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Reviews For: Maldol EX-510 6/2/440 mobile antenna

Category: Antennas: VHF/UHF+ Omnidirectional: verticals, mobile, etc

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Review Summary For : Maldol EX-510 6/2/440 mobile antenna
Reviews: 14MSRP: 70
Description:
6mtr/2mtr/70cm MOBILE ANT 1/4W 6M,1/2W 2M, 2x5/8W 70CM; GAIN = 2.2dBi 2MTR/5.5dBi 70CM; M-P Connector; Maximum Power Input = 50 Watts; Overall Length = 985mm
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00143.6
W1KSZ Rating: 2005-05-30
Looks Nice, BUT ... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just got one, came with no info on how to adjust it.
Also notice the NMO threads are insufficient (too few) to grab and fully seat on the mount. They did not include a rubber gasket that would alleviate the thread problem. As such, it is NG for my mobile so back it goes.
Anyone know of another manufacturer ??
K9RQ Rating: 2004-08-18
Good performance for the size Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Have had mine mounted on the tailgate edge, back corner of my Chevy Blazer for a couple of months now. Using a Comet mount and an FT 8900. The EX 510 replaced a short dual band mag mount on the roof of the vehicle. Very satisfied with the Maldol. For a shortened quarter wave on six, it works as expected. Really enjoying the gain on two and especially 440, far better than the short dual bander. And it's 39" length allows me to still fit into the garage without banging it around.
The antenna SWR was very low on all three bands right out of the box.
Word of warning, though. Some have tried this antenna with a mag mount. It WILL NOT work. Use a grounded mount.
KD5GGG Rating: 2003-07-04
Poor 6 Meter Performance Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Installed this antenna on my truck with a new Ft-8900 quad band. Did not need the 10 meter band so I thought this would be a good choice.

The 6 meter is unusable. The SWR is so high the radio shuts itself down almost immediatly.

On 2m and 440 the SWR are 2:1 and 3:1 respectivly.

I will try the above grounding and see if this helps. If not I will seek a different antenna.

As reported above the weather channel reception is poor with this antenna.

VA3WXM Rating: 2003-04-24
Works well! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I recently purchased a Yaesu FT-8900R and wanted to take advantage of the extra bands. Since it's mounted in a small SUV antenna height and location is an issue. I don't intend on using 10m FM much so the Maldol EX-510 seemed to fit the bill.

At only 39" long I was able to mount it by the rear corner of the hood on my Saturn VUE and still be able to park in my garage! It is painted black and matches the colour of my VUE. Installation was a breeze once the Comet RS720 mount was oriented properly. After properly grounding the mount to the hood and car frame I used an MFJ analyzer and determined a 2:1 SWR bandwidth of 3 MHz on 6m (52.3 MHz resonant frequency) and better than 2:1 SWR from 144-148 MHz. While I was unable to analyze 70cm, an SWR bridge inserted between the rig and antenna gave < 2:1 SWR from 445-450 MHz.

Performance on 6m is as expected for a shortened 1/4 wave antenna. 2m performance is excellent. 70cm seems to be affected by signal flutter whenever the antenna flexes (due to the higher gain/lower take-off angle).

Out-of-band receive is quite good except for NOAA weatheradio. Initially I hadn't properly grounded the mount and found a 4-5 S-unit drop compared to 1/4 wave 2m whip. After grounding everything the signal strength returned to normal. The EX-510 is DC grounded; perhaps a poor initial ground resulted in a poor signal?

I would recommend the EX-510 to anyone looking for a sleek, easy-to-install, no-tune mobile antenna covering 3 bands. I also use a Maldol EX-104BNMO dual-bander and it survived our harsh winter without missing a beat. Hopefully this bodes well for the EX-510!