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Reviews For: Yaesu ATAS-120

Category: Antennas: HF Mobile & Accessories

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Review Summary For : Yaesu ATAS-120
Reviews: 97MSRP: 325
Description:
Motorized Mobile Screwdriver Antenna 40m-70cm. Updated version of ATAS-100. Band change control with Yaesu radios FT-100, FT-897, & FT-847.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00973.6
W4CNG Rating: 2003-04-30
Great Performance Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Great screwdriver antenna. Mounted with Comet CK-3M5 mount on 1978 Chevy PU Truck on bed rail just behind cab. After setting up with FT-897 (takes 1 minute with menus HF-6 Meters only) already have dual band VHF/UHF antenna, works very well. Why spend $60 for a diplexer when my existing dual band antenna works better than this antenna nested. Have used single band HamSticks before, equal to same on all bands except 40 meters. Looked at short 32 inch whip. Have 4 spare HamStick whips that are 60 inches. Removed 2 whip locking screws, drilled out top hole to take longer whip. Tunes just as before, measured FS at 25 feet ahead of vehicle is 25% more than stock whip. Longer whip means more radiation effeciency (stronger signal). Have 2 position antenna switch and added seperate 3/8 x 24 mount for 40 and 75 meters now. Comparasion with on air results, equal to all on 20/17/15 (10 is dead), single band whip 1/2 S unit better on 40. Did not try stock whip against single band sticks after the longer whip performance. Yes you void warranty, but I do not think I will need the warranty.
N5CSU Rating: 2003-03-22
Good antenna but mounting woes Time Owned: N.A.
I purchased the Yaesu FT100D and ATAS 120 from Gigaparts (great price and speedy, free shipping!) Radio and antenna working great on 20 and 17, even winning pileups on 20! I also loads it up on 15 and 40 fine, but have not had QSOs there yet. The problem is in the mount, though. I bought an MFJ RuffRider and mounted it on the read hatch of my Jeep Cherokee. I had to mount it down about a foot from the top, so the antenna would clear my kayak rack. Well, yesterday, the coax was sliced open from the mount when I closed the hatch without checking on the location of the cable! I was able to disassemble the MFJ and replace the coax, but have been looking at alternatives. Anyone know of a mount that could go on top of the Jeep roof rack or my Yakama rack? Better yet, I have 2 NMO mounts on the roof and one is not in use. Anyone know of an NMO to SO239 adapter?
73, Rich, n5csu Dallas TX
WB4U Rating: 2003-03-22
Great antenna for mobile Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Well, I intended to reveiws the ATAS-120 antenna, but I think i'll end up reviewing the entire system I have. I have the ATAS-120 antenna, FT-100D mobile rig, and the Comet CP-5M mount. First, the FT-100D is great for mobile, I've had nothing but good reports and good performance. Now to the ATAS-120. This antenna in combination with the FT-100 makes mobile operation a pleasure and a breeze. BUT, there are issues you must pay attention to in your installation to avoid problems. I chose the Comet mount because it comes with 16.5 feet of coax, uses the mini-teflon coax section to get through the vehicle weather strip and is rated to handle a large antenna and is adjustable in 4 axis directions. All that is good, but the mount does have some shortcomings you'll have to address. When I first installed mine, I overlooked them and had to come back later to "fix" the problems. What I discovered was poor to no ground from the antenna, mount, vehicle connections. This creates an RFI problem that the FT-100 does not like and causes erratic operation and poor performance of the antenna. In re-visiting my installation, I ended up scraping a good bit of paint off the mount. The paint on the section where the SO-239 that the antenna screws down on has to go, as there is no ground there with the paint. I also placed a large PAL lock washer there and replaced the lock ring provided with a larger/heavier nut. I also used a larger PAL lock washer between the antenna and the lock nut. You will also need to disassemble all the other sections of the mount and scrape away the paint where they come together to allow good contact. Next, the CP-5M is a great mount, but either they need to give you longer set screws, or reduce the space between the clamping section where it mounts to a vehicle. There is simply too much space and the set screws are not long enough, even with the aluminum spacers in some cases. I could not get mine tight enough (I like those mounts TIGHT!!) without running the set screws out of the threaded holes. I also decided to scrape a small amount of paint off the vehicle where the set screws make contact, then inserted the aluminum spacers and ran the set screws in to force the aluminum spacer into contact where I had removed the paint. I hope the area under the spacers doesn't rust or that will be an on-going maintenance item. This gave me a very good ground to the vehicle. With all the above taken care of I had no more RFI, the FT-100 was happy, the ATAS-120 tuned all bands properly, but I still had a little trouble where the antenna didn't want to move. I traced this to the PL-259 used by Comet. It's a nice design and a good idea, but it does not allow the connector to be tighted properly and the FT-100 sometimes would not communicate with the ATAS-120 antenna. So I recommend you cut the fancy connector off and solder on a regular PL-259 to solve the problem. With all the above modifications done to the mount and coax, I now read .8 ohm from the antenna base to the vehicle chassis, the antenna tunes everytime I hit the TUN button, there is no RFI in the radio and receive and transmit signals are improved. Time will tell if things slowly corrode and performance falls off, but for the moment I am again a happy mobile operator. I can happily recommend the ATAS-120. I seldom operate 75/80 meters mobile and could not mount my full size Tarheel screwdriver on my current vehicle, so this combination was a good solution for me. Performance has been very good so far on 40 through 10 meters. I use a regular dualband mobile for VHF/UHF so no duplexer was needed.
M5PDL Rating: 2003-01-30
ATAS-120 Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This antenna does everything that it says in the ads... I had no problems whatsoever... Tuned on all the bands with no problems, althought I dont use it on UHF/VHF... What I wanted was an antenna that I could use whilst mobile rather than having to park and set up a big monoband vertical. This antenna will not outperform a single band vertical but it is a very good multiband vertical antenna. I use it with a Yeasu FT100D and have experienced no real problems with it..... It does occasionally get confused but if I retract the antenna and then press tune it tunes no problem... all this can be done whilst travelling along the motorway at 70 mph.. just what I wanted... Well done Yaesu
WA5KBH Rating: 2002-12-01
atas-120 vs others Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have used the atas-100 with the am-com control and the icom 706. Sound sometimes, the tuning was bad. Any comparison of atas-120 vs say tarheel? atas-120 more accurate tune than atas-100? What about mounting on Toyota Sienna minivan?
Thanks.
KD4AKZ Rating: 2002-11-07
Great quality HF mobile Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I recently purchased a Yaesu FT-100D and was undecided about which mobile antenna to use. After reading mixed opinions about the ATAS-100, I was aprehensive about spending that kind of money on an antenna. I am very happy that I purchased the ATAS-120. I mounted the antenna to the side of the toolbox on my pickup truck. I bought an antenna bracket from Radio Shack and enlarged the 3/8 inch hole to fit the type M connector. I was anticipating having to run several ground wires but the antenna seems to work fine without. I suppose the tool box is grouded to the body of the truck well enough. I have only had the antenna running a couple of days and have had some good reports and the antenna tunes well. For some reason, I cannot manually tune the antenna. I hold the PTT buttun and push the up or down buttons and nothing happens. Maybe a reader could suggest waht I am doing wrong. One again, a very good antenna.
K3XT Rating: 2002-10-12
Works as advertised - But… Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Pros: Tunes from 7 Mhz through 440 Mhz. Takes 30 seconds for antenna to tune from 7 Mhz to Vhf/Uhf position. Easy to install with Diamond K400C mount (SO-239 base) or similar type (for best ground need to remove black anodized paint from mount plates). Good Vhf/Uhf performance. DC power and control data sent through coax cable, no control cables needed. With good vehicle ground antenna tunes almost 1 to 1 SWR on ALL bands. Designed to work with Yaesu radios FT-100, FT-897, FT-847, push TUNE menu option and go. Clean good-looking antenna (fully extended with 3 foot whip - 5 feet 3 inches long, 1.5 inch diameter). Improvement over ATAS 100 antenna, tunes 20% faster and top accordion section replaced with hard plastic cylinder.

Cons: Antenna sometimes gets confused in which direction it should tune. This will happen if you manually tune antenna in opposite direction of a band change. Signal is about 10db down on 7 Mhz (40m) compared to full sized 4-inch tapped open coil type mobile antenna. On 10m and 15m signals about the same as other mobile antennas. Additional cost of a Diplexer that passes DC voltages (Comet CF-530) needed to operate both HF/VHF. Encountered intermittent connection on 7 Mhz. Carefully removed top section (remove top 2 set screws) to clean copper coil section (oxidation) and 6 ball bearings that contact coil. Worked great after cleaning maintenance. This might have to be a 6-month routine cleaning job. This is why I gave this antenna a 4 instead of a 5 – mechanical issues after 1 week of use?

If you want the ultimate in mobile multi-band convenience this antenna mated with one of the Yaesu radios is for you. You will not have the strongest mobile signal on the band but the ease of mounting, good looks (relatively small), and quick band changes while you are driving is a real plus.