| WA2HLM |
Rating:  |
2024-10-21 | |
| Terrific antenna for the outside |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I set this antenna up in my backyard in about 3 minutes. I connected it to my elecraft Kx2 and was working 20 meters into Michigan my first call. Easy to hear and get through despite my qrp signal.
Obviously, it doesn’t compare to my hexbeam but the ability to get a signal out reliably is super important up here in Maine, especially working POTA or SOTA or even just being in the Maine wilderness where there’s no phone service.
I’m not expecting miracles on 40 or 80 given the low power but my specific purpose for this antenna is emergency use and the great outdoors.
It beats hands down any end fed long wire, ( even well tuned ones). Also beats my mag loops which makes sense as this antenna is 17 feet tall when fully extended.
Solid construction and will handle my 100 watt amp that follows the Kx2 though not on outings!
So far so good and at a price point that is more competitive than less performing products. |
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| M1EGX |
Rating: |
2024-08-30 | |
| A very well made antenna which also works very well |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Before ordering this antenna ,I did some investigating and found that it had very good write ups,it seemed to be just the aerial I needed to go portable.When it arrived it was well packed and when opened all the components etc where found to be very well made and and packed in a very nice carrying case.It was simple to erect in the back garden,taking me all of five minutes.I connected to my flex 5000 and put a call out on 20metres,I received very good reports all over Europe.
This is a first class antenna which could be used at your permanent site if you could not put up a large antenna,it is also very good value for money |
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| W8HRO |
Rating: |
2024-08-19 | |
| A superb vertical antenna! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I returned to Amateur Radio in 2023 after a long hiatus and bought an MC-750 to get back on the low bands quickly while setting up my new shack. It has performed so well that I still haven't gotten my longwire up.
In a year of infrequent activity, I've logged 801 QSOs and 129 countries for DXCC phone, all using this antenna in my yard and a 100 watt transceiver (usually a Japan Radio JST-245 or Icom 7300). I even worked my first Aurora Scatter contact on 6 Meters using this setup!
The MC-750 is exceptionally easy to erect and take down, has excellent frequency range, and tunes broadly across the bands. I like that I can add the 40 Meter coil easily when I want to work that band, and an 80 Meter coil is now available as well.
For an all-in-one antenna, I think the MC-750 is hard to beat. |
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| WT8P |
Rating: |
2024-08-19 | |
| Good for POTA activations while traveling |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I wanted another antenna option for an upcoming trip to Iceland + Faroe Islands, with emphasis on portable, small packing footprint, and freestanding. Prior to my trip, I used it a few times for POTA activations in local parks (also useful for minimizing equipment). Having had success, I'm now in Iceland and completed my third park activation yesterday.
Pluses:
* The carrying case (65cm x 9cm x 7cm) holds the antenna, ground spike, counterpoises, coil, optional tripod, spare whip, and a small run of coax. It fits comfortably inside a checked bag.
* Easy to assemble
* There are markings on the antenna for how far you extend the whip.
Minuses:
* The tripod is only good for light breezes. Anything above that and you'll want to use the ground spike and/or guy the antenna somehow. I've found it helpful to have some Gear Ties (orange, rubberized wire twist ties that you can cut to length) in the kit.
* 30M is not marked. You need to use the 7Mhz coil, fully extend the last 4 sections and 15cm of the 5th. |
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| W4BEE |
Rating: |
2024-01-25 | |
| Great Portable Antenna for POTA |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I was looking for a portable vertical antenna for POTA activations. After some online research, I decided to try out the MC-750 due to its price point. I am certainly glad I did.
I have used the antenna for around a dozen POTA activations over the past two or three months. The pluses are listed below:
- Speed and ease of deployment. I can get it up and ready in a minute or two. Same for take down.
- The compactness when packed in the case
- Laser etching of bands on telescoping whip get you fairly close to where you need to be. No antenna analyzer needed like with some portable vertical options. I'm typically within a 1.5 or less SWR going off that and can then make adjustments from there.
- The ground radials neatly coil around the provided holder and use mini banana plugs, so attaching them is very quick.
Cons:
I can think of very few cons for the price. I wish it had a better tripod option than the one made for it. I've ended up re-purposing another tripod that is lighter a sturdier. However, I almost always use the ground spike, unless I am at a location where stakes in the ground aren't allowed. I have had to adjust the whip length a little more from the etched marks with a tripod when compared to the ground spike. However, I have never had trouble getting it resonant to where I want it.
Verdict: If you are looking for a portable antenna that is quick to deploy, reasonably priced, and well built for 100w of power or less, you won't be disappointed in the MC-750. |
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| AD5MO |
Rating: |
2023-11-29 | |
| FANTASTIC POTA or Field Day antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Background: I looked at this due to wanting to get into POTA activations. At the time of this review (11/29/30) I haven't yet activated my first park, having spent considerable time trying to perfect my field deployment skills for antennae before "the real deal". I had a lot of trouble getting usable SWR with a homebrew end fed halfwave, and wanted something more efficient than EFHW if I was going to use a QRP rig. Due to reading some issues between park management personnel and hams with tree deployments of wires, and not having the money or cargo space for suitable collapsible masts for mounting wire antennas, I looked for vertical options. This was one of the cheaper ones, and the one sub-$300 option I found with 4 star or more ratings.
Use: The first time I set this up, I had come home from working out of town and did it in the back yard with a pen light, in the dark, in about 2 minutes, MAYBE 3 counting looking over the parts to make they had all arrived and were undamaged in shipping. Put the 40m coil on, went to the 7Mhz mark, measured SWR and punched the whip out another three centimeters to make it a solid 1.2 SWR, and made FT4 contacts from California to New York while in central Louisiana immediately on 5 watts (I use the QRPLabs QMX 20m-80m transceiver).
From pulling the bag (which is wonderful) out of the box to my first QSO was about 6 minutes total, and that was with toting my rig, battery pack, voltage regulator and laptop out of the house after setting up the antenna. You cannot find an easier, more convenient, better packaged portable vertical antenna designed from the ground up for POTA deployment, in my humble and very limited experience opinion. |
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| KU8V |
Rating: |
2023-09-20 | |
| Superb POTA antenna |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
HIGHLY RECOMMEND - I am a frequent POTA activator and have used another portable antenna that uses an adjustable coil and a radial that is adjusted for length to get resonance. That antenna gets results but has a narrow range for good SWR and is finicky to set and change bands.
The JNC antenna changes that completely. It sets up very easily and band change is quick and easy for 40 -10 meters with changing the length of the 17 foot whip. Performance is terrific. A lot of thought went into this product.
Big pluses:
1) the whip is marked for ideal lengths for each band - no tape measure needed. Those marks yield a low SWR on all bands consistently, and some slight adjustments off that mark get you down to 1.2 or 1.3 easily. I don't use my onboard tuner at all - no trimming needed.
2) the included 40 meter coil - very easy to add, and also has a corresponding whip marker. I've had similar results on SWR.
3) four relatively short radials on a well-designed winder plug into the base of the antenna, making for very easy set up. There is no need to raise the end of the radial, as I had to do for my previous antenna.
4) a handsome, rugged, well-designed compact carry case.
5) an available compact tripod that works when you can't use the spike.
6) superb materials and finishing - it is a sturdy quality product at a relatively low price |
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| M0DJT |
Rating: |
2023-08-18 | |
| Great piece of kit for portable use |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Hi. I bought this aerial a few weeks ago for portable use with a Yaesu FT891. It takes literally 2 minutes to set up on your garden lawn - or on top of a mountain. The telescopic part of the aerial has markings on it to give you a good idea of the correct length - but as expected - this can differ slightly on the unique location to where you set up, so a bit of tweaking is required. It has four short ground plane wires which plug into the base and need to be stretched out. I've worked mostly on 20m but also on 15m and 40m with great success. I worked as MW0DJT/P from a place called Llanllwni a few weeks ago (on top of a mountain) and worked VK, JA and the US all 5/9 on a 100watts. My son M6YCZ worked VK on 10 watts from a high spot in Surrey. A great piece of kit for £229 from ML&S and you get a free tripod...(though you could do with a sandbag when there's a breeze). Cheers. David |
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| G4UGD |
Rating: |
2023-04-03 | |
| Excellent portable HF antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
received the antenna today, excellent quality from the carry bag to the components inside, very handy to take out in the field, very quick to deploy ,adjustment is easy with extremely low flat swr, did some wspr testing with it running 2 watts and results were really impressive ,followed by some ssb contacts and again was very pleased with the results
communication with the company is first class, very helpful indeed
highly recommend this antenna |
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| VE3IPS |
Rating: |
2023-03-14 | |
| Another great antenna from the world of JNCRadio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I started looking around for a multiband vertical that I can use for portable operations and POTA. It had to cover multiple bands and be efficient as I at times will operate QRP and don't need power heating up a Balun diminishing my radiated power. Every watt counts and by its use of a telescopic whip that is a quarter wave then it will work better than a coil loaded antenna. So for the bands above 40m the whip will be a quarter wave and it has clever markings on the whip itself showing the correct band length. This makes for a fast and easy deployment with no measuring tape or tools. On 40m, the supplied coil puts it into a base loaded design and with the 16 ft radiator it does an excellent job and is better than a short antenna as there is more radiating metal in play. What's also nice is that the design team didn't stop at the drafting table but it took it out and made sure it was usable. It sure is usable with a clever and chunky (Red) hand grip to push the antenna with its embedded spike into the ground and fool proof set up to resonance. I have a shelf full of antennas and this one is my top pick where there is a grass area to operate from because of the spike. It also comes with a custom carry bag keeping everything in place and room to add coax and accessories. I brought it with me on some hikes and its easy to carry and I can deploy it in 2 minutes and be on the air checking into ECARS or the Goof Net. So after several park events the antenna has performed admirably and if I can hear them I can work them up and down the East Coast and out West to Wisconsin and Minnesota. This will be a great secondary antenna for Field Day where we can spin it up on whatever band we want for additional operators that show up. I have tried using my A/B switch on the Icom to choose this vertical or my dipole to see which one is better when out doing POTA. My motto is less time deploying antennas and more time giving out a new park to the chasers. I cannot wait to try this out at Wasaga Beach this summer and can leave the tripod at home and just bring the antenna out and push it into the sand and go make QSO. If you cannot put a wire in a tree at a State Park (illegal) or spend time trying to get a 66 ft end fed in a tree then I will be making contacts within minutes of arriving while you are still fiddling around. |
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