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Reviews For: Arrow OSJ Model J146/440

Category: Antennas: VHF/UHF+ Omnidirectional: verticals, mobile, etc

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Review Summary For : Arrow OSJ Model J146/440
Reviews: 168MSRP: 39.95
Description:
Dual-band aluminum j-pole
Wtih better quality SO239 - 3/8-24 Connector. Better Threads and a more precise hole size for the PL259 connection. As of 4-10-05 All OSJ's will have the new connector.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.arrowantennas.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001684.6
AI4WC Rating: 2012-05-31
A best buy! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is my second review for this antenna. Since my last review, I have concluded that the problem(s) I experienced (poor performance on 70 cm) are not problems with close proximity to metal or with bad coax, but are due to my inability to properly tune the antenna. This is not a problem caused by the manufacturer, but I simply cannot tweak the antenna properly - I have tried. My bottom line: this is the best value for a tough antenna; I use it every day on 2 meters. Buy one! For the price, it cannot be surpassed. I will continue my efforts to tune it, but remember, Arrow antenna products are first-rate; don't be discouraged by my problem.
BRANDRE Rating: 2012-04-19
A 39$ antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I own one and some of my friends do. I prefer other antennas to it. I have a roll up ladder line 2/440 jpole that is as good and a quad band mobile on the car (CR8900) and a dual (HV770) that I use for events that does as well and better respectively. The antenna is rugged, no doubt about that, its best feature. It is somewhat unobtrusive if you have a hoa that is not totally enforced by nazis. But it is somewhat directional. A friend and I did some testing, far end signal varied at least 2 S units, enough to go from readable to not.

Mine is still up at home. I have a diamond tri that performs much better so it is a backup. Again, its ruggedness has saved it from the garage storage area.
AB0RE Rating: 2012-04-02
Great antenna, for a J-Pole Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Yes, the OSJ 146/440 is a "J-Pole" (considered a dirty word in many ham radio social circles). It offers nearly zero gain on the frequencies in question. When compared to the Diamond "triple-stacker" (X510) or even a small yagi (M2 2M4), the OSJ 146/440 is likely to leave one disappointed. But that wouldn't be an apples-to-apples comparison.

As far as J-Poles go, this one works great! I've owned two of them. One is installed as a temporary antenna at a friend's house, waiting for his replacement tower to get installed. The other was installed on a 17' mast at our local American Red Cross facility for their ham radio station. In both instances, SWR across both the VHF and UHF ranges was very good, checked with a RigExpert AA-520 analyzer. There has been some concern outlined in these reviews about UHF VSWR, but it was a non-issue with both of my antennas. Either I got lucky (not likely), or something else is going on with the "problem" antennas. I'd suspect maybe the users had the mast extend up past the bottom bracket of OSJ and the metal mast is interacting with the UHF-element of the J-Pole.

The OSJ 146/440 is a very stout antenna, sporting 3/8" SOLID aluminum elements. Even the mounting hardware is heavy duty. The U-bracket is also made from aluminum and the bolts are stainless steel. Make sure to use anti-seeze or never-seeze on the threads of the bolts so they don't gall, a common problem with stainless hardware. If they do happen to gall replacements are as close as your local hardware store.

The OSJ 146/440 is so robust that I can say without hesitation that if this antenna doesn't survive an installation, NO antenna would install the installation. It's robustness, coupled with the fact it can be assembled/disassembled in a few minutes, would make this antenna a great addition to your "grab and go" bag. Arrow also makes a version of this antenna with a split long element for easier storage, although I've not seen this version personally.

The icing on the cake is the small price tag ($39). One could save a few bucks making his own, but for the time and frustration of going the "homebrewed" route it just wouldn't be worth it to abandon a proved-design as far as VSWR and durability are concerned. This antenna can be ordered directly from several ham vendors which are likely to offer lower cost shipping than what Arrow charges (AES, etc). Whereas I couldn't endorse using the OSJ 146/440 as one's primary antenna in instances where installation space and available budget would allow for more, this antenna fits its market niche very nicely and can't be beat by anything else in its class.
VA3HWA Rating: 2012-03-13
Exceptional Value! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I use it indoors - just lean it against the wall in a corner of the room (second floor). House is like a Farady Cage - metal siding and stucco on wire mesh where there isn't. Works well with my TH-K2AT even without the 35 Watt amp. I plan to mount it outside at the high point of the roof peak eventually. I use it on 2 M - never tried it on 440. Solid, robust, no nonsense construction that assembled quickly. Not a "gain" antenna, but does what it is supposed to do at a reasonable and fair price. If necessary, I would DEFINITELY buy another one!
KG4YVL Rating: 2012-03-03
truck mounting Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I mounted my osj 146/440 on a tractor trailer truck. it is a comparable exercize to putting one on a skate board and dragging it down the railroad track's. In other words you cant find a better way to abuse it wind bumps tree limbs the works, and it holds up to this GREAT! I have NEVER owned a better vhf/uhf antenna!
K6RQR Rating: 2012-02-09
Excellent antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I received the antenna today and it went together with no problem. I can see a real improvement over the 2 meter ground plane I was using and it also seems to work fine on 440. I'm feeding it with good quality RG-8X coax that I bought from Universal Radio.
The components are of high quality and are nicely machined and I received the antenna in a timely matter in an outer box with a robust tube inside that provides plenty of protection. Excellent antenna at a fair price.
KB1WLM Rating: 2012-01-26
Fast and Simple Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Went together in minutes and was mounted inside an attic. Handles my FT8800 at full power without issue and has excellent range and reception. Much better on 2M than 70cm, but still perfectly acceptable. Works much better than I was hoping for in the attic, and the price was right. I thought my homebrew copper J Pole was all I needed until I got this.
KI4GTJ Rating: 2011-12-14
works like a champ Time Owned: more than 12 months.
cheap works great low SWR long lasting mine has been up for a long long time and was pass down from another ham that had it up for everyday use
K7DFA Rating: 2011-10-06
Great value in a "J-Pole" Ant. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought my OSJ 144/440 less than 3 months ago, my little brother bought one back in 2005, at first neither of us was impressed with the performance of his "OSJ". Then we replaced the coax with RG-8/U (He'd been using RG-58/U? for a different antenna and we just re-used it, mistake!) what a difference even that small jump in cable quality made! I imagine that it would have taken a real leap in performance if we'd used a coaxial cable that was even better. I now live in a complex of apartments that has more than one owner, so when one of the other owners complained about my antenna being outside to the owner of "my" building, I had to take it inside, (I need to find a different place to "hang my hat". :) ),the move indoors degraded the performance, but I can still "hit" the VHF (147.24 + 100.0) repeater on Cinnabar Mtn. with only 5W. (~51.1 miles away), the S/N ratio is better if I use 10W, before the move indoors I was able to get a signal into the "Lime Hill" repeater, oh well that one isn't used all that much (by me, at least), anyway! I can still "hit" all the local UHF repeaters too (from inside the apartment)!!!
I too, was impressed with the assembly time, about 5 minutes, light weight, great machining and rugged construction. I am considering asking the people living in the place my little brother used to about taking his old "one piece" OSJ 144/440 (yeah, he moved too and left the antenna behind), "out of their way" and using my newer one, the "two piece" model for my "go kit". I don't have a SWR meter, or even a "noise bridge" to measure performance of the antenna, for all I know the SWR on the high end of 70 cm might be 41:1, but the antenna still performs! I did use a three conductor coaxial cable for my installation, but it's not 9913, the outdoor installation was done with a "through the window board" using one of those 90 degree PVC electrical fittings and I heard that 9913 has to have much gentler bends made in it or it won't work well and sometimes doesn't work at all. My next "J-Pole" is going to be the same one, even if I do have to pay for it!!!
KJ4SJR Rating: 2011-09-18
Excellent Attic Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I put this antenna in my attic using about 50 feet of LMR400 coax thinking it would be a short term solution until I get a tower put up. Well, the performance of this antenna has been so good that I've just about talked myself out of putting up a tower. Get one of these and don't look back.