| M1VPN |
Rating:      |
2005-05-30 | |
| Good Performer on HF |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Installed using the Maldol PRM-T Trunk Mount, ensuring a good ground. Cabled up, and connected the FT-857.... First Call into Brazil - 7171Km's on 20m. Tunes quickly, and does exactly as required
To Sum it up, a good companion to my 857, and look forward to many QSO with it.
My antenna is an ATAS-120 A Spec Model
Damian ±:o) - M1VPN |
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| DL3ZH |
Rating:     |
2005-04-19 | |
| Great for its size! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I own this antenna for two months now, and I have not really tested it yet. I had some trouble to get it working in the beginning and I would like to tell my experiences to anybody to prevent running into the same problem(s) I did.
My installation is a heavy duty PL-259 antenna mount from a German HAM Radio store which they have manufactured for them. It was mounted through a hole in the roof of my car, without any special grounding, or may be I should rather say no grounding to the vehicle’s metal at all. The transceiver I am using is the YAESU FT-100D. I had used this setup (before I got the ATAS120) with a dual band (2m/70cm) antenna on this mount without any problems.
When I received the ATAS120, obviously I mounted it on this existing mount on the vehicle roof, switched the coax to the HF/6m output of the FT-100D and tried to tune the antenna. Big surprise: no tuning whatsoever of the ATAS120 and high SWR at the FT-100D’s display. OK, I thought, I expected the high SWR because I was aware of the insufficient grounding at the antenna mount, but this did not explain that there was no tuning at all. First thought was, I purchased a defective ATAS120. So I returned to the shack with the ATAS120 and the FT-100D to make some more investigations. Next surprise was, when connecting the ATAS with a coax cable to the FT-100D, I was able to activate the tuning motor and had the antenna moving up and down. Good news at least, that the ATAS120 worked, but new question came up, why it didn’t work with the installation in the car, especially as this installation was working on UHF and VHF with another antenna. I measured the resistance of the coax from the connector to the mount on the roof. Result, DC-wise at least there were apparently no problems. I was a little bit puzzled, because I couldn’t think of anything else which could be the culprit. So I decided to improve the grounding of the antenna mount right at the entry to the roof by attaching some tinned copper braid to the mount itself at one end and the other end I screwed on a nearby (~ 12 cm) stiffening bracket which is welded to the roof. At this attachment point I had carefully removed the paint before, to assure good grounding. I tested the ATAS120 again, but same result,- no tuning.
Equipped with an oscilloscope, dummy load, coax adaptors I ‘attacked’ the setup in the vehicle again. I attached the coax of a magnetic mount (with the ATAS120 ) to the antenna mount on the roof, in order to make a few measurements, and, big surprise, the antenna motor could be activated. OK now, the antenna, when mounted directly on the antenna mount didn’t work, but when I attached another piece of coax from the mount to the ATAS120 it worked. So the connection of the ATAS120 to the antenna mount had to be investigated more closely, and I found out, that screwing the ATAS120 on the PL259 connection of the antenna mount, there wasn’t a real good fit, but the antenna was wiggling somewhat on the thread of the mount until it was fastened to the end of the thread of the ATAS120. I must add that the length of the PL259 thread looking out of the roof was longer than the thread of the built-in plug of the ATAS120, so the only ground connection of the ATAS120 to the antenna mount was through the contact of the thread itself and not through the massive metal bottom surface of the antenna foot. So I added a big washer under the roof mount such that the exposed thread is not as long anymore and the ATAS120 presses its bottom plane to the fastening nut of the roof mount on the vehicle, thus ensuring good ground connection from the antenna to the antenna mount. Problem was solved and the antenna tuned very well on all bands from 40m to 10m. The other bands I have not tested yet. First contacts on the air were with stations from YI9 (17m), A92 (17m), EA8 (20m), 7X7 (20m) and G (40m) within about an hour from DL. So the antenna can’t be that bad, I guess.
Conclusion: (Never trust a PL259 connection) The antenna needs a very good ground connection. Not only the antenna mount itself must have a low impedance ground path to the metal of the car, but also the antenna itself must be tied through good low impedance contact to the attaching antenna mount, (the thread alone is not enough !!!!
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| M3FDZ |
Rating:      |
2005-04-14 | |
| i love this antenna |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| i have the ft857 and the atas 120 in my ford mondeo. the antenna is roof mounted on a sirio so239 mount using the coax from a k40 mount...it was there so i replaced the mount when i passed the m3, using only 10w i am very pleased with the contacts i have made mobile most on 20, but a lot also on 40, performs as well as single band antennas but without having to stop to swop antennas for different bands. as others have said a good ground is required, and i have found that direct mounting thru a hole in the roof has to be the best option. |
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| KM9V |
Rating:  |
2004-11-22 | |
| Corrosion Damage |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I installed the ATSA 120 on my pickup truck. It worked fine for about 6 months. Operation became erradic. Sometimes it would only extend to to 20 meter position. Finally, I sent Yaesu an e-mail. They never responded. I called AESHAM where I bought it and they told me to send it to Vertec Standard with a copy of the original invoice. I live in Indiana where we had a lot of rain and my basement flooded. Having removed everything from there it took me a month to find the invoice. I sent it to Vertec Standard and they told me the entire inside was corroded, the circuit board and motor. It would cost me $300 to fix it. I never took my truck to a car wash which they said it would not take. The FT857 and ATAS are the first Yaesu products I have purchased in 40 some years of hamming. What good is a mobile antenna that is not sealed against water and not covered by the warrenty? |
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| N2ZD |
Rating:      |
2004-11-16 | |
| Super Duper signal scooper |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Hi Rich here,
I bought mine from R and L in Ohio. Good price on it compared to other sellers.
Having owned the ATAS 100 for 4 years, the ATAS 120 is an improvement in a few areas that needed attention. The Boot found on the previous model has been replaced with a hard plastic sleeve, this helps keep the innards steady in the tube making the antenna more water proof and it is less likely to suffer damage and wear at the coil section. Bravo Yaesu !!
They replaced the single whip set screw with a dual set screw, this makes it easier to remove the whip from the antenna as the original 100 used to weld itself to the mast top making removal difficult.
The atas 120 is slightly faster than the 100 when tuning but not by much. Familiarize yourself with manual tuning the antenna if the radio and antenna are not syncronized. If the rig needs to "find" the ATAS, you will wait a while. Once it is "locked on" tuning is quick and easy.
Some reviews found here that call the ATAS series of antennas mediocre are simply poor installations. I have found the best way to make it work right the first time is to follow some basic rules upon installation. This extra care resulted in thousands of stateside and worldwide contacts while mobile making the ATAS hardly mediocre for HF use.
Firstly have the antenna on a secure mount that is elevated above the roof line. If you cant get it above the roof, just make sure the antenna is in the best spot you can find and on a secure mount, try to stay away from magnet mounts if you can and if you must, make sure it is a secure mount and that you have a ground right off of the mount to chassis or body ground.
On fixed mounting points make sure you have a braided ground right at the base of the antenna to a good ground point near the mounting point.
When installing the rig, run the power leads to the battery and have two ground straps attached to the sides of the radio to chassis or body ground.
If the Yaesu power cable isnt long enough, if it must pass thru a grommet or if they are going to be exposed to weather, you must remove the original fuse holders and replace them with weatherproof ones. The original ones will corrode in no time when exposed and cause problems even under the hood of the car. Place the weather proof fuses right near the battery so they protect the entire wire from a potential short.
The ATAS needs usually more than 11 volts (at the radio) to operate correctly as it takes lots of current and changes in signal voltage sent up the coax to make it work, the controller located in the antenna base and cannot make a choice on direction unless it sees two distinct voltages from the coax line. If you find that antenna is not moving, check the voltage going to the rig and at the coax end.
BTW FT100's do not like less than 13 volts anyway so then you will have two problems if this happens. An unhappy radio and an antenna that wont move.
My first attempt with this antenna resulted in several UK contacts on 20m with my FT857 and lots of fun on 40m,18m,10m, and contrary to Yaesu's claim, the antenna works very well on the WARC bands. The reason they dont endorse those bands is that the coil is spaced in such a way that it tunes easier and more precisely on the regular bands with more
bandwidth. On 18m for example, the coil is not spaced in such a way to give the atas any bandwidth so tuning is sharper on the warc bands, but this never appeared to be a problem with any flavor of ATAS I had used in the past. Tuning is good on every band providing you take the time to install it (and the radio)correctly.
Some FT100 users make 5 turns of coax around the base or nearby in the trunk along with passing it thru a ferrite core. I did this with mine and it worked out fine but thats more of a radio issue with the FT100 than an antenna problem. See my other review about taming that particular "diamond in the rough".
Anyway, good grounding, good installation, good supply power will result in a successful installation.
BTW the antenna will work on 2m/440 but you are better off with a separate antenna for those bands. So use this puppy for hf thru 6m and its certainly worth the price. The ATAS 120 makes hands free HF mobiling a joy.. Regards.. Richy N2ZD |
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| SM4XDJ |
Rating:      |
2004-09-17 | |
| Great whip |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Just installed my new ATAS-120 and the FT-857D in my car (SAAB 9000 Aero) using a trunk lip mount (K400).
On my first tryout I was able to tune the ATAS for 20M and instantly worked a JA station from my parkinglot (the parkinglot is a real crappy QTH!).
Just 20 min later i worked W2 and got 57 in report! Conds semse to be fairly good last weekend.
I must say that so far I am very pleased with the performance and how easy to use the ATAS-120 and the FT-857D is to operate.
I need to provide better grounding for the ATAS. This is tricky when you have a trunk lip mount. The grounding in the trunk door is not really good enought for RF grounding. But I will try it out.
For me it tunes on all bands (40m to 70cm), even the WARC´s.
One thing, in the specification of the ATAS-120 it does not state the operating temperatures.
I guess that the ATAS will be quite upset if I will try to use it during wintertime at -25c (-13F) full with ice frosting.
I will use the ATAS-120 as a summer antenna! |
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| N5AC |
Rating:     |
2004-09-06 | |
| Nice antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I recently bought the 857D and ATAS-120 to mount in my H2. Initially, I decided to mount the ATAS-120 using a trunk-lip mount. I was unable to get it to go on the hood of the H2 as the sheet metal is turned under and creates a larger depth than the mount would fit. Instead, I moved the mount to the top of the passenger door. The mount seemed fine and I liked the offset-look (antenna on the side of the vehicle). I did, however, have trouble with the screwdriver tuning. Mine stuck in a certain position on 20m and would tune no more. I took the antenna back to the dealer and we tried another that was BNIB. The next antenna worked and then got stuck at the top on 40m (all of this happened in one day). I decided that there probably wasn't two problem antennas in one dealer so I decided to try another mount location.
I mvoed the antenna to dead center on the roof of my Hummer using a through-hold UHF mount. The original antenna, still in my possession, still wouldn't tune. I visited the dealer and found the second antenna (that was stuck on 40m) tuned fine. I have had this antenna now for a few days and it works reliably.
In conclusion, I really love the antenna -- the ability to tune in the vehicle without any other hardware is great. I would recommend (as with all HF antennas) that you mount it with the best grounding you can stand. In my case, center of the roof worked best and I suspect will be better for contacts as well as operation. I realy like this antenna and would recommend it.
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| K9XYZ |
Rating:      |
2004-07-20 | |
| Correction to below review |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Don't want to mislead anyone, I meant to say my setup tunes flat on 20 thru 6 meters, 40 is where I have to manually tune some of the band.
That's what I get for not previewing my reveiw!
Great antenna though.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by K9XYZ on 2004-07-20
Just installed my new FT-857D in my trailblazer. Received my ATAS 120 and screwed it onto my comet RS-730 mount and WOW!!! What an easy set up!! I don't even have any ground strap on the antenna yet and it tunes flat on 40 thru 6 meters, I have to manually tune parts of 20, but the ATAS 120 does'nt even say it works on 20!! I will ground the antenna better but I do have the mount thru the paint already. I can't think of an easier way to get on HF mobile. I have the 857D main rig mounted in the back of my trailblazer and I am using the YSK 857 to seperate the face. The face is mounted on the dash within easy reach, also using the remote mic which enables you to operate almost every funtion on the radio from the mic.
Excellent setup just made a contact on 40 meters from my driveway in Indiana to California with a 5-9 signal, and the band is kind of crappy today!!
73, try this set-up, you'll like it. |
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| W3WW |
Rating:     |
2004-07-19 | |
| Satisfied |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
When I first installed this antenna on my Chevrolet Tahoe, I thought, what a joke. Tuned fair on 20 up and could not even come close on 40. Then, I decided to install a decent ground strap. Totally different antenna. With a good ground, this antenna tunes great on 40, the new bands, and all of the others.
This antenna is not a High Sierra or a Carolina Bug Catcher, but for a very low profile antenna, it does the trick. |
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| KG7DX |
Rating:      |
2004-06-15 | |
| Nicely done! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Well, compared to my new Hi-Sierra Sidekick it might be a little anemic, but I like it. One cable, one touch tune. Pretty good signals, but a longer whip on the High-Sierra beats it out by a few S-units. All in all, a fine compromise antenna. If you're mobile with it, GROUND, GROUND, GROUND !!!!!!
de KG7DX |
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