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Reviews For: Multi-Band Antennas - Spider Antenna

Category: Antennas: HF Mobile & Accessories

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Review Summary For : Multi-Band Antennas - Spider Antenna
Reviews: 2MSRP: 139.50
Description:
Four amateur bands at your command are as easy as band-switching your rig. The 10-, 15-, 20-, and 40-meter resonators are on the antenna at all times without changing taps, or whip adjustments. Very low SWR with ample band widths. Patented tuning sleeve is on each resonator matching 52 ohm coaxial cable without any matching device.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.spiderantenna.com/index.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0024.5
WB9RAA Rating: 2002-08-27
Easy to put up take down and works great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have taken my spider on several vacations
Illinois to Florida and many time through the
Smokey mountains. I love it. I use a rubber
belt tied to twine string to secure it to a four
door Alavon (and Camry). Inside each back door
on the ceiling handles are loops of string to support wind loading of the antenna. The trunk opens easy with the antenna mounted on a trunk clip mount. The inside of the trunk uses a bungie strap and twine to secure it to the lid of the trunk when open. The 10/15 meter elements rest on the roof while open. Signal report s have always been very good neat the look out mountain!
I would buy another if I had to. WB9RAA
W6WAT Rating: 2002-07-09
Great antenna! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've used a Spider both mobile and portable for several years. The performance is sometimes disappointing, especially on 75m, and sometimes astonishing. The mast is made of aluminum tubing and after a couple of years, the mast broke (after crashing into low branches and parking structures a few times). A friend donated another Spider mast for my use, and I dropped a solid aluminum rod down the center. After that, there was no more problem with excessive wobble or bending at high speeds. This antenna has seen extremes of weather and terrain. Driving over washboard roads for miles during Elk and Deer season. Canadian and Pacific Northwest winters. Southern California sunshine, Arizona desert heat. The heat and humidity of the deep South. Through it all, the antenna has performed adequately to extremely well. I have conversed with other mobiles for over 4 hours seperated by a couple thousand miles without QSB! I have worked through pileups barefoot on the first call! I've worked all continents, WAS, DXCC....all with this antenna mobile.

Now, to it's versatility. One of the unique things about the resonators for each band is a tuning ring. Each resonator can be adjusted for the desired frequency center by sliding the ring. Another surprise is the amount of bandwidth provided for each band.

Let me backtrack a bit and describe the antenna. I know most of you remember those wonderful aluminum Christmas trees that were popular in the 60's. Remember? And to liven up that shiny aluminum, a color wheel was an available option. If you have one of those color wheels hiding in your attic or garage, dig it out, cause it'll go great with this antenna! There is a solid collar with 3 threaded holes (drilled at upward angle) set-screwed to the mast (you can get an additional one to add more resonators). In this collar you simply screw the threaded end of the resonator. There is also a threaded cap at the top of the mast for another resonator. As the antenna comes from the manufacturer, you can have 4 bands. Order an additional collar and 3 more resonators, and you can have 7 bands total. There is no coil tapping involved. Band switching is automatic.

The antenna really resembles an aluminum Christmas tree. And therein lies the rub. Although an attention getter, the non-aerodynamic quality of the antenna makes it far less attractive and difficult to position on a vehicle. You really need to guy it no matter what type mount you use.

I frequently travel, and when I reach a business destination, I stay for several weeks at a time. I fabricated a crude stand from galvanized pipe and fittings, put on a quick disconnect, run some copper foil under it, and instantly have a base antenna outside my motel room! I've been able to rag chew with the old farts on 75m late into the evening with this setup.

After residing on the bumper (guyed with 100# fishing line) for about 7 years, I'm finally retiring the Spider and changing over to the Screwdriver. The Spider will still find occasional duty for campouts and field days.

There are better antenna systems available to the masses these days. There are more attractive, more complicated, smaller, larger, cheaper, much more expensive, etc. But, you can't go wrong with this straight forward, proven design. It's nearly impossible to break, but it is possible to wear it out with exposure and mistreatment. In fact, mine has seen over 400,000 hard miles. Show me another antenna that's this non-aerodynamic, this large, and this basic that's held up that long.

Try it, you might like it.