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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
KA0FBJ Rating: 2008-02-06
Fine product/ dervice Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I purchased a Little Tarheel II. I had some trouble of my own making and the people there went far beyond the norm to help solve it. They gave suggestions to fix, ask questions, studied the installation and then the solution. On top of that the antenna is a fabulous performer. 706mkIIg and 100 watts gave me communications from southern Texas to Michigan central Illinois and beyond. Great product and the same service. Thanks guys.
K9EL Rating: 2008-01-06
Excellent Antenna!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have used Hustler mono band mobile antennas for 30 years and was tired of stopping the car to change bands. I ordered the Tarheel model 200 with all the accessories. It is mounted on a Jeep Grand Cherokee using the 2" hitch receiver. The antenna was very well packed for shipping and arrived in perfect condition via UPS. The antenna itself and the mounts are made extremely well (very robust) and the manual was perfect. The antenna worked first time out of the box and had low SWR everywhere except 40. The manual said to spread the matching coil and the SWR should go down. Sure enough, I spread the coil and now the SWR is low from 3.5 to 28MHz. The presets make changing bands very easy. I have used it quite a bit on 60 meters and am very impressed with how well it works. I highly recommend this antenna to anyone looking for a top of the line mobile antenna.
W4WLC Rating: 2007-11-20
Outstanding product support Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had my Tarheel 100A for 2 years when I started having a little trouble getting the SWR down on 80M, I was told by Cindy to drop the shield down and clean the coil. I did that and found a piece of finger stock that had came loose. I called and talked to Cindy and she told me to send the antenna to them and they would fix it. Well a year went by with the antenna working great and me not sending it back. At the Stone Mountain hamfest I was talking to Robert about the finger stock I had found. He asked if I had the antenna with me so I removed it from the truck and gave him the antenna. He called me several days later and informed me that he was sending me a new Tarheel 100HP. My antenna had been assembled wrong and he was replacing the antenna. What can I say, they admitted a problem and then replaced the antenna. What outstanding customer service and standing behind your product. I highly recommend their antennas, not only because of the customer support, but the Tarheel antennas work so well.

Dave
W4WLC
VE3YF Rating: 2007-11-18
Little Tarheel ll Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have been using this antenna for a few months now and it works great. Assembly was a breeze and very straight forward. The components are all stainless and very well protected from the elements. Once I got the antenna installed I tuned up on all bands to put it thru its paces and it performed great. The results have been above my expectations. Sure glad I don't have to go outside and change antenna elements anymore. I should have made this purchase right from the word go. Partnered up with the Turbo Tuner I can get almost a flat match on every band. Great Product.
WS7X Rating: 2007-09-30
Model 100 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After many years of using single band resonators for mobile operation, I decided to take the plunge and get one of these screwdriver antennas. The Tarheel was already on my short list and a phone call to Cindy helped me decide on their model 100. Their website pretty much has the same information for all their antennas, which I found of little help.

I spent a couple days installing and re-installing the antenna, and going round and round with Cindy and her tech support. I say this because, as nice as Cindy was to speak with, she was not any help with the antenna. Instead I had to speak with Robert, who assured me that if I could send him some pictures of my installation he was sure he could make the antenna work right. Well several pictures later and several re-installations later, the antenna wouldn't tune on several bands. I have no explanation why and evidently neither did Robert. The antenna was installed almost identical to a picture they have on their website in the bed of a pickup truck. I could get 10 and 12 meters to tune at an SWR of about 1.3:1. However, 15, 17, and 20 meters were always around 2.5:1. or worse And 40 and 75 meters were always a tossup, I could tune one or the other but not both. I guess for the price, I expected all the bands to tune. So I sent the antenna back.

I have returned to my trusty monoband whips, and obviously am very disappointed with my Tarheel experience. I will note that the antenna appeared very well made, and was packaged very well for shipping. Tarheel did give me a full refund and I'm grateful for that. Not all manufacturers would have done that. I'm still looking for a better mobile antenna.

Noel
KD6JHV
KC9IGZ Rating: 2007-09-19
Fantastic Product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I must say my decision was helped in no small part to a qso with an operator on the east coast (I am in Illinois). When I spoke of my interest in a good mobile HF antenna, the gentleman let me know that he was currently ON a Tarheel and that he could not have made a better choice. This started my search in earnest to find any negative comment concerning the product. I searched and compared features and comments and became convinced it was the one to try. I was not let down in any way whatsoever. Cindy expedited the 100A shipment for me as I was planning a long road trip and wanted to 'shake it out' while mobile. The box arrived, carefully packed, and upon removing the wrapping, I knew I had a professionally executed product in front of me. The craftmanship is impeccable. The instructions are well written and the install was very straightforward. Ensuring the critical grounding and ferrite choking was finished, time for the analyzer, and the antenna is simply a great performer across the entire usage area. First contact was to Connecticut, and now I am happy to say that I am enjoying logging areas I simply could not have imagined in a mobile installation. My deepest thanks to the crew at Tarheel, and believe me, I will never pass up an opportunity to recommend your products when I have the chance. Better yet, I'll just say, "Hey, let's go out to the truck for a bit, I have something I'd like you to see..." The rest of that scenario the antenna will take care of.

73,
Bob KC9IGZ
N7EAH Rating: 2007-09-10
Great Product, Great Support! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I installed a Little Tarheel II on my F-250 for use with an IC-7000. I also purchased the TurboTuner as part of the antenna package. The installation instructions were concise and clear. In fact the only issue I had was I installed the TurboTuner ferrite about 6inches back from the base of the antenna -- and the instructions clearly say to place it as close as possible to the antenna....when I did this (1.5inches away), issue resolved! When I had some questions on improving lower band performance (do not get me wrong "as is" performance was already great!) Robert and Cindy always replied promptly with detailed info -- even though there was no direct sales opportunity for them....and won a loyal customer by doing that! The antenna seems built like a tank, and after going thru 3 other mobile antennas in the last 8 months (which I dumped due to lack of performance and/or relaibility)I am very happy after nearly 3 months of daily use. Will report back after this winter...
KI4TBD
KG4RUL Rating: 2007-08-21
4+ Year Update Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I still love my Lil Tarheel II after over four years of use.

Not many antenna manufacturers can boast of of 4.9 out of 5.0 rating for their products. In fact, I was curious as to what the problems were that caused reviewers to downgrade these excellent products. These seemed to be the following:

- Not understanding how to tune the antenna
- Poor installation (grounding is VERY important)
- Unrealistic expectations (apples to oranges comparison)
- Problem with cold weather operations
WB4SLI Rating: 2007-08-20
Well Engineered Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have been using this antenna for a week, now. Assembly was a breeze. The components are all stainless or well protected from the elements. Once I got the up-down switch installed I tuned up on 20 and actually got through a pileup on the second try. I have tried on 75, 40, 60, and 20. The results have been above my expectations. I have used some other antennas and even compared them to the Tarheel and the Tarheel was about an s unit better. I have a model 400 and am pleased with its performance and engineering. All I can say about it is "WOW!"
K4GUN Rating: 2007-08-06
Great product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought the Stubby 75 and installed it in my 2007 Toyota Tundra. I used a Geotool stake pocket mount and the results have been nothing short of phenominal. I'm not a very experienced operator so I often don't know what to expect. I was blown away at how many stations I could hear. Better yet, I was amazed at how many I could actually work. In the last two weeks, using nothing but a barefoot IC7000, I've made it into pileups in Ukrane, Moldova, Argentina, Equador, Prince Edward Island, Cuba and a number of US stations. In most cases, I get through on the first or second attempt and all of this is while driving at 70 MPH down Interstate 95 in Virginia.

One thing I found curious was the issue of the cap hat. I installed that originally and was able to tune up all the bands above 20 meters. In fact, one setting on 20 covered the entire phone band at 1:1. I could get an SWR as low as 1.2:1 at several places on 75 meters and nowhere was I over 1.4:1 on 75. However, I coudn't tune any part of 40 better than a 2:1. I even tried checking with an antenna analyzer and nothing seemed to work.

Finally, I removed the cap hat. 20 meters isn't totally flat, but is around 1.2 and 15 is now 1:1 across the band. 75 still works fine and I can now tune 40 to about 1.3 to 1.5 across the band. I'm a little baffled at this, but that was my experience. I'm happy to have it work this well without the added wind load or nerd factor but I don't know why it would load 75 and 20 and not 40.

In all, I'm more than satisfied. I am a huge fan of this antenna. I'd buy another in a heartbeat.