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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
W9LGH Rating: 2011-09-15
Well built, good VSWR Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Well built antenna, mine didn't come with the mounting clamp or instructions. I also had to drill another hole in the base flange to accomodate a larger diameter mounting pipe. Item was shipped in a long cardboard box which was bent by the shipper. However, after straigntening our the long antenna element, it went together easily. VSWR is better than 1.5:1.0 over 2 meter and 3/4 meter ham bands. Be sure to get the plastic insulator in the correct way and continuity check the connection before you put it up, otherwise you will never get a decent VSWR reading. No tuning was necessary, so it's plug and play.
N0YXE Rating: 2011-07-23
IT WORKS! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The antenna is very well built and it is mounted at about twelve feet on my deck railing. I live in a very restricted subdivision and it is small enough that the Nazis neighborhood association who patrol 24/7 and spend their waking hours threatening lawsuits, do not bother me. From the middle of the country I can hit repeaters in Japan......just kidding. It probably works as well as a very small roof mounted car antenna. If it was mounted at high altitude it would work better, right, but why would I even consider such a small antenna? My larger Diamond antenna cannot be used in this neighborhood, but was vastly superior in gain and range. If you want to get the RF outside and don't have the choice of a large and highly visible antenna, this one is as sturdy as you can get. It will withstand tennis ball and Fresbie assults and is therefore worth the money.
KO1C Rating: 2011-07-16
Great Customer Service! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my Arrow J-Pole antenna back in the packet radio days (late 1990's). It worked great for awhile, then it started going "deaf" to distant stations. I assumed it was a bad piece of coax I had used. Because packet was not a weak signal mode, I replaced the coax and the J-Pole with a small beam.

The J-Pole went into the garage (Non-climate controlled in New England) and hung upside down on the wall for over 10 years.

Fast forward to today. I moved to a new QTH in the next state. I live in an area with a HOA. They are ham friendly but I like to keep a low profile. I pull the J-Pole out of storage, mount it on the roof and use a new, tested and known good piece of coax and I get on the air.

It doesn't take long before I realize I'm getting into a distant 2 meter machine and a distant 440 machine very well but I'm receiving the 2 meter machine just so-so, I have to open my radio's squelch just to barely make out the 440 machine.

Before I put the antenna back up I noted when inspecting it the SO-239 connector looked like it had a corrosion on it like aluminum corrosion. I chose to put the antenna up anyway, I believe this to be the problem of my poor reception of distant machines.

I emailed Tim, KB7MDF of Arrow Antennas and wrote to him what I wrote here. I received a reply the next day and he asked for my address, he's sending me a new connector and stud for my antenna.

I didn't expect that but it really has further cemented my relationship with Arrow Antennas.
N5LXI Rating: 2011-06-23
Works FB Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought one for a secondary station on my electronics development bench. It's mounted on a chimney at about 20 feet. I drilled a second hole for a 2" U-bolt so I could mount in on 2" PVC pipe.

It assembles very easy and is seems very rugged. It should last a long time.

It matches very well on two-meters. As mentioned, UHF has quite a few peaks and valleys as measured on my antenna analyzer. UHF SWR ranges from 1:1 to 1:2 in the 440 MHz range. I am using 75' of new, large coax.

Overall it works fine, especially on two meters. It's priced right and made well.

joel / N5LXI

www.n5lxi.com for a free list of verified Dallas/Fort Worth Repeaters.

K1WJ Rating: 2011-05-07
Good for me Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Easy to put together, using it in backyard - arizona hoa - base only 5ft high. Hits many 2m/440 repeaters in the Phoenix area.
Nice & dry here - not worried about water getting into connector! 73
VA7DH Rating: 2011-05-06
Good Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is a good reliable antenna. It won't blow away in a wind and the bandwidth is fine. The only thing I could throw rocks at is something common to most home (not commercial) antennas and that is the connection to the antenna. It is not protected from rain and due to the location of the connector is difficult to weatherproof. You just need to take a little extra care how you do it or water can get in. PL-259 connections aren't as resilient as type N's but then even type N's need protection in really wet environments. I live on Canada's west coast so have experience with that. By the way it is not to hard to make the antenna into a super J with a little reworking of the longest element. I've put together several of these for friends and as others have claimed they go together easily.
W5LZ Rating: 2011-05-02
Works okay. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've had the antenna up for about two weeks. It does just fine on 2 meters, and about average on 70 cm. The only direct comparisons I can make are with a dual band Comet antenna, and an ordinary 2 meter 'J'-pole. The SWR on UHF runs just under 2:1, which is very close to the Comet. Oddly, the 2 meter 'J'-pole has a better SWR than either the Arrow or the Comet. But, SWR isn't that big'a deal, performance is more important to me. The Arrow does as well, in most instance, as the other two, so I'm happy with it, it's doing what it's supposed to do.
I think if I'd get off my lazy... and do some tuning on the 70 cm side, it'd do 'better' as far as the SWR is concerned. One of these days... maybe.
Paul

(Mechanically, Arrow does better work than I do. I think it'll last as long as any other antenna I have.)

WA5DA Rating: 2011-05-01
Great for my first base station antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Bought this antenna based on the positive reviews here and on the price. Can't build your own antenna to this quality for this cheap! Despite the terrible coax I hooked this up to, I'm getting good performance from it. I went the cheapo route and tried to use existing 70 ohm RG-6 cable installed in the house (including lossy F type connectors, and F-to-PL-259 adapters on the antenna and radio ends), and I can work repeaters 60 miles away, and "hear" repeaters 90 miles away (or 150 miles away on nights with good ducting propagation) on 2m.

There isn't much 70cm in my area but I can work 3 repeaters with full quieting. It's pretty deaf for FM satellites but that's very understandable considering the lossy cable; I easily have over 6 dB loss in the coax at these frequencies. Some day I'll install better cable to improve efficiency, but for now the performance of this antenna is pretty impressive for the price.

I can't hit any of the local repeaters with an HT from inside my house on the rubber duck, so all I wanted was to be able to get an antenna outside the house to make that possible. The OSJ Model J146/400 has so far exceeded my expectations.
N5JII Rating: 2011-03-22
Watch Out Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This antenna works OK on 146 but suffers from High SWR on UHF, I was told by Arrow it was my faulty antenna coaxial wire but the wire has tested fine (not with a 269).
"Simply the Best" and " No Hassel Returns" are simply NOT true as they refused to accept a return and Universal-Radio would not accept it as a return without a restocking fee and return shipping if it had been opened. That makes it not worth returning, Buyer beware!!!!






"Simply the Best"






EX_AA5JG Rating: 2011-02-07
Excellent buy! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I decided to put up a fairly simple satellite station to work the FM satellites with a dualband FM radio. I have done plenty of satellite work before, but was running out of money (and room) so decided to go simple for a while. I remembered reading recently in a QST review about a dualband J pole that was used by the reviewer on the satellites, and after doing some searching, found that this was the antenna that was reviewed.

I ordered one from Ham Radio Outlet for slightly less than $40. What an excellent antenna for the price! It took longer to open the package than it did to assemble the antenna, and this is really well made. Looks like it can withstand anything.

How does it perform? Better than my expectations. It hears the FM satellites as well if not better than any other antenna setup I have used before. I have no trouble getting into the satellites either, and can hear almost all of the pass. I also can get into repeaters 40 miles away on 2m and 70cm with no problems. If you want a great dualband antenna, look no further.