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Reviews For: Cushcraft R-7000

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Cushcraft R-7000
Reviews: 75MSRP: 389.95
Description:
40-10M 1/2 wave vertical. 80M add-on kit available.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.cushcraftamateur.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00752.9
KC6AUP Rating: 2019-05-13
Just finished WAS with it Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Did WAS with the R7000 in 5 days on 40 mtrs, using FT8, so for an older antenna it's still working great. Mine is only mounted about 4 feet up on a fence post, so I'm sure if I raised it up some it would preform a lot bettwr.
F6FLH Rating: 2015-07-03
Trés Bonne Verticale mais .... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Voici une bonne verticale 1/2 onde mais doit être aubannée impérativement au 2/3 pour ne pas la redémonter pour révision des serrages trop périodiquement. Effectuer le montage avec un peu de frein-filet sur les vis des trappes pour éviter les desserrages et les faux-contacts. Bonnes bandes passantes en général ,elle est trés efficace en DX et surpasse toute mes autres antennes FB13-FD4-W3EDP de 1 à 2 points S.Le petit plan de masse est trés pratique "radians courts" :gain de place au sol par rapport aux radians d'une verticale 1/4 d'onde. Certains jugements sont trop négatifs : il ne faut pas la condamnée à mort trop vite. Ma note sera de 4,5 pour cet aérien. 72/73 à tous.
W2RWL Rating: 2015-03-04
Great Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Have had this antenna up 45 feet in the air for more than 2 years here in Upstate Central NY and it is still going strong. Tunes every band of operation with the TS-870 internal tuner. SWRs are below 2:1 on all bands. Read instructions carefully...Measure twice, adjust once.
WA8IUR Rating: 2013-04-04
recommended Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Have owned mine for 16yrs, purchased new.Have used it at four different QTHS,LONG STORY.
Anyway, it has served me well everywhere.S. America,Europe,Africa,Asia. Have use don cw and ssb.
Don't get me wrong, as soon as things come around I want a tribander.The r7000 will do till then.
K8YC Rating: 2012-11-12
R-7000 traps need help Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The R-7000 is a good antenna as far as verticals go, but it needs some help. Owned one since 1998 and have about 323 countries worked using it, BUT the traps DO have a problem. If you have "fluttering" SWR, it is probably being caused by wind induced vibrations in the internals of one or more traps. The trap design is pretty unique with two traps in each "can". The capacitors are formed by the outer shell of the can and a coaxial piece of tubing pop-riveted to the structural tubing on each end of the trap. THE POP RIVETS WERE POORLY PULLED UP ON SEVERAL TRAPS I TOOK APART! A thin film of aluminum oxide apparently forms on occasion but is "scrubbed" by vibration causing the variations in electrical conductivity. Drilling out a dimple in the wall of the trap "can" will allow you to remove the delrin spacer and get to the guts. Before you pull out our last remaining hair, you might give this a try.
K7PP Rating: 2010-08-11
OK for some Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Even a great antenna will suffer in poor conditions but I'm afraid the R 7000 is more susceptible to the weather out here on the Pacific Coast of Washington than most.
I've had the antenna up for years. It has performed fairly well on the upper bands but getting it to work on 40 and 20 has been a chore. I don't operate 30 so that's not been an issue.
I've had the top trap apart more times than I can count. Each time I seem to fix something different.

Today, I finally gave up and removed the top trap and it's four extra feet of tubing.
Guess, what? 20 meters is now flat across the whole band. All the other bands above 20 are also flat.
The antenna now works better than ever.

I'm not sure if I'm going to bother trying to fix the top trap again.

Bottom line is that from now on I'm going to stick with monoband verticals without traps.
If you live in an area that is dry and not to windy then, perhaps, otherwise I would try something else.


Regards,
K6SDW Rating: 2010-06-29
Not junk Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The previous review not withstanding, I use this antenna camping and I've had amazing results, easily working Europe when Propagation is good....I've been a ham for 45 years and know antennas somewhat and I had doubts about this too, but the damn thing works!!!

I have no connection to the manufacturer but it ain't junk!! Yes, it's a compromised antenna but it ain't junk........
W4KVW Rating: 2010-06-29
JUNK Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This by far is the WORST antenna I "EVER" owned or operated on.The sections NEED too be attached to each other with self tapping SCREWS or the sections move around in the wind & lose contact with each other causing the SWR to go up & down. Save your money & pass on one of these pieces of GARBAGE!
EA7AQV Rating: 2010-05-10
After more than 5 years stored in bad conditions it works... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have bought a Cushcraft R7000 2nd hand that had been stored more than 5 years in very bad conditions, an after making a general manteinence (cleaning ALL electrical connections, rewiring CT1 trap, and fixing all the traps connections with 4 mm rivets), and making a new base hardware (the aluminium 10 mm plate), and guying it with 2 levels of Dyneema 3 mm cords, it works ok, outperforming my dipoles in all bands, and it has been ok, in spite of one 80 km/h winds storm...
KZ2T Rating: 2010-04-18
Overhal of the R-7000 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased my R7000 a little over a month ago for $50.00 from a Ham that was moving. The antenna had two bad traps and was only working on two bands - 10 and 12 meters.

I finally got time to take each trap apart to see what the issues were (if any). If any of you have this antenna and are afraid to go into them, email me and I'll give you detailed steps on how to do it - it's easy. I wish I had taken photos and written notes, sorry, I didn't.

CT1 (I think) has the trap that also has a capacitive device that is shielded from the outer can wall by some hard foam or plastic type material. The metal part of that device slides into into it and is held in place by a pop rivet that was very loose. Also, the aluminum wire that was used to wind the coil was in bad shape and looked like it had arc'd just below where it exits and attaches to the outside of the can. I drilled out the pop rivet and used a screw with a lock washer on both sides to reattach the metal part of the capacitive device. It no longer “wobbles.” I rewound CT1 with wire (that would give me enough turns) from a bad trap that was in CT2. I rewound CT2 with 12 awg solid copper wire. One trap was exactly 12 1/2 turns and the other trap was 14 turns.

I had to bore out the holes to use my pop rivet tool to reattach the wire for rewinding the traps. The existing hole was too small for the head of the rivet tool to fit properly. I also used a small 1/8 lock washer on the rivet for extra pressure on the connection.

I used new hex screws to replace the crappy ones that the antenna came with. I believe they were #8 ½” Hex screws. I snipped off the sharp ends because I was afraid that it may screw in too close to the center rod of the trap and arc. I also used 2” solid steel clamps to hold them in place after I closed them up. I used sealent on the tops and around the sides of the rubber at the top of all the traps to prevent water from getting down into the traps.

Also, I used "Antiseize" on all aluminum connections before sliding the antenna back together. Also, when tightening down the stainless steel clamps you have to be careful to not over tighten and strip the threads. Over tightening will simply loosen the connection and cause the antenna to detune by sliding down into itself while it's up in the air. What I did to ensure I had a tight fit was wait for the moment that turning it down became harder and then tried to rotate the sections with my hand. If it rotated I slowly tightened more, and then tried to rotate it by hand. When I couldn't rotate the connection with significant effort, I stopped tightening.


The antenna IS WORKING AS DESIGNED. It is outperforming the dipoles that I have in my attic.

Again, if you have one of these and need instructions, email me. If you'd like me to do it for you, email me and maybe we can work somthing out.