| NG0Z |
Rating:  |
2023-11-11 | |
| Great Reputation but can't Recommend |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I purchased my PRO-67-C-3 brand new from Mosley based on their reputation for durability and performance as well as on-air conversation with other owners.
We meticulously assembled the antenna and were impressed with the quality of the materials, but experienced high SWR on 20m and 40m out of the box.
The antenna was 75' in the air with no other antennas for it to interact with.
We took the antenna down and checked and inspected the antenna and its traps, twice. We re-tested everything from the shack to the antenna. Everything looked good.
Nonetheless, with heavy tuning on those bands (luckily the Tuner Genius could handle it) the antenna did perform, but I had to keep my power down to avoid damaging the antenna. I still melted one trap and Mosley replaced it under warranty.
After a dozen or so emails back and forth, and the replacement of two of the traps (to no avail), it appeared to us that the folks at Mosley were no longer familiar with their designs. In the end, they asked to have all the traps sent back to them which was unacceptable to me as I have a 100% remote station and had already spent an unacceptable amount of time and money taking the antenna down twice.
Mosley has a great reputation and it gives me no pleasure to register a negative review, but I got a bad one and they were not able to diagnose and resolve my issue in a reasonable amount of time and without taking me off the air for a few months, so I disposed of the antenna and replaced it with a JK XR7.
My next review is for that antenna which is performing very well in the exact installation as the Mosley.
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| K4TK |
Rating: |
2021-11-15 | |
| Worth the wait! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I ordered my Mosley Pro 67 C3 back in May and got it in early August. Then I had to CONTINUE to wait for my tower (a Heights Tower 73 foot foldover) to be built (ordered end of April, didn't get it until early October!). Once the new tower went up, the Mosley followed days later.
It was EASY to build the antenna....with the tower folded over to ground level. I worked on the antenna building it one piece at a time....doing much of the work sitting in a lawn chair with a cold beer (again, with the tower folded over to ground level).
Once built, then it was just folding the tower back up and checking SWR, especially on the 20 and 40 meter bands. I picked the mid adjustment for 20 and got a little over 200 khz of bandwidth....EXACTLY as advertised....with 2.0:1 right at the bottom of the CW band and then 2.0:1 again around 14.210. Of course, I easily get everything above 14.210 with my MFJ 998 auto tuner. Sure, I'd love to get the WHOLE 20 meter band, but my previous antenna didn't get that either (not 14.000-14.350 under 2.0:1). The SWR curve is almost EXACTLY as advertised in the owner's manual.
As for 40, it too got pretty much EXACTLY what the manual called out. I adjusted my ends to get about 200 Khz of 2.0:1 bandwidth....ranging from about 7.055 to 7.260 under 2.0:1 and resonance (1.3:1) running from about 7.155 to 7.195. And of course, I get everything above and below that (from 7.000-7.300) touching it up with the MFJ 998 tuner.
I too found the 12 meter band had resonance ABOVE the band. But a quick email to Mosley....and they told me to lengthen the part of the driven element (there are two....the one for the WARC bands of 12/17.30) for starters by about 3 inches just before the trap. I did that....found it GREATLY improved....and did it two more times in half inch increments before settling on 4 inches longer....which now makes 12, 17 and 30 ALL absolutely perfect! Ahhhh............the beauty of having a foldover tower to play with this stuff!
So I get all of 12, 15, 17 and 30....well UNDER 2.0:1. I get 10 going from 28.000 to somewhere above 29 Mhz....I can't remember where right now...but WELL ABOVE any part of the band I'd ever use....so it's darn near ALL of 10 meters. And I get about 200 Khz (exactly as advertised in their literature) on 20 and 40 below 2.0:1. I'm QUITE pleased with that.
Performance? I'm using LMR 600 coax to feed the antenna and I have it at exactly 75 feet high on the new fold over tower. Basically, if I can hear them......IF I HEAR THEM AT ALL....I can work them 99% of the time. In fact, the only station I heard and didn't work (after quite a few calls), was Norfolk Island on 12 meters early in the evening as the band was fading/closing. West coast and JA's were working him....and I could BARELY/FAINTLY hear him. He didn't answer my calls, but I'm not surprised. He was only working W6s and JAs.
I've busted so many pileups in the short time I've had the antenna (about a month now).....it's very rewarding.
My only complaint....is sometimes...with propagation improving and the performance of the antenna....I find myself staying up late and losing sleep....because it's "addictive"....and if I can hear DX on some band....I have a hard time going to bed and leaving them unworked. I'm being sarcastic ...yes....but sincere. I've stayed up late and worked hours of radio ever since putting the Mosley up.
I'm VERY happy............but for me, it was a pretty long wait to get everything in and built! |
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| AD6W |
Rating: |
2021-03-05 | |
| Works on 7 bands |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
(Edited with update to 2021 -
The antenna has been up and working 25 years without failure. I have more than 300 DXCC countries confirmed on each band it covers and have confirmed 2,508 DXCC Challenge band-countries, amazing for one antenna on a 54-foot tower with all contacts made CW/SSB from one address the USA west coast. Based on this long-term experience I've upgraded my rating to a 4.)
The PRO-67C is a compromise coil-trapped beam that covers 7 HF bands from 40 through 10 meters using seven elements on a 24-foot boom. It has 3 or more active elements on each band except 30 meters, where it has one. (I added a relay switched coil of copper tubing at the feed point to make it also work NVIS on 75 meters.) Thus it is the only antenna I know of that can operate on 8 HF Ham bands using one boom, one feed line, and a reasonably-sized tower and rotor. It also has no band-to-band interactions common to systems with many antennas stacked together on one tower, and it leaves room to mount V/UHF antennas on the mast. The quality of the antenna is good, and the color-coded parts made assembly easy. My PRO-67C works well on 40 meters, much better than the dipole I used previously, and the 2:1 SWR bandwidth is over 200 KHz. The 12 and 17 meter bands also work well as they use dedicated reflectors with no traps. During the three years I've had the antenna up I've not missed working any of the DXpeditions, and my band-country count on 40 meters and each of the WARC bands has climbed very rapidly.
But as I said, this is a compromise antenna, and I would strongly caution anyone considering one to closely examine its tradeoffs. It is not equal to a 3-element monobander on any band, but it does cover all HF bands. |
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| N4QS |
Rating: |
2019-01-10 | |
| Classic performer! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I purchased a new Pro-67-C-3 beam from Mosley last year. The C3 means that it came with a 3 inch boom. I assembled the antenna slowly over several months, but finally got it up on a Rohn 80-foot RSL tower in late September 2018. Since then I have been able to test the antenna in several major contests on all modes.
In short, the antenna has more than met my expectations. My main purpose in buying it was to get a beam for 40m, and it has been an unbelievable performer on that band (with three active elements). One of my first contacts on 40M was A41CK on SSB at 4:40 pm my local time. With the new beam, I have been able to maintain long runs on 40m CW and SSB in the SS and very respectable runs in the CQ WW CW contest. In the SS, I was getting reports of 60db over 9 into the NE from Western KY on Sunday afternoon. I am surprised at how early in the afternoon I can start working and running EU stations in the DX contests. In tuning the three 40m elements, I chose to add a little more bandwidth while sacrificing some front-to-back, but that is a good choice for my QTH in the middle of the US since I often get called from off the back. SWR on 40m goes from 1.8 to 1 at the bottom of the band to about 1.3 to 1 at 7075 and then hits 2 to 1 at 7180. I use a tuner above that with no problem. This antenna might not quite match the performance of 3 or 4 element monobander on 40m, but it performs amazingly well.
Another advantage of the Pro-67 is the one element on 30 meters. I wanted a rotatable dipole up at 80 feet on this band for chasing the last few rare countries that I need. I have not been disappointed. Just after the beam went up on the tower, I worked VK9XT on 30M FT8 for a new country and I later worked Marti at A52BH in Bhutan on both 30m and 40m CW right at my greyline. Those are just three of many good long path contacts I have been able to work on both 30m and 40m in just the first few months.
Most surprising, however, is how well the antenna works on the higher bands. It typically outperforms my TA-63N yagi at 50 feet by 3 to 6 db on almost any path -- on all the higher bands. The 24 foot boom and extra height certainly help. I am definitely louder with the Pro on all seven bands!
While assembling the antenna, I was very pleased with the heavy duty construction, especially the big, wide element to boom clamps, and the double sleeving on the longer elements for added strength. The 3 inch boom eliminates any sag. The assembled antenna weighs about 145 lbs. Despite the weight, the antenna wind load is only 12.1 sq. ft. and it turns easily with a Yaesu G-2800 rotator. The assembly manual was very clear and the color coding of pieces made it almost foolproof during assembly.
The 40m element ends were the only pieces that required any drilling, but the tuning procedure for 40m was fairly clear. It did require that I tie up the rented crane and operator for an extra hour as I hurriedly raised and lowered the beam to complete the final tuning procedure for 40m. My one suggestion to Mosley would be to go ahead and pre-drill the settings on 40m for low, middle and high band operation. I chose to tune 20m for the low end of the band since I operate mostly CW and digital modes. I need a tuner when operating above 14,300 (which is not very often).
The SWR on all bands has been exactly as advertised by Mosley. The four elements on 10m are very flat across both the CW and SSB portions. Given the way that I chose to tune the antenna, I only need a tuner for the very high ends of 40m and 20m. My solid state amplifiers like this beam on all bands!
Given the strength of construction and the amazing performance across seven bands, I plan to enjoy my new Mosley Pro-67 for years to come! Go to my qrz.com page to see a photo and for more info.
73,
Dave, N4QS
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| KN8N |
Rating: |
2016-09-14 | |
| Wow! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I purchased this antenna used 5 years ago and it's been in my garage since. This was the summer to install this rather large antenna. Now that it's on my 60' Rohn tower, it is awesome!
7 bands with great performance. I don't sit in a pile-up too long. Since I used the previous owner's settings, the only place I need the tuner is at the bottom of 40. Had I played with the tuning, I'm sure I could have taken care of that but flipping the tuner in-line is no big deal.
If you have the tower and rotor to handle this antenna, and a few strong guys to help you hoist it up, it's a real winner! 73 |
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| KA4SFD |
Rating: |
2015-02-06 | |
| Great Antenna |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
135 lbs. of quality materials and great workmanship. Expensive and worth every penny. Three weeks for delivery but worth the wait. The antenna was easy to assemble due to Mosley color coding and most all pre drilled holes. The rear driven element took a little adjusting to get it perfect. The performance has more than met my high expectations. I highly recommend Mosley as they have provided great customer service. Visit my QRZ page for extensive pictures of my tower project.
KA4SFD |
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| KQ0C |
Rating: |
2012-10-04 | |
| A Perfect Brute |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I just installed a super heavy duty tower on a mountain top in Western Colorado. I needed an antenna that could handle the expected 100 MPH winds and which wouldn't need babying. My master Tower Installeer Jack Johansen told me I had one choice... this big Mosley. Well it is rock solid. And assembled exactly according to Mosley's marks it needed absolutely no further tuning on any band. When you have an antenna up 72 feet on top of a mountain you really don't want to have to fuss to get an antenna tuned. First contact was a first call response from Chad. Getting a 40 meter sized antenna onto a tower is a huge undertaking... you only want to have to do it once. And that makes this proven design a terrific choice. |
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| KY4JIM |
Rating: |
2012-02-02 | |
| BIG GUN SMALL PRICE |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I PURCHASED THIS ANTENNA WANTED TO DX AND GET OFF THE WIRES. WELL I GUESS I HAVE A GREAT ANTENNA IT HAS BEEN THROUGH 80 PLUS WINDS THINKING EACH TIME THERE WOULD BE DAMAGE. WELL IT HAS SUFFER'D NO DAMAGE OF ANY KIND.I SWING THIS ANTENNA A LOT FIGURED IT WOULD BREAK SOMEWHERE,BUT HAS NOT HAPPEN'D YET.I'AM HARD ON A ANTENNA AND EXPECT IT TO DO CLOSE TO ITS ADVERTISEMENT.WELL THIS ANTENNA HAS BEEN PUT THROUGH THE TEST. I FOUND IT TO BE VERY HEAVY DUTY AND A WIZ TO ASSEMBLE. I TOOK MY TIME AND READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS FOR BUILDING IT,BEING CAREFUL PUTTING IT IN THE PORTION OF THE BAND I WANTED. AND ALL MY BANDS ARE PERFECT 1.1-1.3 I AM VERY HAPPY WITH THIS ANTENNA.YOU TUBE VIDEO LIFTING THIS ANTENNA.IT SHOWS HOW STRONG BUILT THIS ANTENNA IS .I DON'T THINK MOSLEY MEN'T FOR THERE ANTENNA TO BE RAISED LIKE THIS.QRZ MY CALL FOR INSTANT LINK OF RAISING.73'S BIG JIM |
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| N0AZZ |
Rating: |
2012-01-20 | |
| All I can Say is It works as Well as aSteppIR 3 ele |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have had this antenna up now for almost 5 years now and given it a very good workout on all bands it covers everything 10-40m. This antenna is very well built heavy duty has survived 90 mph wind gusts on several different occasions.
When assembling antenna every element is drilled except for 40m. They give you 3 choices for settings cw only, cw/ssb or ssb only. 40m you have to set the 3 elements to get the best VSWR on that band and it takes a little time. But once finished with all the assembly in the air you will be pleased on all bands. I had wondered about the 30m rotatable dipole it was the only one on the antenna how well it would work. It worked very well better than my wire antennas because I could turn it.
Two years ago a friend and local ham 8 mi from me decided to buy a SteppIR 3 element unit he has a 55' tower also the same as mine it was a pain to assemble and put up. We do chase a lot of DX together and so it has went for 2 years of when his was working at least he had a lot of problems, controllers, motors, boots, ice, you name it.
But when it did work mine worked everything his did with as good of signal reports or better than his I run 1k he has 1.5k. That's about all I can tell anyone this antenna other than it has never been for any repairs or maintenance in 5 years. |
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| I0JX |
Rating: |
2002-03-27 | |
| Not top performance but good compromise |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I mounted my PRO-67-C in 1997, converting a PRO-67-B that I had mounted three years earlier (Mosley also sells conversion kits).
My main comments are:
- antenna assembly: no real problem, though the manual could certainly be improved (there were some ambiguities I could only resolve calling Mosley on the phone). To get a good SWR, I had to change the length of some elements (see below), and this was quite a lengthy and tedious process. In my case, raising and lowering the antenna several times was not a problem, as my tower has a tram that rides up & down the tower, allowing me to raise & lower the antenna by simply turning a winch crank. Uncommonly, the tram does not wrap around the tower, but it instead slides on support guides fixed to one side of the tower itself. This design eliminates most problems with guy wires. For those not having an equivalent facility, I can provide a table showing the optimal length for the various elements. Just contact i0jx@amsat.org
- mechanical aspects: the antenna is quite OK, though I had to add a guy wire to keep the boom straight, and also a guy wire for each of the three long elements (I have mounted three vertical 5-foot aluminum poles on the boom, each as close as possible to an element. Each pole has a pulley on the top, that sustains the guy wire). With no guy wires, the antenna would look really ugly.
- SWR performance: While the PRO-67-B was immediately OK with no need for adjusting elements length, with the PRO-67-C I had to play with elements length to get the proper resonance on 40, 30 and 12 meters, while not causing a change in resonance on the other bands. Still, resonance on 12 meters is a bit too high (around 25.050 MHz). Generally speaking, the antenna is very good from the SWR standpoint almost anywhere. An exception is 20 meters where, differently from the PRO-67-B, the PRO-67-C is rather narrow, and you must use a tuner when operating close to band edges. Probably the Q of the 20-meter traps is too high (also see the power handling issue below). On 40 meters, in Europe we can only operate on 7.000 - 7.100, so we have no SWR problems. However, you cannot get a good SWR across the whole US 7.000 - 7300 band; you must select either CW or SSB. Overall, the antenna is vey pleasant to operate: no switch and, most often, no tuner either
- radiation performance: I have no way to measure antenna gain. With regard to front-to-back ratio, the antenna is generally rather poor on all bands this however does not necessarily mean low gain). In 1997, I sent a detailed report to Mosley on this issue, but I never got a answer. My impresssion (but this is just a feeling) that the antenna works best on 40, 17 ad 10 meters.
- power handling capability: I use an amplifier capable of 2,500 W RF output (key-down power). I had no problems except on 20 meters where the trap Q is very high and the circulating current is then high too. Some time ago I noted that the 20-meter resonance had shifted somewhat down after making several consecutive QSOs on CW. Lately, I have been calling the VP6DI dxpedition for quite a while on CW, and the SWR suddenly got quite high: resonance had shifted down to 13.750 MHz !!! I had to replace the 20-meter coils of the long radiator traps, as the support insulator had got melted. Therefore the 2,500 W limit Mosley claims for CW operation is certainly optimistic.
In conclusion: to my opinion, the PRO-67-C is certainly not the highest-performance antenna you could buy, but in my case (having already worked all DXCC countries, and not making contests any longer) is quite a good compromise, as it permits me to operate everywhere and in a very convenient manner. Current price is, to my opinion, exagerated. |
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