| W5AOS |
Rating:      |
2011-01-18 | |
| As "perfect" as I have ever seen |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Got the thing up and it works perfectly. Flat for all of 2 meter and only climbs to 1.2:1 at the upper end of 70cm. Works well into the GMRS frequencies too with the highest SWR at 2.0:1 on ch22. Absolutely amazing, never seen anything like it. Communication with distant repeaters is as good or better than any other install I have ever had.
I thought about giving it a 4 due to my dislike of the connector design. The inside diameter of the center conductor seems to be over sized a bit and the center pin of the UHF connector appears to go in without making contact. I tried different UHF connectors and they were all too loose. Warning, do not try to close the center conductor "cup" with needle nose pliers as the metal is brittle and will break. Rather, just build up a little extra solder on the center pin of the cable side UHF connector. This was not enough problem for me to downgrade the rating to a 4 as the flat SWR and RX/TX signal is phenomenal.
Gain shmain. . .I got more than the entire two bands with flat SWR and had to do absolutely no tuning. I'll trade that over gain any day. |
|
| KB1TRY |
Rating:      |
2010-12-07 | |
| after a while.. still works great |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| Had this antenna sience last febuary, still on the roof. we live in a log cabin so i took the bolts that were on the anteanna mast clamp to home depot, matched the size but got 2 inch lag bolts. so it sits lagged into my roof, coax connector: no complaints. Havent done any 440 with it for little 440 repeaters being shut down due to the issues with Pave Paws. when 2m opens, i can hit repeaters in VT and NH, NY,Western mass, no problems on 75 or 30 watts. great antenna, most bang for the buck on this baby, i paid all of what, 50 bucks? Highly recomened. no complaints. |
|
| N6RLS |
Rating:     |
2010-11-27 | |
| Great on 2M - OK on 70CM |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
My actual experience with this antenna - as far as results go - is fine on both VHF and UHF... but, as others have noted, there seems to be a higher SWR on UHF.
The only measure of this I have is the SWR "meter" on my Yaesu FT897D transceiver... on any VHF frequency there is either no reading or maybe one or two "rows of pixels" as Yaesu describes these meter readings - well below the S2 pip on the scale; the most left pip is "S1" (not "S0") and any SWR reading this low, between the first 2 pips, is excellent.*
On UHF, depending on frequency, the reading is "S4.5" (on 445.9) or less, down to "S3" (on 435.3) but never high enough to invoke the "HSWR" indicator (which would cut the FT-897's output to protect the finals)... the maximum FM power on UHF is only 20 watts.
I think it is a decent antenna, especially for the $40 price.
I have the antenna mounted to the bottom of an old cymbal stand from my drum kit - isolated from direct electrical contact with the metal stand - and fed by 18 feet of RG-8X cable (HRO house brand) -- I'm planning to upgrade the cable type, but as others have noted here, doing this didn't seem to improve the high UHF SWR readings they got.
Arrow Antennas has a notice about SWR:
http://www.arrowantennas.com/main/swr.html
* - There are 8 "rows of pixels" from "S1" to "S2" so 2 rows of pixels would be less than 1/4 of the distance to the "S2" pip. I wish the FT-897 had more useful SWR readings, but on a relative scale the VHF readings are very low or absent altogether. |
|
| N1QQ |
Rating:      |
2010-09-18 | |
| Great value, good performance. |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I bought this antenna to replace a home-brew 2-meter jpole. It is of superior build quality, and performs well. However, this is not a miracle antenna. It does perform well, but there are antennas out there that will out-perform it. For example a 5-element beam will obviously do much better, and a large vertical with radials will most likely do better, but these antennas are much more complicated, fragile, and way more expensive. For the average ham this is a great buy.
I did a video review of this antenna, check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrpdmEFQwBA&feature=related |
|
| WF9B |
Rating:      |
2010-08-16 | |
| Excellent Product, Excellent Service! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
WOW! I'm extremely impressed both with the quality and value of this antenna, and with the company as a whole! I had a few pre-purchase questions, and the owner Allen responded both quickly and with detail. Would definitely recommend this antenna for anyone looking to improve their reception and reach on 2-Meters and 70-CM. Compares very favorably with some of my homebrew copper J-pole projects with even better SWR readings across most of both bands.
I read other reviews here on eham, and made sure to use self-vulcanizing silicon tape at the coax connector top and bottom to make sure water can't enter the coax.
Will definitely be buying another for my ecomm jump kit. Recommend you spring the extra $10 for the 2-element option. Collapses small enough to fit easily in a back pack, making it a perfect camping/field day companion! |
|
| AC8JD |
Rating:      |
2010-08-15 | |
| You can't beat it for the price!!! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I am a newly licensed ham. I got this antenna for an inexpensive, easy to set up antenna that I could use as a base station VHF/UHF antenna at my QTH. I put the antenna up at 22ft. Installation could not be easier. It took only 5 minutes to assemble the antenna and another 30 minutes to put it on the mast and cable it up.
My Icom IC-706MKII only puts out 20 watts on 2m and I am able to hit repeaters up to 50 miles away easily with full quieting reports. I am able to hear repeaters up to 180 miles away, but at the current 20 watts available to me on 2m I cannot tx that far. If the other reviews here are correct it is entirely possible to make those contacts at 150 miles away with 50-100 watts. I will write a review when I am able to do that!
I will definitely be buying another one of these for portable use when we go camping.
Sure the directional VHF/UHF antennas are far better and can give you much further TX and gain, but they cost a ton more and require a tower with roter to be used. |
|
| KF7BRW |
Rating:      |
2010-07-18 | |
| Excellent value for the money and then some. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I have been wanting a transportable antenna system to be used for public service events for some time. At the Williams (AZ) Ham Fest I came across a tripod speaker stand that would serve well as a field mount and picked up the Arrow OSJ J146/440 to be used in conjunction with it. Being the stereotypical "Big Kid"" I started tearing open he packaging as soon as I got back to our club tent in the tailgating area. I had the antenna assembled, mounted to the tripod and ready to go in about 15 minutes. I was impressed with the rugged construction and high quality of this antenna. Much more than I expected considering the $39.00 price tag. Instructions were clear and lucid and I had no problems putting it together. Before hooking up my trusty FT-60 HT to the new antenna I tried to access a repeater about 30 miles away using the Diamond antenna that replaced the factory rubber duck. Nada, nil, nothing, zip. Couldn't even kerchunk the repeater. Hooked up the HT to the new J-pole, at an elevation of about 6' and got into the repeater with a very good signal report. Receive audio was clear and strong. Got back home and set up the antenna in my front yard and was able to hit the local repeater on my HT which I am usually only able to do using a 2m beam Yagi because of my location. Transmit was a little noisy but perfectly copyable. I attribute this to my location in the shadow of the mountain and not to the performance of the antenna. Actually I am amazed I was able to get into the repeater at all, let alone with a perfectly copyable signal. To say I am impressed with this antenna is a vast understatement. After having only had this antenna for a couple of days I am already considering picking up a second one for use as a base antenna, in addition to the one I have now for field work. I highly recommend this antenna for anybody looking for a rugged, quality omni-directional VHF/UHF antenna for not a whole lot of money. |
|
| N3OQD |
Rating:      |
2010-04-29 | |
| Overview |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have had this one for about five years. Works great on 2m and 440. In reading the VSWR problems on UHF encountered yet unsolved, I too had this issue. As every situation is different and I do not know what the last guy's setup is like but here is what I found with mine. I make my own cable runs from used cable. Been soldering for over 30 years now. When I had the high VSWR I was scratching my head and then it dawned on me. The cable faces upwards and rain goes with gravity. Hmmm. It turns out that water would enter the end and when it dried out it was fine. So while dry I coated the end with a thick layer of petroleum gelly and so far so good. Across the UHF the VSWR varies from flat to no more than 1.3 to 1. VHF is even a bit better. The other J-pole that I have is in close proximity to other objects and does have a bit higher VSWR.
----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by N3OQD on 2009-08-18
I got to admit, this is one of those rare jewels. Ultra simple and quite durable and the very least expensive out there. I have had one for several years now and have had different types and sizes of other dual banders, yet I still find myself comming back to this one. It may not have the absolute high gain of other bigger and fancier ones BUT it makes up for it in all other ways. Recently, I went to a local hamfest and bought another one unused for $25. Yesterday, I installed it as a secondary one to my first. Exellent almost flat VSWR on both bands. Across the two bands, I get that low profile "smile" in the VSWR frequency chart. For the gentleman that had VSWR issues, you have to use quality cable with solidly fitted and soldered connectors on each end and mount antenna up and away from other objects. Since buying used cable over the years, and since many hams do not know how to properly put UHF males on the ends, I do my own and have never had failure yet. This antenna will always be a part of my shack until I go SK. |
|
| K4MC |
Rating:  |
2010-04-07 | |
| Kings new clothes |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Update:
After reading the reviews and remembering my conversation with the company (NO)customer service, I decided to recheck mine, and did so many times.
The company points the finger at "poor coax" as the culperet for dismal SWR on UHF.
In rechecking mine, VHF has always been stellar, UHF, DISMAL.
I've checked it with 213, 9913, 8, 8X, and 58 and varied the length of each, the results have been the same. VHF, good, UHF, very bad. The co-ax is NOT the problem!
If you want a good, inexpensive, and compact VHF antenna, this is it. Add UHF to the mix and you are much better off with a Diamond or Comet of similar size.
When deciding, read all the reviews carefully.
I gave mine away at the Orlando Hamcation. |
|
| KF5EYR |
Rating:      |
2010-04-07 | |
| Very Good VHF/UHF Antenna |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I, too, live in apartment complex. I am fortunate to be allowed to have an outdoor antenna on my patio. I took a large plastic flower pot and poured concrete around an 1½" PVC conduit for a mast and mounted the Model J to that. I am on the ground floor of the complex that is on the side of a steep hill. I can consistently hit repeaters that are 30 to 35 miles away running 15 watts. Almost all of my signal reports are full quieting. I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised and pleased. I think that for the very low cost of this antenna, one can hardly go wrong. It is a good product for a very fair price. |
|