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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
KB0EMP Rating: 2015-10-29
Kind of a pain Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Better plan on getting it high in the air to be effective. But when it needs adjusting (and it will) you have to bring it back down and fuss with the telescopic lengths. Back up and darn...still not right, back down and start again. This can go on for a long while. And yes, I use an antenna analyzer. Very fussy if anything is near it. Save up your money and buy a TransWorld antenna. 5 minute setup and you are on the air! For backpacking, bring an endfedZ.
VE4MM Rating: 2014-12-31
Second Review Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought this in 2008 for my trip to Mexico.

It worked fine.

Off to Hawaii next week and I set it up on a 4th floor apartment I own and I could not get the SWR down. It was infinite. Using a MFJ Digital Antenna analyzer. (This antenna is hard to tune)

Looks like I will bring the Steppir Crank IR. Works perfect.

Will not be able to work the bands from my balcony now. Just the beach. Bummer.
AC2JB Rating: 2014-11-24
Not at all corrosion resistant! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have enjoyed my buddipole portable antenna kit and used it to quickly set up antennas on many bands.
I made one mistake though and this is something
that is not covered in the manual....
If you think you want to use a buddipole on the seashore you
will likely be disapointed in the degree of deteriorarion
of the whip antennas.
Salty air near the sea corrodes the copper slider
inserts inside the whip antennas.
I setup a buddipole on a beach cabin in Cape Hatteras
and left it up for 6 days in clear weather.
After disassembling and returning home , upon next setup I discovered that the whip elements were basically throw away material.
So my advice: Use the buddiple only for short times on the beach and clean the antenna parts afterward. Better yet, don't use the Buddipole extentable whip parts near the ocean .
The Buddipole manual should also warn users of this issue and provide cleaning agent recomendations and directions.
K7MVT Rating: 2014-09-30
Love it! Certainly beats my indoor dipole. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I am currently living in a community that doesn't permit much in the way of outdoor antennas. That being the case, I have been using an indoor dipole cut for 20 meters at a height of about 10 feet. Needless to say, this isn't exactly a DX magnet.

Not having many options, I purchased a Buddipole deluxe package a few months ago. In spite of the fact that my house is in a valley surrounded by moderately tall hills, I have made many contacts with the antenna. This includes a few DX contacts (Canary Islands, Venezuela, Panama, Wales, Japan, Sweden, South Cook Islands, New Zealand).

Definitely worth every penny I paid for it.

To the previous reviewer: How one breaks, or more interestingly bends a VersaTee is beyond me. Maybe you ran over it with a tank or something.
W5EXJ Rating: 2014-04-29
Fantastic Antenna System Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased a Buddipole Deluxe Package (short) in August 2012. I travel some for work and started taking it and my FT-857D on these trips. I have set it up in hotels, out on balconies, etc., and it has worked very well. I took it on a sailing trip through the Stockholm Archipelago. After docking for the evening, I either set it up on the deck of the boat or on doc in a vertical configuration next to the saltwater. I made many contacts all over the world. Wherever I go I generally take my radio and the Buddipole.

The first week in December 2013 I was part of the St. Lucia/J6 Buddipole DXpedition. There were 7 of us in the group, including Budd and Chris. We had a fantastic time. In 8 days, using only Buddipole configurations of antennas, we made over 13,000 contacts. Fun was had by all and we are all meeting in Dayton this year to say hello. If you ever get an opportunity to do one, you should jump at it, it was so much fun and I learned a great deal and made life long memories and friendships. By the way, everyone pays their own way on these trips and the cost is a small fraction compared to the bigger DXpeditions.

Since buying my first Buddipole Deluxe package I have purchased the extra parts to build 2 element Yagi antennas. Last Saturday, April 26th, our radio club met for radio in the park and I set the Buddipole up as a 10 & 15 meter 2 element Yagi and made many DX contacts.

The Buddipole system is the erector set of antennas, it is high quality and a very reliable product. There is tons of documentation on how to configure this system for just about any antenna you can imagine. It is fun to use and setup, which is one of the great aspects of Amateur Radio. My hat is off to the team at Buddipole for creating such a fantastic antenna system. I’m holding up a 10 card, but unfortunately this site only allows for 5.

----

PS. I’d like to make a comment about the review made on March 29th from "AA2NH". The call sign used has been expired for over a year; so hope you are either not using your call sign or all the work that you seem to have done with the Buddipole system was done over a year ago as well. Also, I checked and there is no validity to the banana plugs/jack issue you mention and I’m not sure how one can break a VersaTee ... that's puzzling. I have never had an issue with mine.
AA2NH Rating: 2014-03-29
Incompatibility alert, and an opinion Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I thought it was just me, but another guy from Lakeside CA who is using a commercial Buddipole just discovered that Buddipole Antenna has gone from a 2.70 mm diameter mini banana plug to a 2.92 mm diameter banana plug. This change affects the Versatee, the coil clips, the banana plug leads (including leads for coaxial cable and the triple balun switch). So, my parts that don't actually work together are by design?!? Oh joy, what I bought is already obsolete. Why couldn't BP do what HiQ, Alpha Antenna, and even MFJ does, and use industry standard SO239 connectors? My plastic Versatee broke, and can't be bent back, it's plastic! Good thing they sell them as a part, oh wait, now I have to replace everything else...do they even sell the Versatee with the clip holes I need? Too many questions. If I cant fix it in a field emergency setting, then bye bye Buddipole. Time to reevaluate whether I'd bet my life on this antenna. Maybe I'll look at the EzMilitary Antenna or even a not so random 40 meter wire dipole that I can use on harmonic frequencies. Sorry I rambled, but wow; the more I thought about it, the more holes I keep finding in my own BP system...and someone had to say it. Anyone had to replace those Extremely light duty whips from BP yet? Yeah, I did with a "Mil-Stick whip". Just google that if you need a better and less expensive replacement whip than what BP makes available from oversees. And while I'm at it, does it bother anyone else that BP takes 7 or more people on extravagant vacations and puts proof of that on YouTube? I'm for making a good living, but just saying, maybe they're too big for their britches from making big profits when extravagant trips are shown off.
YV5OF Rating: 2014-03-26
Great antenna system Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I'm using Buddipole since 2008 practical and versatile with many possible configurations. Fully transportable and can operate in various weather conditions.

Pre and Post Sales Service very good, and excellent support.
NI5DX Rating: 2014-03-21
Excellent antenna system Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
On March 18 I drove about 50 miles to Galveston Island, which is NA-143 for the IOTA program. The purpose of the trip was twofold. I wanted to give out as many contacts as I could for NA-143 and I wanted to test out my new Buddipole Deluxe Long antenna system. Along with the Buddipole, I used my IC-7000 at 100 watts and an IT-100 tuner. For power, I used my Honda EU2000i generator. All worked perfectly the entire time.
I decided to configure the Buddipole as a horizontal dipole at a height of 15 feet. I made my first contact on 20 meters at 1445z. I worked only 15 stations in 30 minutes on 20 so I decided to change to 12 meters. I made the first contact on 12 meters at 1530z and worked 78 stations in just over an hour. Of these, 60 were DX stations mostly from Europe. I took a break for lunch and then decided to try 10 meters. I started on 10 meters at 1557z. I spent the next 2 hours working on that band. Most of the 215 Qs were with European stations. I tried 20 meters again with no real success so I thought I might give 17 meters a try. The next 75 minutes were spent working 82 stations. The split between DX and stateside on 17 was about 50/50. I even managed to work one JA station during this run (2043z, which is 3:43 PM local time).
Operating only SSB, I wound up with 393 contacts in just under 5 1/2 hours of operating time. Of the total, 293 of the contacts were with DX stations. I was able to work 42 DX entities during my operation. I was very pleased with the many compliments I received on my signal. Many DX stations commented that my signal was an honest 59 and several times I received a plus 10-15 report from Europe. I must say that the Buddipole far exceeded my expectations and I look forward to my next island trip to try some different configurations with the antenna system.
W4FJT Rating: 2014-03-02
High quality build Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is my favorite camping solution. The laws of physics haven't changed. Buddipole simply works within those parameters. Easy to set up/take down and have had many nice DX contacts.

The Buddipole components are of high quality construction and worth the extra dollars over the long run. The documentation they provide (for free) would be useful even if you homebrew one. But I like the fit and finish of the product and don't hesitate to recommend it.

KF7VWN Rating: 2014-03-02
Fantastic! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just picked one of these up. I am currently living in Germany (callsign DA1MH). I set up with an Icom IC-7000 running on a small generator on the top floor of an empty 5-story parking garage just outside of Munich. Set it up for 15m, read about a 1.1 SWR and within 2 mins after powering up made my first contact to Tim, K3LR, in Pittsburgh, PA and he gave me a 5/9. Absolutely fantastic product!!! Got a bit of RF noise (RX only) off the cheap generator but I will try to solve that with a ferrite choke clamp on the AC cord. A lot of people seem to complain about the manual changes needed to switch bands, but for portable ops this is an acceptable trade-off IMO. Sometimes a little trial and error is necessary; on 17 I found that 5 lengths on the black side instead of the 5.3 recommended in the pamphlet got me a nearly flat SWR. 5.3 had me at about 3.5. Patience is the key. Strongly recommended.