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Reviews For: Three Ring Halo Antenna by W8SMD

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

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Review Summary For : Three Ring Halo Antenna by W8SMD
Reviews: 2MSRP: 100.00
Description:
3-ring 21" diameter horizontally polarized 6m antenna
for base or mobile use--it's the Saturn V for the next
century!
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.6mt.com/halo.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0025
VA2DV Rating: 2002-01-15
Great product,great service ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
A very well built antenna with top-notch quality
material.Machined with precision.Dealing with
Gus (W8SMD) was a real pleasure ! Antenna was here in Canada just a couple of days after the emailed order.The ring was carefully packed and
ready to go.Mine is mounted on the corner of my
balcony and work flawlessly ! I even ordered the
little matching network and it's the same quality.
On air performance is very good and this halo is
built more tought than other brands.Tuning can
take a few minutes but once you get it,the swr
is 1:1 and the bandwith is as predicted.
I recommend this product to everyone how wants
a small setup for 6m,portable,mobile or fixed.
NX7U Rating: 2001-11-19
It's back! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
No, I'm not old enough to "remember" the original Saturn Halo antenna. But I remember seeing lots of pix of it in older QSTs, and even in my FT-726 and (of all things) FT-100 operating manuals.

First day of install mobile, worked 19 transcontinental QSOs, VP5 and JA. All with strong signals. I could actually "run" east coast. With my old 1/4wl whip, even under the best of conditions, transcontinental QSOs were work. A *huge* improvement!

This small antenna will require some impedance matching as-is (that is, it is not "out of the box"). W8SMD can supply a matching transformer, or just build a simple Q-section from RG-58. The plans are even included with the antenna (this is what I did in my install). Took about 3 minutes to tune to 1.2:1 VSWR per Autek RF-5; 2:1 bandwidth about 200kHz (50.05-50.25) about 10' above ground/6' above pickup bed.

Although not fully "life stressed", appears mechanically rugged enough to survive mobile ops. Have used M2 HO-loop (which I also rate highly) but would recommend this one specifically for mobile--smaller form factor and mechanically much more solid.