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Reviews For: High Sierra HS-1800/Pro

Category: Antennas: HF Mobile & Accessories

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Review Summary For : High Sierra HS-1800/Pro
Reviews: 77MSRP: 300-$500
Description:
For General Mobile use. Light weight, high performance and covers entire HF spectrum. Uses new custom Black Hawk motor. Available with semi-automatic control box.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.cq73.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00774.7
K4LVZ Rating: 2005-12-12
Great Investment Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I do not operate mobile! I live in an antenna restricted community, so am faced with having invisible antennas. There is a 40meter dipole in the attic. works OK. Did have a Hy-Gain 18AVT 5 band vertical -- wore it out after 25 years of Florida sunshine. Found the High Sierra line and liked what I saw! Bought it -- Installed it on my walled in patio. Drove a pipe in the ground and mounted the HS 1800Pro on it. Spread the radials as best as possible and tuned up!
All contacts say my signal is great! On the USCoast Guard Net, KE7A (Texas) the NC said it was great and the next check-in in W. Virginia
agreed. Have had fun with it so far. $$ well spent.
G1MZP Rating: 2005-10-08
Its ok Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Its an Ok antenna, well made, I have this and a Yaesu ATAS. The ATAS is on the car, the High Sierra is in the cupboard.....enough said?

Don't like the idea of the tune box, not as convenient as the ATAS, dont like the idea you have to swap the Whip, even from new, ("put a bigger whip on, it'll work better" said the dealer)

Its not bad antenna, its just not as easy for mobile use.

Regards
Alan
G1 MZP
NZ6L Rating: 2005-10-06
K7C on the HS-1800/Pro Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Can't say enough about this antenna.

I recently installed a base mount on top of my garage roof to make use of the HS-1800/pro as a fill-in antenna for the WARC bands, 40m, and 75/80m when it's not on the vehicle.

Worked K7C on 40 CW/SSH (on 25W), and 80 SSB (100W).

It's been a great complement to the tri-band beam.

73,
NZ6L
K7JQ Rating: 2005-06-01
Beat the CC&R's! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have the HS-1800/PRO in the back yard mounted on a steel fence 70' by 5', using it as a counterpoise....no radials at all. I had it made up to accept a 3/8x24 stud luggage type mount. It tunes less than 1.1:1 SWR on every band except 10M, using a 6' whip. The unorthodox counterpoise probably has something to do with its inability to tune 10M, along with the length of the whip...but I'll worry about that in a few years when 10M opens up again! I run 500 watts into it and can work pretty much anything I can hear, with good signal reports. Neighbors and HOA can't see it, so I'm extremely pleased with its performance. I've had it for 6 months...no problems, and it's built like a tank. I've also had the HS-900/PRO and the Sidekick with great results. Highly recommended.
KC9ANQ Rating: 2005-03-14
ON A TOWER!!! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
THAT’S RIGHT! I heard everyone asking, I heard everyone saying "I might try that on a tower" Well I did it. I bought my 1800 Pro from AES Milwaukee at the 2004 Superfest to use on my car and try on my tower.
First let’s talk about the High Sierra people at the Superfest. Eileen (spell check) from High Sierra was there and her husband? In fact I think they are the owners? I bugged her ALL day long looking at the 1800 Pro. First I was asking her questions testing the waters so to speak to see if she "KNEW" the antenna, guess what,,, SHE DOES!

The installs:
I first attached it to the hitch of a Pontiac Sunfire. Small car needed ALOT of ground strapping, hitch to frame, frame to body, body to exhaust and so on. The antenna tuned ALMOST everywhere. I had a problem tuning on 12 meter only. I even hooked the antenna to my Cobra 29 and it tuned 11 meter. So a simple email to tech support and was told add some length to the coax. I added 6 foot and why this worked is beyond me but it did.

Next I installed it on a Hazer unit on my Rohn 25 tower. I was thinking originally that I would attach it directly to the tower and the tower itself would provide an adequate counterpoise. I then came across a Hazer unit and decided to just install it on the hazer. Well it didn’t work! I KNOW I KNOW THE MANUAL SAYS TO USE 4 RADIALS BUT I DIDN’T READ IT YET! I mean what they know; I have been doing this ham radio thing about 4 years I KNOW BETTER! So I decided to hose clamp a jumper of braid from the u-bolts of the antenna to the cable of the hazer going to the crank, I mean cable is cable and it will make a counterpoise. DIDN’T WORK! I could not get an acceptable SWR ANYWHERE! OK THE ANTENNA IS DEFECTIVE!!!!!! But I then thought I just took it off the car and it worked fine, hmmmmmmmmm. I did briefly read a section in the manual that said to use the “little coil” in a mobile install but its not needed in a base install. YEAH RIGHT WHAT DO THEY KNOW!!! So I installed the coil, DANGIT THIS DAMN THING STILL DON’T WORK!!!! OK so I decided to read just a little bit about the install and they show to use 4 radials cut at 32 foot 16 foot 11 foot and 8 foot long. That’s makes no sense to me so I am not doing that. Instead I had an old G5RV lying around and I cut the 2 wires off and installed the 2 wires as my radials each is 51 foot long,the longer the beter right,,,, that should work. NOPE!!!!!! This antenna just will not work on a tower!!!! Well I was going to email them and raise all kinds of heck! But I said to myself, SELF read the manual so they don’t try to gig me on my setup.

Well I didn’t understand why to use those 4 different lengths of radials but I did it anyhow just to prove their theory was wrong!!! UH OH THE ANTENNA TUNED!!!!
Well that was just on 10 meters let me try 75,,,,,,,,hmmmmmmm 1.3 SWR!!! OK now I am going to try everywhere INCLUDING 60 METER, WOW IT WORKED!!!!! EVERYWHERE and I actually hear people now. There must have been something “rattle loose inside the antenna before” so I am going to unhook those 4 wires and prove them wrong! HMMMMMMM it won’t tune now. Well I have been a ham about 4 years and that don’t make sense, I am getting out my brand new antenna book I bought 4 years ago and never opened and read up on this. Well well well, now it makes sense and during the few days of reading the book I was making contacts ALL OVER THE WORLD with these 4 radials up. Being the stubborn person I am I decided to not admit being wrong so I brought down the antenna and put it on a 3 foot tall TV antenna tripod on the ground with NO radials, I mean the 3 legs should be enough of a counterpoise, remember I read the antenna book but I do not want to be wrong!. Need I explain any further what happened? But I will say after hooking up the radials on the antenna at 3 foot I was again making contacts.

Finally I read the ENTIRE manual, and High Sierra even says in there NOT TO RE-ENGINEER the antenna and don’t email or call them if I haven’t followed EVERY step AS SHOWN in the manual. Hehehehehehe, well I guess they knew what they were talking about because it works great on a tower with the Hazer, although again, me being stubborn will mount this on the tower legs and not the hazer with no radials to see if it works, I just have to prove it to myself!!!

Please save yourself a lot of time and read and FOLLOW the manual. If I did I would have been on the air a lot sooner. In fact I bought the sensor for a digital reader for the antenna and I will actually follow directions to install it.

Having this antenna for about a year I can say I am VERY VERY pleased with its performance both on a car and on a tower.

I told my wife I know it all, so she threw our set of encyclopedias in the trash to teach me a lesson. Lets see how that turns out =)

73 from Chicagoland
K8ZZ Rating: 2005-03-02
Cold weather conditions Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My main interest is mobile County Hunting SSB and CW. I just finished a 12 day, 4 state trip through northern Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota. I woke up to minus 10, 15 and 20 degree mornings and the High Sierra 1800/Pro still functioned. On the minus 20 morning in North Dakota, I had to work it up and down a few inchs to get it started but it worked flawless the whole trip, with many e mails when I got home asking:"What antenna are you using?" Great antenna.
AI4JD Rating: 2005-02-28
one great antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
i recently received and installed my high sierra this past week and what an antenna it is well constructed and definitely out preforms the hustler's and ham sticks i was using by at least 10 to 1 i get great reports and have constantly break pile ups first call high sierra has a new life time customer here
W0PPD Rating: 2004-11-26
Simply the Best Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I did an extensive amount of research on all the "screwdriver" type antennas out there before I made the decision to go for the High Sierra motorized antenna.

Having used E-ham as one of the tools in my kit for making some buying decisions, I did not go wrong with this purchase.

I received the contents of the well packed package in good condition. I was somewhat surprised of the quality of the product even though all the reviews I read stated how well this antenna is constructed.

I worked late the night I received the antenna and started installation in the garage at 20:00 hours. I had everything installed by 22:00 hours. I checked the swr and found it was infinite on all bands. I grabbed the manual and a quick check through the trouble shooting section solved the problem.

I checked all bands from 80 through 10 meters. The highest swr I had was a 1.2:1 and it was on 75 meters. All other bands I could tune 1.1:1 without a glitch. 75 meters is very touchy and small movements are reqired as one would expect at that portion of the spectrum.

I had called High Sierra the day I got the antenna to answer a couple of questions that I had that I did not think were addressed clear enough or in enough detail to suit me. They were politte, and very helpful and were able to satisfy my concerns.

I have not had a lot of time for on air testing of the antenna except for the second evening after the install in terrible band conditions. I contacted two state side stations and both gave me 5-9 + reports.

Do your own research before making an investment in a motorized antenna. However, based on my limited amount of time with this antenna I would tell you that I think you will be more than happy with this puppy.

I will update this review when I have some more time with actual on air testing.
LNXAUTHOR Rating: 2004-11-16
My Experience Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This review is my experience with ordering, receiving, unpacking, installing and initial use of an HS-1800/Pro Platinum package from High Sierra Antennas. My use of the HS-1800/Pro may seem somewhat unorthodox to many High Sierra users as the antenna was purchased for use as a stealth vertical.

Ordering was fast and easy with a friendly voice on the other end of the line. I ordered the Plantinum package which includes the motorized antenna, stainless mounting bracket, powder-coated six-foot whip, stainless quick disconnect, and an installation kit. The install kit includes 20 feet of combo coax/DC control line (covered in a thick sheath), two PL-259s w/inserts, some coax seal, three feet of ground strap, wrap ties, and wire crimp connectors. The mounting bracket includes
two U-bolts. A control box with six feet of DC cable is included with the antenna.

The antenna was shipped three-day UPS and arrived slightly T-boned from shipping. I was a bit worried, but when I unpacked the antenna and whip seemed to be fine. I also ordered 75 feet of extra coax/control line for my application, along with the fold-over hitch mount (in case I want to go mobile; btw, the fold-over hitch mount allows clearance even with the new
Ford F-150 drop gate); both were shipped separately and arrived in good condition.

The antenna is heavy and appears well built. However, the plastic weatherproof shield around the coil seems a bit thin considering the heft of the antenna. I'm not sure how well the shield would stand up to a rock hit while mobile, but replacements are relatively inexpensive (about $13).

Unfortunately, the U-bolts included with the stainless mount are NOT stainless and will corrode faster. The good news is that Homeless Despot carries stainless bolts that fit the mount's holes exactly: 5/16 x 1 3/8 x 2 1/2, at a cost of $3.29 each (and which includes two nuts, and flat washer), and marked "H B Ives," with a code of 76105 20630. I also purchased additional stainless washers at a local marine supply store.

The included manual is adequate and covers mobile and base installs. I found a number of typos, grammar errors and missing text, but the product and control box accessories are covered with enough detail to aid an install. Since I was performing a base install, I removed the shunt coil at the base of the antenna as instructed by the manual.

I purchased a six-foot section of one-inch galvanized pipe then painted it green. Installed in the ground in an inconspicuous corner of my backyard, the pipe provides a four-foot base for the antenna. The HS-1800/Pro was attached to the mount on the pipe, and 10 10-foot radials were clipped to the ground point on the antenna's mount. I then ran the coax along the side of the house and into the shack.

The coax was attached to a coax switch with my rig and MFJ259B. I'm not sure why High Sierra, in the manual, seems adamentally opposed to the concept of using an antenna analyzer with the antenna. The analyzer provides the ability to operate without a tuner when using this antenna! When switched in-line, I can set a frequency and watch the SWR while the
antenna is energized up or down - very convenient!

Every station will be different, but here are my "no tuner" SWR results:

75M - touchy, but 1.3:1 on my desired freqs
60M - didn't try
40M - 1.1:1 across the band
20M - 1.3:1 across the band
17M - 1.1:1 across the band
15M - same
12M - same
10M - 1.2:1 from 28.3 up to 29MHz (else tuner req)
6M - less than 2:1 across the band
2M - +/- 1.6:1 across the band

I realize that SWR settings are no indication of the efficiency of an antenna. In my situation, the HS-1800/Pro is about one or two S units down on receive from my other antenna, a 40M wire dipole up a tree. That said, in the first half hour following installation I was able to contact Minn., an NP2, a YV5, Mass., and an HE3, even under poor band conditions with a barefoot rig.

The antenna's sturdy construction, stainless mount, powder-coated components, and weatherproofing will help insure good operation even in a harsh environment. Mobile operations are even tougher on antenna systems, so I can understand why many mobile ops turn to High Sierra.

I plan to use an amp someday, so this 'little' motorized vertical will also allow me to operate without the need to purchase a high-power tuner to accompany the amp. My rig is happy when using this antenna, and so am I.
N4GLS Rating: 2004-11-02
Best thing since sliced bread Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought my 1800 Pro about 2 months ago and have been enjoying mobile HF communications ever since. The insturction were well layed out and some of the things that wer suggested I actually had to do, such as double grounding. I have worked Europe, Alaska, and Italy so far and I don't really spend that much time in the truck, only one half hour commute to work. I run an Icom MKIIG and bought the I box to go along with it. The antenna is well built and heavy duty. I don't think you will go wrong with the craftsmanship or service by buying this antenna.