| AB7JK |
Rating:  |
2007-03-18 | |
| buyer beware!!! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I used a 20 meter Hamstick antenna back in the 1990s and found it worked quite well. A year ago I purchased 10 and 15 meter Hamsticks but could never get them to tune properly so I put them away in a closet and decided not to do any /M operating until I could do so.
This afternoon I got them out again and tried to tune them again with no luck. In the meantime I lost another set screw so I now have only one set screw for each antenna - more frustration.
Then I put the two antennas side by side to look at the windings on the fiberglass rods. I discovered the antenna marked for 10 meters has more windings than the 15 meter antenna so I tried tuning the 15 meter antenna on 10 meters and the 10 meter antenna on 15 meters thinking both antennas are mis-marked. Still no go. Maybe they will tune on other bands. Unfortunately I do not have an antenna analyzer to figure out what is going on.
Back into the closet they go until I have another afternoon to waste. In the mean time I can say for sure DO NOT waste your money or time on a Hamstick. Try a Procomm, Wormkan or another similar antenna if you need to go this route. Don't make my mistake.
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| KE4IOK |
Rating:  |
2007-03-04 | |
| Works well! |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I live in an apartment so I use the Hamsticks in a 20 Meter dipole configuration (sort of like a "Buddipole") on my veranda and if you match the two antennas by paying attention to the instructions and use an antenna analyzer, it works very well. The 20 M setup has good bandwidth and I made several Carribean and a European contact (Poland) during the HF voice contest today on 100 watts with the dipole mounted on my veranda railing 16 feet above the ground. Five minutes to put it up and 5 minutes to take it down. You can't beat them for the price. |
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| K3AN |
Rating: |
2007-02-04 | |
| Work Fine |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I have the 40 and 20 Meter versions, which I use on my pontoon boat on a fresh water lake. These units all come with a stinger that's too long. It was very helpful to have an antenna analyzer to find the resonant point, and then trim the stinger to bring the antenna to resonance in the desired part of the band. I also bought an extra stinger that I shortened to use the 20 meter Hamstick on 17. They have worked very well for me, and I have worked a fair amount of DX on 20 and 17 from the boat. To those who have complained about their customer service, I understand where you're coming from. I live not far away and went to their location to buy the antennas. Rent the movie "Deliverance" and you'll get an idea of where these things are assembled and who's running the place (and presumably answering the phone). |
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| NS6Y_ |
Rating: |
2006-12-31 | |
| 20m ok, 40m frustrating |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Well, I got a 20m and a 40m hamstick, set up the 20m in the park and got it working well, had to trim 6 inches off of the whip, easy-peasy, once it had some RADIALS on it, worked quite well - the 2:1 bandwidth is rather wide, showing the loss in the coil, but Eh, not too bad....
Got home and just spent a couple of hours setting up the 40m for streight key night tonight, could not figure out why I was showing greater than 6:1 SWR across the band, finallly got out the DMM and ..... dead short! I'd already tested the coax with a good dummy load so I knew it was ok, the short was in the mount, found out that if I tighten the mount down, it shorts. Not Good. Aren't these things supposed to survive mobile use? I used two of the plastic washers, one top and bottom, and took care of that, problem solved but it should not take parts from 2 mounts to make one kinda decent one. OK tuning time - put the whip all the way out and was just barely into the top edge of 40m, tried out a Larsen Kulrod whip that's a bit longer and with that as far out as I dare, get the phone part of 40m ok, can probably tune down into the CW part.
I have 8, 20ft radials in tasteful dull brown wire splayed out on the lawn, bushes, and ivy here and this may have something to do with the higher-Q curve for this 40m job, the bandwidth is narrower than the 20m one, and that's a good sign - if you have a wide bandwidth it probably indicates lossiness.
Sol to sum it up - yes the 20m one works ok on a tripod out in the field. I tried putting it 20ft in the air (yes my tripod goes that high) and perfermence was Feh, 4:1-odd SWR! Yuck! Put some radials on and that helped, what really helped was lowering the tripod until the radials and the feedpoint were in closer proximity. For the 40m, had to use parts from 2 mounts, had to use some other maker's whip, have it working kinda......
To sum it up: 2 hamsticks + 2 mounts = about $75, that would have bought me 2 sexy 18ft or so surf casting poles, those plus wire, banana plugs/sockets, odd PCB board material and alligator clips and bus wire, zipties, OD green paint, etc would have yielded me, with some work, 2 very nice tunable HF ant's, one for permenant mount here and one for the field, so Live And Learn I guess.... Sports Authority is going to wonder about me on Tuesday when I buy 2 fish poles lol, and I guess the hamsticks are going to be for sale at the next swapmeet. |
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| W4VD |
Rating: |
2006-12-31 | |
| Good antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| As one poster correctly noted, location is everything on these fine antennas, (as with all antennas) I decided to try mobile HF with the purchase of a new 706MkIIG and a half dozen Hamsticks, at first my mount was located on the bumper of my Nissan Quest mini-van, the results were poor at best, I later fabricated a mount that I placed on the luggage rack of the Nissan and WOW, I had a killer mobile station, if I could hear them I could work them, I cracked many a pileup with 100w. Once on a trip to Fla I made contact with a VK county hunter on 20m as I was heading out, and worked him from one end of SC to the other confirming every county we went thru, with S9 signal all the way. SWR was quite acceptable, a tad narrow on 75 but acceptable. |
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| WF7I |
Rating: |
2006-10-28 | |
| Mostly good product, poor service |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have used their products extensively and other than the one for 75m, they have worked fairly well. Mine are mounted via a 3-magnet magmount on top of a truck cab. I have worked the world with them, they are small and durable and easy to swap.
Two main complaints. The 75m stick will not work down to the CW band, and when calling them about it I was rudely informed that, "IT SAYS 75m, NOT 80m". In general their bedside manner was very lacking. They will sell you a clumsy coil with aligator clip arrangement, with poorly written installation instructions and no illustrations, supposedly to help you tune down to 80m. I just got it so not sure if it will work out or not.
The second complaint is with shipping. I ordered an extra-length whip which they couldn't find a big enough box for, so it was hanging out the end. When trying to call about it, the guy at the store had no clue about shipping, and "The Man" (presumably the rude guy) was "out" for 2 days in a row. One item in the shipment was not found, and I didn't know if it was shipped separately or not (there was no packing slip) and since the main man wasn't in, nobody could tell me squat about its whereabouts. Fortunatly, it showed up the following day. Also I wouldn't recommend ordering on their website. You don't get any shipping info, email confirmation, confirmation code, anything. In fact, I had to call in just to make sure it actually TOOK my order.
For a name as well known in mobiling as Hamstick, I just expected a lot more -- more from the website, a LOT more from the customer service, and better shipping. |
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| KI4MIU |
Rating: |
2006-07-29 | |
| Works good for a Base |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I am 14 years old and do not have an HF mobile. I have a great HF rig but it is just not good for mobile. I bought a Ham Stick and did not know what to think. I bought the 20 meter ham stick and this is the review.
FIRST THOUGHTS: This is TALL! The 20 meter ham stick is almost 7'. In the manual they recomend mounting it on the roof of you car or van or semi. I know this does not matter to me but is you have a huge SUV and mount a 20 meter ham stick, I would say you are limited to highway driving because some of the low lying trees in my area would love to snap this antenna.
LETS MOUNT IT!: I put this antenna on a CB mag mount I had lying around that had a 3/8 by 24 stud on it. The I used a piece of sheet metal I also had lying around to keep the mag mount from tiping over. The antenna is in a low part of my yard, and in the vally I live in.
CQ CQ CQ CALLING CQ: Well when it was time to turn the HF rig on I was very excited to see how the antenna would work. I first tried the band with my G5RV just to see what was going on. Then I flipped to the ham stick. Well the recive is not is good as my G5RV what can you expect from a antenna that is 7' tall? Well I started CQing and with in 15 minutes I had Ohio and Oklahoma all from a $26.50 antenna!
Should you buy one?: I would say yes if you try it as a base or a mobile.
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| WY0MN |
Rating: |
2006-05-15 | |
| ***** |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I've owned two of them. A 2m and a 30m, both worked very well. I should receive my 17m dipole config soon & will be reviewing it shortly.
Lex |
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| W2UIS |
Rating: |
2006-04-19 | |
| RV STATION |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Purchased 75, 40, AND 20 meter hamsticks and the 375 magnetic mount to set up a station in my travel trailer. Put the antenna together and set it on top of my tow rig running a lenght of coax to the rv.
Since the ICOM 703 has a built in tuner I did not have to cut the stinger (SWR 1.3:1).Worked into Florida on 10 watts from Ulster county, New York. |
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| K4KKJ |
Rating: |
2006-03-16 | |
| Good Mobile Ant. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I bought a 80M Hamstik to install on my Jeep Wrangler to do some mobile ops on the Century Club net. I mounted it on the side of the jeep behind the drivers door, and could not get the swr down. Then I made a 5 foor mast out of some steel piple and mounted it on the tailgate, and mounted the hamstik on the mast. That put the top of the ant at 14'3". Getting it up high was the trick. It worked like a champ . I made 200 plus contacts while operating mobile in 7 states using a Ten Tec Scout which puts out only 30 Watts PEP.
73's
AA4FH
Fred |
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