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Reviews For: Optibeam OB9-5

Category: Antennas: HF: Yagi, Quad, Rotary dipole, LPDA

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Review Summary For : Optibeam OB9-5
Reviews: 97MSRP: 1441. USD
Description:
Performant yagi designed as stacked monobander for 20/17/15/12/10 with patented feed system. Optimized computer designed German yagi without traps and with full size elements. The OB9-5 has 2 el on 20, 2 el on 17, 2 el on 15, 2 el on 12 and 3 el on 10 meters.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.optibeam.de
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15975
A71EM Rating: 2003-11-18
Great antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
OB9-5 is a great antenna very strong, great quality and it has a very nice performance beside that you can work on 5 bands using one antenna isn't that great?.
I'm very happy with my OB9-5 specially when I tried it after being using a three element tribander yagi for almost 10 years.
This is really a very great quality strong antenna to buy for yourself.

73' de
A71EM
VK2GKA Rating: 2003-10-09
great antenna! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I was moving to my new QTH about 9 month ago.I had to put a freestanding 23 mtrs tower up and make a decision what goes on top.
I was using 3el tribanders for the last 30 years or so and it had to be something different this time.
I wanted to cover all five bands from 14-30Mhz and the antenna should not have any traps or any other components which could be affected by the weather,UV rays or lightning and birds (possibly only a problem downunder)
I was leaning towards a log.periodic for some time,but to get reasonable gain and a low angle of radiation the boom had to be at least twice as long as on the OB9-5 and the front to back ratio would still not be very good.
Next in line was the remotely adjustable 3el beam
made in the US.It is certainly a very remarkable piece of technology and will outperform any other
antenna with the same boom lenght due to its tuning feature.I finally decided against it,because I feared it would develope problems with its moving parts sooner or later or become a victim to a lightning strike one day.Only time will tell.....
The next option left over was one of the so called staggered Yagi designs offered by a few manufactures.I chose the OB9-5 because of its rugged mechanical design,easy go together and the electrical performance.
Compared to the 3el tribanders I used to have before it receives and sends as well or better,has a very low SWR on any frequency within a band and covers all five bands.
I get very good signal reports from all over the wordl and I think it's money well spent.
9Y4ZC Rating: 2003-09-26
rugged allrounder with a very good overall performance Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Folks,
since we have rough conditions in terms of corrosion here on the islands, and after my trap beam was about to rott away, i was looking for a substitute, which would point out a good signal AND stay up on the tower for some years without maintenance. There is not much offered on the marked, and i don't like fancy mechanical parts.
What can i say ... i don't regret for a single moment having purchased the OB9-5 .

We did both the ARRL DX contests with it and the WAE SSB with all top scores and a new SA record in WAE. Everytime i am on the band with that antenna, i have to run down a huge pile up.

Just recently i inspected the antenna for any kind of environmental influence, but could not find any.

Tom and Diana ... keep it up what you are doing in terms of quality.

Best wishes for Optibeam from Tobago Isl.

Andy
9Y4ZC
ex 9Y4/DL4MEH & 9Y4TBG
http://www.df3cb.com/tobago
DL2KCK Rating: 2003-05-11
best antenna in size and performance Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Before I purchased the OB9-5 I was very sceptical about this antenna and I wondered if it is the right choice for my qth., so I bought a good second-hand KLM KT34 and put it in my basement because I was looking for a good tower for my garden or for the top of my roof. Last year I’ve visited the Optibeam booth on the Hamradio in Friedrichshafen and spoke to Tom DF2BO, he showed me the EZNEC simulation of the OB9-5 and I was amazed about the electrical performance of that beam but before purchasing it I wanted to hear any reviews of hams using it. I’ve visited Gerd, DJ7CP who was using the beam for a while and read all eham reviews. Some weeks ago I heard VK2GKA with an outstanding signal on the 20m band using the OB9-5 and all other VKs on the Band were much weaker. That was the moment where I’ve decided to buy the OB9-5. Now I´m using the OB9-5 since one week and it replaced my Fritzel FB33 which I’ve had been using for about ten years in my old qth. I’m very amazed about the performance of this antenna when I made my first QSOs and I believe it´s the best choice for hams who want to be qrv on the classic and WARC bands using only a single antenna. With the FB33 I had to use my linear amplifier every time to crack a pileup, since I’m using the OB9-5 I´ve used the amp only once and I believe I don’t need it anymore. The OB9-5 has a terrific F/S ratio up to 40dB depending on the band and you are able to suppress qrm with this feature. I’ve carried out measurement of the horizontal diagram for all five bands with my friend Klaus DJ6MN who supplied me with a strong signal in my direction using his KLM KT34XA and the Cushcraft A3WS and we were able to reproduce the simulation data from Tom, DF2BO made with EZNEC. For the measurements I´ve used a modern Spectrum Analyzer by HP and I must say all values are within the measurement tolerance of the equipment compared to the calculated data of the OB9-5 in Free Space especially the F/B ratio. The VSWR on all bands is below 1:1,1 and 1:1,3 except in the 10m FM repeater range (at about 29.400MHz) were it exceeds 1:3 like my old FB33. I can’t say anything to the mechanical performance because we had no hard storm since I´ve build up the antenna, but Gerd, DJ7CP told me his OB9-5 had to withstand a hard storm with wind velocities of over 60mls/h without damage. The assembly of the OB9-5 was not very complicated because all parts were marked very accurately, but it took me about 3 days because the weather was not very good and I had to interrupt my work very often (typical German April weather). If anyone is interested to work me and to see how the OB9-5 performs on the band please write a short mail to me and we make a sked.

73, Chris DL2KCK

email: dl2kck@darc.de
SM5EUG Rating: 2002-10-01
Outstanding 5-bander Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The Ob9-5 is an outstanding antenna for 5 bands. It even works quit well on 6m at my place. I have never seen anything like this when I measured all the bands with my MFJ 259B. I have measured a lot of diffrent yagis but nothing like this.
I have had it up for two months and its mounted about 40 feet above ground and I have already worked all continents on all bands. In pile ups I often get trough at my first or second call and often comments like "big signal".I am running 100W and the reports very often 59+

So if you can afford it just buy it.

73 de Gunnar SM5EUG.
AB9CS Rating: 2002-09-23
Outstanding Antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have my Optibeam OB9-5 antenna up at 65 feet and it works the world with great results. I only run 200 watts of power through my Yaesu Ft 1000 Mark V and consistantly break through pileups on the first or second call. The swr is very low across all 5 bands and the antenna performs exceptionally well. The construction is first class and the support is the best in the business. I had a few questions about stacking my 2 meter ssb antenna above the OB9-5 and I received a reply email less then an hour after I sent it answering all my questions!! Whether it's Australia, Africa, Europe, or some remote Island, I can always make my contact and get a great signal report as well.
WB5TVI Rating: 2002-07-07
Outstanding 5 Band Yagi ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Making my available amateur radio dollars count is a high priority when purchasing new equipment for my station. Putting a high percentage of those dollars into effective antennas for my city-lot location is a must. My search of the best available 5 band (10/12/15/17/20 meter) directional HF antenna led me to the OptiBeam OB9-5. The precision German engineering and manufacturing quality is unique amongst all commercial antennas I have seen or owned. Ease of assembly was facilitated by the outstanding quality and fit. First test led to contacts with Poland on 15/17/12 meters using 100 watts. All reports were 59 +. Published specs were all as stated or better. SWR does not exceed 1.3:1. I have continued to be thrilled by the performance on DX and domestic contacts. Comments from some of the regulars on 20 and 17 go something like this, “WOW Don, big signal from Texas”
The OptiBeam is distributed by WX0B Array Solutions. Jay and Sharon pride themselves in providing the best products available to the amateur market. I must also say they provide the best in customer service.