6 foot long galvanized mounting pole, 4 feet of which was concreted in the ground, mirroring the mounting arrangement of my 5BTV. A DX Engineering ground radial plate was also installed, again mirroring my 5BTV installation.

The WiMo GP-3W is a simple ground plane antenna, split aluminum tubing, fastened together with stainless steel hose clamps, and one trap (for the 30 meter band).

I installed it using the measurements provided in the 2 page instruction manual, under dry conditions, and it initially presented an SWR of less that 2:1 on all three WARC bands.

After the first rain, the SWR was way over 3:1 on all bands. This antenna is not in any way resistant to water intrusion. By comparison, my Hustler 5BTV barely shows any change in SWR regardless of wet or dry conditions.

I suspected the culprit was the single trap in the GP-3W, so I drilled a couple of weep holes in the bottom of the trap and water poured out. After a couple of days of drying, the SWR is almost back to where it was when I first installed it.

Gentlemen, make your own judgements.

73 de WB4DW