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Reviews For: Buddipole Portable Dipole/Vertical

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : Buddipole Portable Dipole/Vertical
Reviews: 213MSRP: 199.
Description:
It's a dipole... It's a vertical... It fits in your travel bag!. The Buddipole™ is more than an antenna, it's a versatile system for launching your signal. Optimized for transmit power and proven for DX work, the Buddipole™ is the secret weapon used by HF portable operators all around the world. Precision engineered for maximum performance using ultra light composite materials and High-Q coils. Zero-loss balun with Quick-Connect feedpoint. This antenna can be used to cover any band from 40M to 2M
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.buddipole.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
24.52134.5
K1EY Rating: 2007-09-28
3.5 - not too impressive Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The antenna kit looks nice and seems well built at first sight. It is really portable, well organized kit with nice carry bag. It is made as low-profile, portable use antenna. Good for hiking and traveling. Everything fits together nicely. The first impression is that it is really worth the money (not the same after one decides to actually use it though). Those are the positives.
Mine came with deep scratches and scuff marks on the tripod base straight out of the box. It almost looked banged up. A part was missing (I specifically asked the guy at the time of the order to make sure that all parts are there). On another hand they quickly shipped the missing part. Changing bands is a real pain; you need an antenna analyzer to do a good job tuning the antenna. Even then it requires a lot of fiddling, the SWR is unstable - goes up and down just by slightly changing the angle of the coaxial cable (even with cable tied to the mast). I did a lot of experimenting using different radios and environments - not too happy with the results! Buddypole provides a table with presets for tuning but I found those to be inaccurate - my settings were way different! Takes more than 20 min to setup the antenna! The antenna must be guyed or anchored in some way or the breeze will take it down (and break it). Using the guy-wire kit makes tuning the antenna even more inconvenient. The performance is rather poor but that is expected in a way from such short, low from the ground, loaded dipole. The antenna performance and SWR are very sensitive to the surroundings! It almost showed no directivity! First time I tried to use it, I had a car nearby (7-8 yards) and this caused severe RF back in the radio, restarting the CPU (this /w only 5W out). It is nearly useless for DX when going QRP. It’s more of a NVIS antenna. Overall I am not too impressed by it and will probably sell it! My K2 does better job with a long wire hung from a tree than with the Buddypole Deluxe. Probably OK for emergency ops, but the construction is not extremely rugged.
I have not tried the longer whips or the longer mast - mine is the strndard Deluxe package.
At this price point: quality - 4, performance - 3

WA4DQS Rating: 2007-09-27
a jewel, requires effort Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I love it. Fine workmanship, versatile design, fun to play with.

But I must admit that my ugly, much easier to use, simpler, far more durable, more expensive Force 12 Sigma GT5 gets the brunt of my portable and "stealth" home antenna workload. Changing bands on that system requires the flick of a switch. Changing bands on the buddipole is like trying to get the hot water just right in a hotel shower; a lot of messing around.

Hiking is where the buddipole shines. It is a light weight, well built, compact system that is much easier to carry than the bulky Sigma. But beware of wind-- the buddipole can blow over pretty easy.

W9CHD Rating: 2007-09-22
Not impressed at all. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Cheaply constructed. Hard to put together. Setting minimum SWR was a constant problem. Sold it at a loss. Just was not worth the hassles.
N5EAT Rating: 2007-09-21
A good antenna with excellent support Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've owned my Buddipole about 3 years now. I also have my antenna inside my townhome due to lack of space and other restrictions(neighbors). The antenna is easy to retune once you find each band's sweet spot. Just remember the length of each side's whip for each band. It took me about 10 minutes to get mine tuned on 20,40, and 18 meters. The tuned spots are highly repeatable. I would think that if I changed antenna location that i'd have to find different tuned spots.

As far as radiating a signal - this little antenna is superb and is probably the best unit of it's type. I've had lots of small antennas and this is the best. The only other small antenna that does as well is my MFJ manual screwdriver antenna mounted on the car using a 12 foot whip. The MFJ is much more difficult to tune and use if you're trying to mount with wire radials. I've also used 1/2 of my Buddipole on the car and it works about as well as the longer MFJ.

The Buddipole is a super high quality piece of equipment and the seller support is second to none. If you buy one and have trouble tuning it - just relax and take your time. It will be worth it.
WB6SSW Rating: 2007-09-21
Amazing Little Antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I live in a two story townhouse in a gated community, so any type of outdoor antenna, even a stealth antenna, is out of the question. I've tried all sorts of indoor wire antennas, loops and dipoles, with only limited success. On advice of the eHam reviews I purchased the Buddipole basic package with hopes of setting up a shortended dipole in the townhouse's attic.

Success! Though it took an hour to tune it up, and the element lengths weren't anything near what the instruction sheet chart suggested, I now have 1:1 swr and acceptable bandwidth (<2:1 swr) across 100 kHz of the CW end of 40 meters.

In fairness to the manufacturer, the antenna literally rests on the attic framing and is 18" from the attic mounted air conditioner unit, so trial and error tuning was inevitable. But once I got it resonate in the 40 meter band, using half inch adjusting steps of both element lengths brought it resonate right where I needed it.

Sure, I'd get much better results from a full size dipole. But this is antenna that's only 10, not 66 feet, long. Construction quality and packaging are first rate. I believe I have found the perfect antenna for my, admittedly unique situation. I have been toying with trying out Buddipole's balun, but I don't think I want to mess with success.

AI4XX Rating: 2007-09-17
Nothing like it... Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I usually don't write reviews on nothing, but after more than 6 months using a Buddipole from Budd I see no choice. This antenna is excellent on 20 meters (where I use it all the time). I have restrictions here at home, so I use this antenna due to that. But, I feel I am not compromising at all with it. It is easy to setup and very convenient if you need to travel. Customer service is the best part of having this antenna. Budd is the best! He is now a good friend. So, what are you waiting for. Go get a Buddipole antenna from Budd. You will thank me later. I guarantee you!!!
VK6MJS Rating: 2007-09-17
I like Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
A great antenna for it's size. I managed to work Canada with a 5/5 report on 40m from a house boat in the South West corner of Australia.
AA1IK Rating: 2007-09-15
VERY GOOD ANTENNA Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I like my Buddipole and wouln't be without it.

However!!

If I have a choice, I use a regular dipole. Why?
I can be on the air in 12 minutes after arriving at a local park when I put up a dipole.

The Buddipole takes much longer, (I have the 16 foot model which must by guyed).

The Buddipole comes into its own when there are no trees around, or no suitable trees for dipoles.

On flat open land, you cannot beat a BP.

It takes a bit of time to set up but when that is done, it will play like gangbusters.

I used a 40 meter vertical configuration with a single sloping wire on a reel, (this makes tuning easier), and it works great.

17 meters seems the easiest to tune, 20 is more difficult, I don't know why but that is the way it is. So what!.

Its still not that bad to tune with an analyzer.
The secret of tuning is to move the whips in very small steps, and back off a bit, step away from the antenna and don't touch it with your hands while taking a reading. Use a coax that is at least 25 feet long.

Next tip!

Forget the swr while adjusting near the ground. It will imporve as you raise it. Pay attention to the 50 ohm match. This is important.

All portable antennas are a Pain In The Neck (PITN). Get over it! Enjoy it! Get on the air and make some noise dah dah di di dit, di di dah dah!
KW4J Rating: 2007-09-13
High quality antenna system Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I will also get on the band wagon about the Buddipole. I got one just in time for 07 FD and would have been disappointed in if if I had not done some preliminary operation beforehand. As mentioned by other owners, it is a tool that must be mastered before operating. I spent a weekend trying various configurations including band/frequency changing. It was not easy, but it was worth it. By the way, a great help is an antenna analyzer to investigate the various settings.
PE1NPG Rating: 2007-09-13
agree with AH6ZZ Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Its a fine concept for experimenting but the you definitely need an analyzer of some sort. I have the MFJ259D, but before that I used a cheap homebrew Tennadipper that also did the job. Tuned well this antenna works great. On 40 meters its peaks very sharp, but then again, my main mode is PSKxx, so I ther's symple no need for retuning. Sometimes I use the analyzer to tune coarsly in the band, and i use a MFJ929 autotuner to finetune the load for my FT-857D. Still this is a compact setup for my portable HF station.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by PE1NPG on 2005-08-29

What a great antenna!

I took it to Norway on my summer holiday. Together with my Homebrew PSK20 from smallwonderlabs. 2.5 watts into the Buddipole: Northern Africa, Portugal, Israel, Canada... and Europe.
Comming weeks i'm purchasing a FT-817 for CW and PSK. Should? no will work OK together!
FUN FUN FUN! 72 de Jean-Pierre PE1NPG