| ZR4RV |
Rating:      |
2007-06-16 | |
| Simply the Best |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Don't know actually what to write because all the Hams before me said everything about the OB16 and Optibeam. From the packaging to the final assembly, one thing was evident, best quality and craftsmanship. Was a delight for my wife and me to assemble and install the OB16. SWR below 1.2 on all bands and my first contact to Spain an hour after putting the antenna at 12 meter. Clean and quiet as it should be! Can't wait for my new OB18/6.
Will be an Optibeam fan for life. |
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| A41MO |
Rating:      |
2007-04-04 | |
| Superior quality |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Optibeam OB16-3
A superior quality triband beam that was supplied almost pre-assembled and considering the size it was easy to put together.
The quality of material used is excellent. It has to be seen to be appreciated even after two years in a punishing sunshine, very high temperatures and more than 90% humidity for more than six months a year. The comparison is built on my previous experience with many other beams that I used over the years from prime manufacturers in the business.
Once you follow the instruction and carefully tighten the elements’ contact with the driver cell, you will be very pleased when you check the SWR, with excellent gain on all bands and a decent F/B ratio.
Trying different antennas is part of the hobby although a costly trend. Owning this antenna gives you the satisfaction that you own one of the finest triband yagis in the hobby. It is difficult to beat in all departments and possibly saves you money on the long run as it is less of an urge now to look elsewhere for a better antenna.
73’s
Samir A41MO
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| 9K2HN |
Rating:      |
2006-06-01 | |
| UnBeatable Beam!! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I have been using this beam since April 2006, I really noticed the difference between this beam abd the TH-11 I was using, which was good for its size but this beam is much better and the good thing about it is that it is very easy to put together and this also applies on all optibeam antennas that I installed. I don't want to repeat what already been told by the other users, but I have to say that the service and support I received from Tom the owner of optibeam is more than great. |
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| ON6ZK |
Rating:      |
2006-03-21 | |
| OB16-5 the larger brother |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Hi I just put my OB16-5 antenne together . It is similar to the 0B16-3 , it only has 4 extra elements on 17 and 4 extra on 12 meters.
I still have to get the antenna up on the tower ..... I need a crane unfortunately because this is realy a giant antenna.......
So far I have no resuts put putting the antenna together was easy , thanks to the wonderfull techniques OPTIBEAM uses. Very nice constructed ....congratulations Thomas !
I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this similar to the OB16_" antenna : OB16-5 !
Let me know please .... |
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| SV1BYI |
Rating:      |
2006-03-10 | |
| FANTASTIC ANTENNA |
Time Owned: N.A. |
The OB16-3 is an unbelievable antenna. If you first see the 16 elements on the 10.10 meter (33 feet) long boom you might wonder how all that can work.
If then you have a closer look you will find out quickly that it is a brilliant design.
On 20m you have a clean four element monobander, on 15m a wide spaced four element monobander and on 10m the eight elements act like a well designed six element monobander.
The elements are interlaced by the help of modern computer design techniques, and so they do not have war with each other, they cooperate.
The driver cell is a piece of art in itself. The drivers for 10, 15 and 20m have a good distance between each other (60 cm = 2 feet) and they are connected by two square tubes which are called “phase line”. This way the drivers obviously are fed really loss free, and simultaneously a great SWR band width is achieved.
In the practical use the antenna really performs like three separate high performing monobanders. Apparently the gain is very high, that can be seen by the incoming and outgoing signals. Breaking pile ups, and even better, producing them, is just fun if you have the OB16-3 up on your tower.
Furthermore, the antenna listens extremely well, it is an unbelievably quiet Yagi.
And the patterns are just awesome: very good f/b ratio, an immense f/s ratio and a sharp horizontal beam width are the facts.
Mechanically the antenna is a little tank, and highest winds have problems to really make it move. The boom is heavy duty and trussed solidly.
As well the long full sized 20m elements are heavy duty (the ones for 15 and 10m are extremely solid anyway).
The boom to mast plate might serve antennas double of that size.
The element platforms are strong and well designed.
If you are looking for a beauty in itself, for a hammer in dxing on 20, 15 and 10m, for an undoubtedly reliable solid Yagi without hindering bells and whistles, the OB16-3 had to be your choice.
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| OE1EMS |
Rating:      |
2006-02-12 | |
| right choice |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
We at OE4A have OB16-3 for about 1,5 years.Even we have one problem with our OB16-3(one insulator on 10m element was demaged,of course Tom DF2BO sent us replacment free of charge and we made some upgrates to be sure this will not happend again)i have to say this is one of the best 3 band antennas.
Performace is great and mechanic of the antennas is excellent. Tom is a great guy who will give you best support and will help you with any problem even this have not much to due with his product.
If you want realy good 3 band antenna without any compromise (max. gain, flat SWR, super F/B, great mehanic, no power limit, excellent support)OB16-3 is for sure right choice.
We buy 7 weaks a go OB4-40 and we have plans to buy also OB2-80 to.
73 es best dx
de OE1EMS/OE4A
Braco
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| N9BX |
Rating:      |
2005-11-14 | |
| Fantastic |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
In writing a review for the OPTIBEAM OB16-3 I decided to wait at least one month and also one major Contest. That Contest took place last weekend 12-11-2005 and it was the WAE RTTY contest.
Wow! What a great Antenna! It is a magnificent collection of Monobanders on a 10 meter boom that performs beyond any reasonable expectation for a TRIBANDER. 4 Elements on 20, 4 Elements on 15, and 8 elements on 10 meters.
I bought the Antenna from Array Solutions, and with the Help of Jay WX0B, and Thomas from OPTIBEAM. The Antenna Arrived, Drop Shipped from Europe one week after I ordered it. The Balum was supplied by Array Solutions and it was specifically made with the OPTIBEAM in MIND as it had the correct attachment pieces included to mount directly on the Antenna:
Assembly was very easy as their were no rivets, or a round boom to miss-align. The 3” square-boom went together with very solid Stainless-steel Nuts and bolts, and even without the Boom Truss, it had very little Sag. The weight of the Antenna is over 100 LBS assembled, and now sits on my tower at 74’
On the Air Performance is outstanding with the worst SWR of 1.2:1 on 20 Meter CW, on all other bands from top to bottom, it is 1:1 !! Incredible. This antenna is made for Maximum forward gain, but the front to back is not too shabby. Most of the on the air comments were fantastic, with some disbelief that I was not running an amplifier.
Cost of this fine antenna is high, shipping is High, and the import duty was also high. But for 3,000.00 US dollars this is the finest tribander that you can own. And with the outstanding customer service from Array Solutions, and OptiBeam, you cannot go wrong. See you in the Pileups.
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| SM5AQD |
Rating:      |
2005-04-24 | |
| Excelent antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have now used the Optibeam since about 2 years. I have moved to a
place where I can put up what I want in terms of towers etc. I have
in this Roto tower which is 42m high 3 X OB16-3 stacked and a 3el
mono for 40m. The stack distance is about 13m between my OB16-3´s.
Stacking of tribanders is new for me as I was before using monobanders
in a very good location near the sea.
I have now played with the antennas and I am very happy that I choose
the Optibeam. The construction mechanically is very good we have had
some storms but the last one in January was the heaviest since 1967 it was
over 43m/sec it was like a hurricane… I can say that I was surprised that
they are still in the same condition as before the storm --- I can´t see any
damage at all. No change of SWR etc
The mechanical construction is super good even if I don´t have the HD
model as when I bought these, the HD was not there in the program.
The construction is good, no flexible parts – I also can tell when I assembly these
antennas together (total 5 pcs also OB9-2 – see that story separately) was like
a dream – so easy to screw together in the predrilled holes and I must cleryfy
that mainly what you find when You bought an antenna is a lot of parts like
nuts, bolts and screws all together --- here Optibeam already assebly the element
platforms to boom which make it very easy to assembly---- the mechanics is
outstanding and the nuts and screws etc all are SS hardware.
After assembly the antenna´s we just put them up on the tower –
NO ADJUSTMENTS ---no tuning, great SWR over the whole (all) bands ---
antenna delivers great gain. As the producer also say in the specs.
I can also say that ALL yes ALL parts was winding in papers …. Where do
You see such quality today.
I am so happy that I was choosing these antennas as if they not function have to
climb the tower all the time.
If anyone have any questions, please don´t hesitate to send me an E-mail.
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| JH0MGW |
Rating:      |
2004-12-25 | |
| Leaves NOTHING to be desired |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
8 months have passed since I installed my OB16-3 and it is high time I wrote my short review of it.
My impression about this antenna is exactly the same as those expressed in the previous reviews in this category --- "top flight" in every respect, say, performance, mechanical strength, quality, cost-effectiveness and customer assistance.
Especially mechanical strength-wise I have something to say. JA hams were cursed with several fierce typhoons this year, resulting in a great many JA hams losing their willow-like yagis from domestic makers in the extremely high winds (some even had their towers knocked down). AND YET... my OB16-3 nicely survived all the natural adversities, even without the slightest twist or tilt in any part. This one should be something you can pass on to your next generations.
I have added some pictures in my homepage along with my note on how to import it to JA.
http://www.geocities.jp/jh0mgw_with_optibeam/
In my unbiased and detached opinion, I strongly recommend any JA ham still wavering between several models decide on this one. I bet it will exceed your expectation.
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| AA6NP |
Rating:      |
2004-06-20 | |
| EXCELLENT |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I am writing this review to cover three Optibeam antennas, the OB16-3, OB9-2 and the OB2-40. As an avid DX-er, my first choice would have been multiple towers with stacked monobanders on each. But with ONE tower and six bands to cover, a compromise had to be found. To be honest, I don't feel too compromised at all! The performance on all bands has been quite SUPERB.
The three antennas are stacked about 10 feet apart on mast above the tower. There was some minor interaction between the WARC antenna and the tribander, but again this was very minor and less interaction than I expected. Again, the on-air performance has been great. I was also very pleased with the elegantly simple design and engineering of these antennas. Top quality stainless hardware is used throughout. All the parts are clearly marked and fit together very well, making these antennas fun and quick to assemble.
Customer service from Tom at Optibeam and Jay at Array solutions was excellent. This included fielding MANY questions during the initial planning stages of this project.
I could not be more pleased with my choice of these antennas. |
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