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Reviews For: Cushcraft MA5B Mini Beam

Category: Antennas: HF: Yagi, Quad, Rotary dipole, LPDA

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Review Summary For : Cushcraft MA5B Mini Beam
Reviews: 155MSRP: 365.00
Description:
Cushcraft's newest multiband HF antenna provides 5 bands
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.cushcraftamateur.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001554.6
EI6GRB Rating: 2008-09-17
A brilliant antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I puchased my MA5B only 2 weeks ago but am amazed at how good this antenna is.

It took about 6 hours all in all to build it, erect it and then tune.

This antenna must have more gain that Cushcraft claim because it is such an improvement on previous antennas I have owned. For example on my wire inverted vee dipole a s5 becomes a s9 on the beam.

The MA5B is perfectly resonant on all bands straight out of the box. 20m has swr under 2 from 14.130 to 14.300. You can lengthen the part of the front and back element after the traps to bring the frequency down a little if you want it lower into the cw portion.

It is a nice size for my small back garden and fits in quite well. No complaints from the xyl or neighbours anyway!

In the past 2 weeks with this antenna I have made a lot more contacts than normal and have found it easier to bust through a pile-up. I really recommend it.
MW0KIK Rating: 2008-04-29
Good Mini Beam Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had this beam up at a previous qth, but after moving I have slowly grown my antenna farm from 2m 5 ele, to a 6m 3 ele, then to an MQ26 and now I have replaced the mq26 with the ma5b.
The ma5b is significantly better than the mq26 in terms of real gain and in terms of swr bandwidth.

I have made a few tweaks:
* removal of the 2nd element as this is simply a dipole for 12m and 17m. As I dont work these bands I thought it prudent to remove the element to reduce the amount of aluminium in the air.
* I also added some machine bolts to the elements and boom to stop windmilling of the elements.

This is the best mini beam I have tried and have had a few.

If space is an issue - go for this it cheap and performs well for its size.

73

Leigh
KG9Z Rating: 2008-04-08
Super Performance Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have the MA5B up at 40 feet on a Rohn 25G tower. What a great performer for its size! I would of given it a Great! rating but I encountered a problem after about 6 months of use. SWR was good on all bands. The 20M wasn't really where the instructions said it would be by measuring the elements but OK. (The only band you CAN adjust). However the SWR jumped on ALL bands after some use.....after verifying to feed line was good, the network box was removed and fed the 20/15/10M element direct with a Array Solutions balun. Bingo! Worked like a champ....so I fed the 17/12M element with a second balun and ran both feeds to a Ameritron RCS-4 remote antenna switch. This certainly solved my SWR problem. I have NOT determined why the network box fail. Does not seemed to be a moisture problem....or even any burning. (Ran a Ameritron AL-811...400 watts out)

Still a great performer and highly recommend if you can not put up a full size beam. Scotty KG9Z/8
WD9IDV Rating: 2008-02-29
Don't Run More Than a KW. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had this antenna for a few years now.
It is a good antenna but it is not designed to handle more than a kilowatt.

Have burned out MT1 traps twice on element 1. Used about 1200 watts on SSB. Heed my advice and don't use too much power. Always seemed to melt traps when weather was either raining or snowing.

Also, the matching network is poorly put together.
Bad solder joints and crappy coax. I have rebuilt it with RG-213 coax.

Overall, it does perform nicely given certain restrictions. Will be replacing soon with a Mosley TA-63M.
WY4J Rating: 2007-11-23
Best Little Yagi on the Market Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Read all the reviews before purchasing it and all I can say is, that I was not let down. Actually, the performance is better than I would have ever expected. In my 32 years in amateur radio, I have owned many antennas and for its size, this one ranks at the very top.

This is a great little yagi with a tiny foot print. It will break any pileup on the first or second call. Incredible performance from such a limited size antenna. One sure proof of its performance is that even on 17 meters where only one element is active, I can never end a QSO without 5 or 6 stations calling me.

The only one thing I would have like was that it was a bit more broad on 20 meters since the most you get is 100 kz.

After much thought, I ordered a Steppir but I am crossing my fingers that it will perform as good as this little antenna.

You will not go wrong putting on up.
NC3Z Rating: 2007-10-23
Surprised! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I wanted a small direction HF antenna to put on the tower, but it had to be small enough that the mast on the tower could support the beam 10’ above a large 6M yagi at 70+MPH. There were several options but the MA5B was ½ to 1/3 the cost of the other options. Plus it was all aluminum tubing (and relatively beefy). So I took a chance.

Assembly was rather easy. As with all my antennas after assembly I put a few coats of clear Krylon on the entire antenna. Then up it went on the tower at 70’ agl. I do not spend a lot of time on the bands with work and home priorities but I have been very impressed with the performance I see when I am on the band. On at least 4 occasions over the last month I have jumped into pile-ups on 20M and 17M with DX stations running one contact after another at a quick pace, on these occasions when the DX replied to me they took the time to ask what I had for an antenna since the signal was so strong.

I would except that if I had a big yagi on these bands but was shocked that I was being asked this with a little MA5B. What a testament to the performance out of this. Now I will say that I do run 500W sometimes, but I think that this little antenna really comes into it’s own at 70’.

The only issue I have had is that the rear boom section rotated in the hose clamped junction. This was caused by large hawks that like to sit on the MA5B. I have since pinned these two junctions and all has been well.

Pictures at www.mitchelson.org

NORTHCOUNTRY Rating: 2007-09-19
Power limited but Good Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I offer this review after owning the Cushcraft MA5B for about 9 monthes and now the Cushcraft A3S.

I moved from a flat top dipole at 50’ tuned with a MFJ tuner to the MA5B mounted rooftop at 40’ on a rotating mast. This was a very big step up. I would encourage the use of the MA5B if you are very limited in space. The MA5B is a good compact two element directional antenna on 20,15, and 10. Plus a rotating dipole on 12, and 17. I never really used the 15 and 12 meter bands except once or twice just to see if they worked, which they did.

After enjoying the MA5B for several months I decided I wanted to move to three elements and that I did have the space for the A3S.

My experience moving up to the A3S is that an additional significantly noticeable improvement has been observed both in receive and xmit. The A3S is more streamline looking and because of that the A3S has about the same visual impact as the MA5B at 40’. Honestly capacitance hats on the MA5B are a little odd looking. This is traded off with the A3S longer wingspan.

The MA5B is limited in power level and you should be careful about this. I burned out a trap with about 1kW however Cushcraft replaced it at no cost. Note that the MA5B has but one trap whereas the A3S has two traps on each side element. That is one of the reasons the A3S can handle more power.

I miss the use of the 17 meter band with my new A3S but have gained a slightly better antenna. Both are very good and worth the effort. I was easily able to sell the MA5B for about $100 less than I paid so no regrets on the using it for a time at that cost. My recommendation is that if at all possible consider the standard three element tribander but if there is no other way the MA5B will be great little setup for power levels safely up to about 600W. The yagi antenna is the symbol of amateur radio. You will never have the full experience of SSB HF without having had one at least for a time.
AI4BJ Rating: 2007-09-16
Solid performer Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I can't comment on how well this antenna performs under QRO conditions, because all of my operating has been done with Tx power between 5 and 100 watts. I can't comment on how well this antenna holds up under salt-air conditions, because I live in Kentucky. I can't comment on recent build quality, because my antenna is now 3 1/2 years old.

What I CAN say is that I have worked 170 DXCC entities with it, as a casual DX'er. While I am not aware of any deed restrictions or bylaws that would prevent me from putting up a tower, I wanted to stay on good terms with my neighbors, and elected to stick with a roof-mounted antenna. I did not deviate from the assembly instructions, and the antenna has held up through a couple of moderate ice storms and numerous violent thunderstorms. I've inspected the antenna each spring, and have yet to spot a loose piece of hardware, or any signs of corrosion. The cheap TV antenna rotator I initially installed did not hold up as well, and this year I replaced it with a good quality rotator -- the Yaesu G450A.

If I had to do it over again, I would select the same antenna, as I know of no other antenna that packs such a punch with such a small physical footprint. And I guess that beauty must be in the eye of the beholder, because unlike a previous reviewer, I think my MA5B looks just spiffy! ;-)
N4ATS Rating: 2007-09-16
MA5B Trick Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I still love mine after 6 years. Here is a trick for you folks that have stuff "falling" off them due to corrosion or ANY antenna for the that matter.. Pick up a can of spray Clear Krylon (Wal-mart)and spray ALL the joints and screws when building ANY antenna. After all these years mine still looks brand new. The hardware STILL shines and zero corrosion around any joint. I use mine every day at about a kilowatt , no problems.
GW4HDR Rating: 2007-09-13
Bits started falling off after 19 months! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
After having my MA5B up in the air for 19 months, bits have started to fall off!.

The thin 'X-hats' (capacity hats) on the ends of the elements had started falling apart, and pieces were dropping off. Two pieces fell off in a period of one week, when there had been only a light wind.

I took the antenna down to examine it, and found extremely bad corrosion on the little sleeves (with the mounting hole in) in the centre of all the thin capacity hat elements. All the sleeves were badly split by this corrosion, (and I think possibly a bit of metal fatigue had contributed to this also), and about 50% of them fell apart when I examined them.

To be fair to Cushcraft, I do live in a coastal area, where the prevailing wind comes in off the sea, and so the salt in the air does cause problems here. I have had corrosion problems before with other antennas, both made by Cushcraft, and other manufacturers. (Though I did have a 'Create' monoband beam up for about 10 years, with no evidence of corrosion at all).

I would advise anyone putting up an MA5B for the first time, to either heavily grease these sleeves in the centre of the capacity hat elements, or perhaps give them a coat of polyurethane varnish once assembled - particularly if you live in a coastal area like I do.