| VA3IPG |
Rating:  |
2022-02-27 | |
| good antenna for small urban space |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Hi. I own a MA5V antenna for 10 years now. It was a gift from a friend who upgraded to another model.
after 10 years using it, i can say that its a good antenna for the size. it does the job. every year i put it down for maintenance and i never had an issue with it. for urban places with limited aerial space, i do recommend this antenna. it works very well at 20 feet high with only 100w but if a little higher, the results are definitely better on RX.
easy to setup , quick to put it up. good as a permanent setup, good for a field day usage.
Best 73 de VA3IPG, Jorge
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| WC8I |
Rating: |
2016-10-11 | |
| Nice Antenna Well worth the money |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| this to me is a great antenna, little hard to get it up because of the elements, but , it preforms great, I'm working a lot of dx with this antenna. |
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| K5YY |
Rating: |
2016-10-11 | |
| We've come to know this issue |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| Had this antenna, used condition from a deceased friends family. It looked flimsy but I took a chance. Have had many verticals over the years. Cushcraft before MFJ was a GREAT antenna, but like other products, once under MFJ's ownership, things go "south". This vertical broke down in a small wind of 25 MPH, snapped in two places. Thin, cheap construction. Read the reviews closely. "Service" is often poor and rude. Factory guys used to be students from the local college working "here and there". I do have one MFJ keyer product that is still working well after 15 years. |
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| W8DMC |
Rating:  |
2016-10-10 | |
| Poor all the way around |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
No customer service, poor quality, poor manufacturing onCushcrafts old stock to the new owner MFJ. Wrong cut on tubes or constructions, very poorly written instructions. Missing sections, in fact the instructions were printed in error, with no updates, or corrections, and mine is less than six months old!
Called MFJ for answer's...... response... dah...Now I know why Chushcraft sold out, and giving it to "Mity Fine Junk" (MFJ) States loud and clear...... Cushcraft Antennas are completely off the table for my future use |
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| KX4RC |
Rating: |
2016-08-03 | |
| Save your time and money |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Poorly built, low quality parts, poor performance. Absolutely no customer support from Cushcraft. Bad 17 meter resonator out of the box, still waiting 4 weeks later for replacement after 4 calls to Cushcraft. Hard to tune even with analyzer. Narrow band width on 20 meters. Buy a Hustler 4 or 5 band trap vertical and be on your way. |
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| GW3NOT |
Rating: |
2015-07-01 | |
| A little gem !!! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is the second MA5V I have owned..The last one got tired and shabby after around 10 years of use by its previous owner and myself (for 3 years). This one is now made by MFJ.... I bought it in UK for 309 GB Pounds from Martin Lynch and Sons. All parts were in the box other than an end cap for one of the resonators, and the holes for mounting nylon rod into the base rod were out of line - both easily surmountable.
A few differences from the original Cushcraft 10 years ago and this..... The original had an Ugly Balun at the bottom a tube about 4" in diameter that you wound about 15 turns round... This is now replaced by a ferrite ring, which you wrap 14 turns of co-ax equally around. .... The spingy rod counterpoises, are now mounted between two circular plates and much easier to assemble than the old square ones. Lastly the original was 6.5 Pounds in weight, and this one is only 5.8, I guess that MFJ are using lighter aluminium tubing throughout !!
Assembly, taken very slowly by this 80 year old pensioner, took 3 hours and 15 Minutes from unpacking it to having it completed and in the air ready for use.
If like me, you are very restricted by town planners, or in my case the local council who own the retirement bungalow complex I live in, and have no room for using radials, and still want a fairly decent antenna, this is the only suitable for serious work, as it is not end fed as most other 'no radial required' verticals are, as it is an Off Centre Fed vertical Dipole.
Its a compromise, as any other multi-band antennas are, but it still works well and you can work the world with little effort - Only 'downer' is that it is rated at 250W PEP, so I run it on SSB at 200 W, and a lot less on Digital Modes.
Cushcraft say it is happy at 13 feet off the ground, and it is 12 feet tall plus the pole (I use a 13ft one) !!!
Take a good look at this one - not a lot of operators who need 'Stealth' are aware of this little Gem |
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| K1QF |
Rating: |
2014-09-29 | |
| Good performer |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| The MA5V has been a good performer for me. It was purchased in 2007 (before MFJ's acquisition of Cushcraft.) All the parts were present in the box and assembly was straight forward. I first used it in Princeton, NJ and just re-installed it in Cape Cod. It has been through several difficult winters and seems to be fairly rugged. Tuning is easily accomplished with my ICOM 756 Pro III internal tuner. I don't bust pile-ups on the first two or three calls with my 100 watts, but recently I have managed to work Gibraltar, Tunisia, Israel, and Albania. I am very happy with this relatively inexpensive and small vertical. |
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| AA5IR |
Rating: |
2013-11-17 | |
| Has intermittent problems |
Time Owned: N.A. |
| It worked very well at first, but now, after a few years, I am having trouble. When I turn on my rig, the antenna input is very low, and sometimes it flickers backwards and forwards intermittently between good reception and close to zero. Usually (but not always), I can fix this by sending 100 watts CW to the antenna. I probably need to take it apart to check. What a hassle! |
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| K0DV |
Rating: |
2013-04-18 | |
| No quality control! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I bought the MA5V antenna because I needed a stealth like antenna in my restricted Florida neighborhood and because Cushcraft has (or had) a good name... until it was bought by MFJ. Antenna arrived and would only tune to 20 meters, all of the four other bands, 10, 15, 12 and 17 had no SWR dip. Called MFJ and they sent new elements for these bands. Same result... no dips. Packaged it up ready to send back and have them return my money when I decided to take off the liquid tape where the coils connected to the elements to see if the connections were good. It took a lot of scraping and fussing with an exacto knife to do this. I was surprised to find that they used enameled wire in the coils and did not scrape the ends of the wires! What's more the wires were inserted into wire clips on the elements, but none of them were soldered! I had to scrape off the liquid tape from 20 connections (did the 20 meter coils too), clean off the enamel and solder all of them. Then, I got the dips and could tune the antenna. Called MFJ again to tell them how I fixed their antenna... their response, was... "I'll walk back there and talk to them." Once the connections were fixed, the antenna worked nicely although its bandwidth is quite narrow on most bands. The antenna fit the bill as a very small profile stealth antenna that works, but the experience of getting it working was frustrating, to say the least. Beware of quality control. |
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| VE2JFM |
Rating: |
2011-11-22 | |
| Very nice for limited place |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought this antenna since 2 months because i can't have a tower. It's very easy to install.
The swr are very low on all bands.
So, i very appreciated DX with this antenna.It's not expensive for fun. |
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