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Reviews For: Van Gorden PD4010 parallel (fan) dipole 40M-10M

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Van Gorden PD4010 parallel (fan) dipole 40M-10M
Reviews: 6MSRP: 39.95
Description:
Parallel dipoles for 40M 20M and 10M fed off the same balun. The ARRL Handbook describes it as a fan dipole.
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0062.7
REMOVED_WB3JJF Rating: 2005-09-04
OK for my intended purpose Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I recently got back on the HF bands and wanted a multiband antemma to put in my attic since my home is located up high, in the open and I wanted to go the "stealth" route. Research put me onto the Alpha Delta DX-EE but they are not rreadily available. So, despite the not so great reviews, I decided to invest a few bucks into a Van Gorden 4010. he nicely packaged materials were worth the 49.95. I cut the wires and put together the antenna in about 2 hrs. The soldering onto the lugs on the balun was a bit tricky but went OK.

I strung the antenna in my attic and hooked it up to my Icom 706 through an MFJ 945E tuner. The antenna was easily matched for good SWR on 10, 12, 15, 17, 20 and 40 meters.

My past experience indicates that to use this antenna outside would require better sealing up the balun against weather and the addition of more plastic spreaders to keep the wire elements apart - all easily done.

For the money this antenna should work in my application.
KG6OXW Rating: 2004-01-06
PD 4010 works for me Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I received this antenna as a prize at my clubs Christmas meeting. This was the first antenna that I have put up that was not a homebrew. The price was right so I thought I would give it a try.

Not having enough tall trees in the right places I put up the PD 4010 in an inverted V. I fed it through my tuner and into my Kenwood TS430S.

I have had no problems with it at all even through the storms and high winds we have had recently.
KZ1F Rating: 2002-08-03
a bear and nothing resonates Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have to admit, I almost didn't get this. I ordered it from HRO before I saw the other reviews. I called HRO to change my order but it had shipped. The fine sales guy there told me the other reviews were bogus, that the PD-4010 worked great and they sold thousands of them. He did mention the 3rd harmonic on 15m was weak but that it was a better product then the faximile Alpha Delta if one followed the instructions. Well, I did and it doesn't. Looks like crap, won't tune. Ironically 15 comes the closest to tuning. 40m won't go lower then 7:1 swr using the full length cut. 20m resonates on 18mhz. 10m resonates on 35mhz. I am going to have to play with it some more but it's not pretty. My advice to you is spend the other $60 and get something that appears to work correctly as provided.
W0FM Rating: 2002-02-13
Better alternatives Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I used the PD4010 for a short time and also had problems stabilizing the elements and keeping them from shorting. After a while, I took it down and replaced it with an Alpha Delta DX-EE 40-10 meter parallel "fan" dipole. The DX-EE's elements are insulated and easy to work with (insulated wire would help the PD4010), the spreaders do their job very well and the antenna was a snap to install and tune. 208 countries with the DX-EE in the attic. Very glad I made the switch. Terry, WØFM
KG6AMW Rating: 2002-02-12
Great When Modified Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have to agree with the previous review. Assembly was a major pain and took several days. I finally got rid of the spacers and spread the wires out, otherwise the wires touched and tangled easily. Once I got the wires spread out performance went way up. Performance on 40, 20 and 10 meters were good to excellent. Performance on 15 was very average. Another issue to pay attention to is when the 40 meter wire length was changed, it changed the SWR on 20 and 10 meters. Once you get this beast figured out and tamed, it purrs right along giving good to excellent performance on 40,20 and 10 meters. An MFJ 259B would have turned two days of work into 45 minutes.
K5CFW Rating: 2002-02-12
Very disappointing Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This antenna replaced a Van Gorden single band 40M dipole. I was satisfied with the old dipole's material and construction quality, so I bought from Van Gorden (through HRO) again.

It took several hours to measure wires and assemble the antenna. Assembly was a pain. The spreaders (8" bars of square plastic with holes in the ends) are too short to keep the 3 conductors (40M 20M 10M) apart. The conductors aren't insulated, so even a slight breeze causes the conductors to short-circuit against each other and this makes the SWR bounce with the wind. I eventually fabricated an extra 8 spreaders and retro-fitted them to the antenna to solve the short-circuit problem.

Performance on 40M is not as good as the single-band dipole it replaced. And even on 20M, I got better performance using the single-band 40M dipole with a tuner than I do with this multi-band contraption.

All in all, this product was not well thought out. Material quality is OK, but the conductors need to be insulated, a better system is needed to terminate the 10M wires, and it needs a lot more spreaders. My opinion of Van Gorden products went down because of this experience.