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Reviews For: Tarheel Antennas

Category: Antennas: HF Mobile & Accessories

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Review Summary For : Tarheel Antennas
Reviews: 205MSRP: 295.00
Description:
Screwdriver Antennas,Stainless Steel mounts,Mobile and Base
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.tarheelantennas.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
152054.8
KE5AKG Rating: 2014-07-30
Tarheel 200A followup Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a followup to my earlier review. I got the Scorpion Antennas cap hat, and it immediately cured all that was wrong with this antenna. After installation of the cap hat, I have flat SWR from 80-15m, and the touchy tuning issue of the shunt coil as well as the SWR changes with moisture have disappeared. The Scorpion cap hat is far,far,far more effective than the Tarheel cap hat. Now my antenna works perfectly. For 10/12m operation, I just remove the cap hat and replace it with a 3 ft whip. Takes just seconds with the quick disconnect.
I really have to thank K0BG and his outstanding website for the info on cap hats that helped me solve my issues.
KD5NDU Rating: 2013-07-23
the tarheel 100 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I haven't had my 100 very long yet.
I started off with a 75meter mfj ham stick. And can tell big difference between the two on the 75 meters. when checking into the Mississippi net. with the mfj stick sometimes they could here me and some times they could. Now with the tarheel 100 in same place in the bed of the truck same grounding system. I been able to get though the the pal ups when they call for mobile stations. And be the first one they would hear. And fist contact on it was on 20 meters with a station in TX and I was in MS running 100 watts. And a 5 by 5 report. When the band was not doing very good. It looks like bluidet very good. And looks good on the truck.
K4MMZ Rating: 2013-05-03
Tarheel Model 100 HP Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Mounted on an aluminun screen enclosure frame in a HOA. It is almost invisible and it works. The best part of my purchase was I got all the telephone help I needed from "Robert". At this point in time most other outfits help is done by e-mail or telephone prompts which is slow or ineffective. Tarheel really does it right!
73 Richard KK4F0A in S. Florida
KK4MC Rating: 2013-01-09
Solid, High Quality Antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I live an in HOA antenna restricted neighborhood. One advantage I have is I back up to a forest preserve vs. having neighbors looking directly into my backyard. I installed a model 100A-HP as a ground mounted base with ground radials. I got the all black antenna option, with cap hat. The black blends in well with the forest preserve as the back ground. I had some trouble with getting 80 meter SWR below 2.0 at first, but with two extra long radials (beyond the 10 9' radials supplied with the ground radial kit), I've been able to get 80 meters SWR below 1.5. SWR is below 1.4 on all other bands and especially low on 40 meters (below 1.2) - all with no antenna tuner. I had to remove the shunt inductor completely to for the antenna to work in my particular configuration. Aside from the SWR, reactance jX has been adjustable to almost zero (+/- a 4 or 5 ohms). I used a Rig Expert Antenna Analyzer (a must these days) to take the guess work out of the install and adjustment. I'm running 1kW into the antenna. It performs great.

This is a well built and well designed antenna. I suspect it would work just as well in a mobile install (after all that is what it was designed for!!!), but likely would require the shunt inductor in a mobile install. Robert at Tarheel was great to work with, always responsive by both phone and email as I tried to trouble shoot my matching issues (every install presents it's own set of unique circumstances a ham must troubleshoot and resolve). He even offered to customize the shunt inductor for me - fortunately I ended up not needing it. While it's in a base configuration, I have a well built, high performing antenna that I could just as easily dismantle and install on my truck at a later date if desired.

I highly recommend this product not just for the excellent design and build quality but for the friendly responsive technical support I received as well.
K6NJ Rating: 2013-01-04
Model 75 works awesome Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I've had several mobile antennas and the little tarheel is the best! It puts out a great signal. The model 75 I use works so well that if I can hear a station 10 to 80 meters I can work them. Very satisfied!
M6GOM Rating: 2012-11-01
After 2 and a half years... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Well I first reviewed my Little Tarheel II over two and a half years ago in April 2010. I can't believe I've had it that long.

It is still working absolutely great. It has been on the car now all that time come rain or shine, has hit a tree twice a day every time I go out and has covered well over 40,000 miles, much of that at speeds of 70MPH or more.

Highlights have been working the Falkland Islands from the UK on 10m with 100W busting a pileup, working VK on 20m for a distance just over 10,000 miles, getting 5/9+10 reports to NYC on 15 and 20m and being able to work many different countries over 5 continents.

Definitely one of the best purchases I've made in amateur radio and I've not regretted it for one single day.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by M6GOM on 2010-04-17

Seriously impressed. Had my Little Tarheel 2 for about 6 weeks now. Its been sat on the roof of my Mondeo using a triple magmount until this weekend when I took the plunge and drilled a hole in the roof. First thing I did though was to rob the 66" whip from my Sirio 3000 CB antenna which made a difference of about 4-s points on receive - no idea about TX as I didn't even bother trying beforehand, jkust put the 66" whip on.

Even using the magmount and absolutely no RF grounding carried out on the vehicle, it has performed beyond my expectations. I regularly work Stateside and Asiatic Russia from the UK on 50W, well over 3500 miles. I've even managed a JA on 20m. On the recent CQWPX contest, it was my antenna for 40m, running co-ax out to the car. Managed to get through pileups to Stateside.

This weekend I've been able to do side by side comparisons with a Diamond CP6. They perform absolutely identical on both TX and RX but look at the difference in size. I have morons as neighbours who moan at anything and certainly cast their disapproving eyes at the CP6. I'm so impressed with the Tarheel that I'm looking at getting one of the base install versions for my very limited QTH and its so understated it'll probably go unnoticed.

Build quality. Originally I was looking at a High Sierra but hadn't seen one. I saw a lightly used one at a local rally and I am so glad I bought the Tarheel. It is way better engineered and better quality. Its worth the money.

VE2MAM Rating: 2012-10-26
great antenna !!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've purchase my Tarheel 100 HP december 2010. The installation was very easy to the point that I was surprise it worked the first time I tried it. Contacts have been made in JA land and ZL land. Good signal report. I often change bands because I chase counties and I go to the USA to put counties on the air. This antenna never failed me. What I can hear I can work. I've just ordered a Little Tarheel II because I'm going pedestrian mobile !!! I'm certain that I will also have a lot of fun with that small antenna. Go and see my mobile on QRZ
73 de VE2MAM
KD7DGK Rating: 2012-09-27
Not good Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I purchased the Tarheel II to mount on my Chevy truck as I was preparing to move from southern Nevada to Texas and wanted the luxury HF communications for the trip. I’m using a Kenwood TS480SAT radio and feeding the Tarheel with RB8X coax. The radio tunes up a dummy load just fine but the Tarheel is junk. I checked and rechecked ground, re-ran ground to make sure that wasn’t the problem and the antenna still doesn’t work. In fact, the Tarheel hasn’t worked since I purchased it. I checked the Tarheel website for contact information and sent an e-mail for tech assistance and got a reply indicating …. “I'm on the road...I'll be away until Oct 1st....I'll reply to your email within a few days..Thanks, Robert”. I’m not sure if Robert knows that people pay a lot of money for their ham gear and don’t want to be told that they aren’t important enough to be spoken to. I guess Robert is the only one at Tarheel Antennas that can answer tech questions. I dislike dropping dimes on folks like this but I hate being treated like a second-rate person. If my potential future business and free word of mouth advertising isn’t valued by Tarheel I will take my business elsewhere. If only those guys at High Sierra would answer their phone….
KK4AH Rating: 2012-07-20
100A-HP Time Owned: more than 12 months.
A lot of good things are said about the Tarheel antennas all I can add is that they perform very well and are a good value for the price. It does take somewhat of a long time to go from 3.5 MHZ to 29.7 MHZ but that is a small price to pay for such a good performing ant. It is important to keep the ground strap as wide and short as possible to get a low swr. I should have bought the longer Model 200A-HP to get the top of the antenna above my van but I have worked many DX pileups with 100 watts and it still matches on all the bands with 1.8 or better. I bought the offset Tarheel Mount MT 3 OS and it is built like a tank. If you are only going to run 250 watts or less get the Model 400A it goes from 1.7 to 28 MHZ. They are all great HF Mobile antennas and I would buy another one in a second. The only downside of this antenna is that it does not have much gain but what HF vertical does. Totally satisfied.
NX7DX Rating: 2012-05-30
nx7dx Time Owned: more than 12 months.
hi all I have tarhell for about 6 years and hundres of miles on wwa. alot snow raing ice and you name it.I never have a provlems .run 75 mtr dx. 40mtr 20mtr verfoot.and I doit good. with a amplifier my baby will smoke RF around the world geting more dx station, ps FOR NY4DX DE NX7DX,, LET DO A MOBIL ANTENNA SHOOTOUT. TARHELL/SCORPIO. HIHI