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Reviews For: B & W End Fed Inverted V

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : B & W End Fed Inverted V
Reviews: 12MSRP: 200.00
Description:
55 foot each leg inverted v wire with a matching network at one end and fed with 50ohm on the other.
Product is in production
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# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00124.1
NS5F Rating: 2013-06-23
Excellent no tune 75m-10m antenna 160m with tuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The antenna is installed as an inverted V with the apex at approx 35 feet. The ends are approx. 7 feet above ground. I've installed the counterpoise to compensate for the lack of ground rods. The VSWR is excellent under 1.2 to 1 from 80m CW through 10m WITHOUT a tuner. The VSWR on 160 is above 2 to 1. I find with my installation the antenna shines as a NVIS antenna on 160m and 75m with excellent coverage in a 400 mile radius with solid 5/9 signals several hours after sunrise.

The B&W Inverted V antenna take-off angle is not as low as my GAP Titan but knowing that, I can optimize my antenna choices for my specific needs. I use the B&W antenna primarily with a Collins AN/URC32 2-30mhz transceiver running 125w AM Phone for regional use on 75m. After speaking with B&W regarding the high VSWR on 160, I found the customer support experience to be exceptional as well. The antenna and customer support are both worthy of a 5+ in my experience. The antenna has been in the air with no problems for 10 years plus...
ZS4S Rating: 2012-10-11
SURPRISED Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Have the antenna with the apex of the Vee up at 50ft. Results are amazingly good. Useable from 80 - 10m without a tuner. Needs a tuner on 160m, although with a 2:1 SWR, it is still useable without a tuner on most radios. Excellent product - good reports that compare favourably with my trap dipole for 160 - 40m!! The Optibeam OB11-3 obviously outperforms it on 20 - 10m, but didnt acquire the antenna for those bands !
K4WY Rating: 2007-06-05
Superb all band option Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used this B&W antenna over many years and it has been the best purchase I ever made. Overall I prefer to use it as a sloper rather than an inverted Vee. On 80 it is equal in performance to a Radioworks brand loop. On 160 it has brought me 26 states and 13 dx countries. It is not a panacea for 160 but a good option to more complex arrays. I recommend following the instructions, use the counterpoise, and avoid postioning it near things like chain links fences etc, that can effect performance.
former_W6ZD_MJ Rating: 2006-01-05
Great Antenna!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had mine installed as a sloper from the 70' level on my well grounded tower. The loaded end is about 4' above ground, and a counterpoise is installed, buried, back to the tower base, for DC conductivity. I use it mostly on 160m and 80m, and occasionally on 40m.

VSWR on all frequencies is very low. The various transmitters I have all load well into the antenna. On a recent long path contact from Central Coastal California to Sri Lanka, this antenna was approximately 6 dB down from my full sized log periodic dipole array. Not bad!! The antenna appears to be nearly non-directional.

I use it nearly every week on the Wednesday night Collins (3880 Kc)and AMI (3870 Kc) AM nets, using a Collins 32V-3. Listen in and check it out!

Marty
W6ZD


KD7PJQ Rating: 2005-12-05
Excellent! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
So far - no problems. I've had the antenna up for almost 3 weeks and it's great. The directions were easy to follow and I got the antenna up quickly and without issue. This antenna was great solution for my problem of wanting a multiband antenna with minimum ammount of space.
KG6AOH Rating: 2005-02-13
Works much better than expected! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My first 5 rating of anything, and I am usually quite conservative too.

The B&W inverted V can be installed either as an end fed V or a sloper. I already have a great performing inverted L and did not want to disturb it (for A-B comparisons with the B&W). In my installation, the only way that made any sense ended up what you could call an 'inverted checkmark'. I was not expecting much. Surprise! It performs within 1 S-unit of my inverted L antenna with tuner! My inverted L stomps all over verticals I have tried, and the B&W does too.

My SWR was not spectacular above 5 MHz., but certainly useable. The SWR is almost 1:1 from the AM broadcast band right up to 4.5 MHz. I wanted to see how much power was going to be absorbed in to the resistor on certain bands, so I did a sweep from AM BCB to 30 MHz. using my MFR analyzer and with the resistor ground connection lifted. I figure, any SWR is going to be shared with the resistor, but bands with low SWR will not be losing power in the resistor. Anyway, I was able to determine that so little SWR was present on the bands I cared about that it would be safe to use my full-tilt amp. I was correct. On 75m, the B&W handles a full power amp with no trouble at all. My resistor did not burn up like others have reported.

On the air, the 80m performance was almost identical to my inverted L. Throughout the bands, it works about as well. On 10m, the B&W works MUCH better than the inverted L and almost equal to a 1/4 wave vertical. It is amazing! Also, the balun is configured in a manner which isolates your coax from the antenna wire and ground wire. There is continuity from the antenna wire to ground and from coax center to coax shield, but goo isolation between coax and wires. That is a little comforting for lighting protection. I still use a Polyphasor just in case.

Based on what I had read here and elsewhere prior to purchasing, I was very skeptical that this antenna would work well. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it performs so well. Not only is the transmit within 1 S-unit of my proven antenna, but the receive as well. On SW, the B&W performs just like the longwires, but is actually more quiet. Less noise, same signals. On the AM BCB, signals are about 2 s-units lower, but there is almost NO noise! That makes the signals easier to copy overall.

The copperweld wire is a chore to deal with (you have to unroll it carefully!!). I did manage to only introduce 1 kink into the wire though. The construction of the balun and resistor is VERY professional. This is NOT built like the typical cheap ham antenna. This antenna screams of military spec quality. Really. No typical PVC and duct tape. The custom formed fiberglass housings with B&W stamped end caps looks beefy, weighs a lot, and held up to falling down the rocks when I was stretching it out. Barely a scratch!

I can't wait to do more testing with this antenna. I believe this is going to be my main antenna from now on. I have read this written about B&W antennas time and time again, now I have to repeat it because I feel the same way- 'I wish I just bought this antenna in the first place!!'

N1DP Rating: 2004-03-18
Good general purpose Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought this antenna back in 1998 because of our lot size. Although it is designed as an inverted vee, I have used it more as a sloper. Had the resistor assembly fill with water. Called B&W...very nice, helpful people got the replacement shipped promptly. Have worked South Pole on 20m and worked East Coast to Wisconsin on 160m. Worth the money.
N3TVV Rating: 2004-02-20
A Giant dummy Load Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I've owned this antennea for about 4 months and have had nothing ,but problems with it.I drove an 8 ft ground in for both sides of the antenna and have experiment with the counterpoise moving the antenna and such and found that the bands that it works on seems to depend more on the weather and yes the connectors are protected from the weather. I put the antenna from my chimney at about 35' down to my back yard where the second ground rod was driven in , and think I would get better results with my heathkit dummyload in my attic.After following the instructions I've have had horrible results all and all. So if You're thinking of getting one of these please think again.
W8PFT Rating: 2003-08-16
Works well for application. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been using the B&W end-fed antenna for about 5 years. I needed an antenna that I could get up quickly after an ice storm took out my multi-band dipoles and could be used to cover MARS frequencies. I recently reinstalled at a new QTH. The antenna works pretty much as advertised. SWR depends on ground conditions and nearby objects, but has been pretty much below 2.5:1 from 1.8 to 30 mHz.

Keep in mind that this is a traveling wave antenna and not a resonant antenna. The power travels from one end of that antenna to the other were it is absorbed. It has been characterized as a dummy load on a wire, which is pretty accurate. The radiation pattern is pretty much isotropic which is ideal for working area nets. The insertion loss on 160 is about 14 dB or 2 s-units, but I have worked stations 500 miles away on a regular basis. Performance improves with frequency and equals an inverted-vee dipole at about 15 mHz. To me, the advantage of being able to move to any frequency between 2 and 20 mHz with a single antenna more that offsets the disadvantage of the antenna's lack of efficiency.
K2CAD Rating: 2003-06-20
Works Well Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have been using the antenna for a few months now and it really seems to work well. I was not happy with the communication with B&W which is why I would not rate it higher. They don't want to be bothered answering questions. The give only a read the manual answer. Also there saying it only takes 88 feet of space is flat out wrong. If you do simple math it will tell you 97 feet with the 25 foot support. I put mine up to 30 feet and it takes up 92 feet overall. It is totally flat on 80 meters and tunable to 1:1 on all other bands including 160m. Previously I was using a Hustler 6 Band Vert. with 36 radials for each band. The end fed V outperforms that antenna by at least one S unit on receive, and so far I have been able to work anyone I can hear.