| KG4NBL |
Rating:      |
2005-11-24 | |
| THE BEST EVER |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Why do I use Hi-Q-HF mobile antennas by: KG4NBL,
“THEY RADIATE and Not DISSIPATE the RF!”
The series of Hi-Q Antennas I own starts with the Hi-Q-2.5/40 RT tru the Hi-Q-5/160!
The -2.5 I had for 3 years, four ea. -4/80 and 3 ea. -5/160 since then.
The Hi-Q-2.5/40 mostly I use on: 40M/20M/17M/10M with a 37” whip with corona ball.
Also get on 6M by tuning down to find the MULTIPLE Wave length of 6M.
These are the BEST HF Mobile antennas I EVER used!
These antenna are traveling with me in my TRUCK (18 Wheeler) my boat and in my Suburban.
SOME OF THESE ANTENNAS ARE OVER 3 YEARS OLD AND WORKING FINE, HOWEVER ONE MUST KEEP THE COIL CLEAN ESPECIALLY IN THE WINTER, WHEN THE ROAD CRUD COLLECTS THAT IS CONDUCTIVE, AS LOW AS 350 OHMS! When clean the LEXAN coil housing is 20 Meg Ohms, measured EXTERNALLY.
These antennas have been in Alaska in February an off shore of the Florida Keys in June.
I have learned a lot from my -4/80 that I have owned for 4 years: Keep it clean!
The accumulation of salt and winter road grime can create a PATH for an RF ARC when one runs a kW or more.
Remember: at 500 watts there is very high voltage at the base of the whip to the top of the contactor location: 12,700 volts!!!
All of my Hi-Q is RT’s that is remotely tunable with 12 VDC.
With a CAPACITY switch box and aTW-1 talking watt meter it is easy to tune to a VSWR of 1:1, doing this without looking!
The -4 works with the same whip/Caphat set us as the -2.5 coil.
And now the newest addition to my Hi-Q Collections is the Hi-Q-5/160, these are 10-160 mobile antennas. I have 3 of these beauties!
You might ask why so many: I set them up as PHASED Verticals for greater radiation Efficiency.
I work 40-160 with these antennas since the COIL DIAMATER to LENGTH ration is the closest in this design.
6 M to 20 the smaller -2.5 does very well for the same reason.
With these antennas I have worked out 50 STATES from 49 STATES!!!
All on the 3905 Century Club and on 1893 from my truck and some portable operation.
See my website: www.kg4nbl.com
I will be in Hawaii in January 2006 using my ROTATABLE Phased Verticals!!
For common sense mobile installation one has to have good Ohmic and RF counterpoise so that a vertical antenna to perform well.
The use of Capacity hat a long whip for 80/160 operation pays great dividend, in portable set up one can use a very long wire to come to close to a tru ¼ wl mobile antenna. With 60 foot wire added to the top of the coil, you only use a few turns of the loading coil and those allow you to TUNE the WHOLE band on80/160 M.
My thanks for Hi-Q-Antennas for a perfect HF mobile antenna, using a Hi-Q loading coil.
Gene, KG4NBL
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| PA3GWH |
Rating:      |
2005-11-21 | |
| Wow |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Going HF mobile was one of the aspects of ham radio I still wanted to persue. At first I got myself a Yaesu FT-857 and a diamond HV7CX antenna and this combo never performed well for me. I worked some DX, but mainly when I was on holiday, high up in the mountains of Italy. So I decided I needed a different antenna. A screwdriver type. So I looked at all of them: Tarheel, High Sierra, GS, Screwdriver.com, HiQ and many more. I made a line up at http://pa3gwh.cjb.net/antenna.htm. I eventually decided to go for either the GS4 or the HiQ 5/80, mainly because of the non moving coil design these antennas offer. Then I found out that Dick PA3DUV was importing them and I was able to pick one up at his QTH. After several e-mails to Dick and another satisfied 5/80 owner Marc PA3FVB, it was time for action. I met dick in Rotterdam where he explained me about the 5/80, the GQD and WQD, the Caphat and the SDC-100 which he had lying around unused (lucky me!). Because my bracket was not quite finished at that time, I could not immediately use the antenna, but I did take it home with me, finished the bracket that week, connected the coil, coax and SDC-100 and e-mailed Marc PA3FVB to ask him if he could help me out with tuning, because I had perfect SWR on 80, 40 was ok'ish but could not tune anything above that any lower than 1:2.0. Marc agreed to meet me in Roosendaal and told me he had some ideas, mainly about grounding. So we met last weekend and Marc did his magic (playing with the coil a little, running the control cables through a ferrite snap-on core) and bang! almost perfect SWR on all bands from 12-80 and even on 10 without the caphat! We haven come around grounding yet, but I'll get to that next spring.
Driving home from Roosendaal to Voorburg, I worked UT/AJ3M on 20m with 5/9 telling me I was sure putting out a signal :-) later on I worked M0CLH on 40m while I was parked between the houses in my street, also 5/9. Later that evening, IK6CWQ and SM6DOI on 40 and Dick G3PXM on 80 who kept telling me how well my setup worked ;-) All with 100 watts and all gave me 59 on the FIRST call!!!
All this time the only thing I could think of was WOW, this thing WORKS...WOW...
Be prepared however to be looked at and then some more while driving around with it HI. But hey, we are hams, we are used to that...right? |
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| KC8RGV |
Rating:      |
2005-11-01 | |
| 5/80 best antenna out there |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| kc8rgv,i have had the 5/80 for 3-mouths now and work 30 states and over 24 countrys all on 100 watts.what can i say thanks charley.best money i every spent.best antenna you can bye.kc8rgv |
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| W4DZO |
Rating:      |
2005-07-01 | |
| great antenna |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I have had my 5-80 for about 6 months,i cant say enough about it,the quilty and craftmanship is great,i cant belive anyone would have any gripes about the hi Q,i would hate to hear what they say about one of the screwdrivers on the market,i use this antenna on adaily basis,and work 10-80 meter very well,always getting big signal reports,i would reccomend this antenna to any wanting to get in to hf mobileing,great antenna,thanks charlie |
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| KD5VHK |
Rating:      |
2005-06-05 | |
| Outstanding, NO Equal |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have had the 5-160 for a while now, and I must say this antenna does everything advertised, and then some. It is truly an amazing antenna. Charlie is being VERY modest on his webpage. THEY SIMPLY ARE THEY FINEST MOBILE ANTENNA MADE FOR THE MONEY!! Perfect match, every time, without so much as a hiccup in all road conditions. Its reception is within 1 S-unit of my 8 element log at 65 ft on 20 & up and similar to a dipole on 40 & below. Don't believe any reviews that talk about poor quality or performance. They obviously don't know much about mobile HF, abused it, or have a poor RF capable vehicle to mount it to, and have an axe to grind. There is no better choice for the price range. There are two different versions, a Mil-Spec made out of stainless steel (Used by the military), and the Amateur version made from 6061-T6 aluminum. They also laugh at legal limit all day. Only poor matches, lightning, and improper care will harm them. (you have to keep it clean)
Performance, as mentioned, is outstanding. I can easily compete in DX pile-ups MOBILE. Never more than 3 calls, with signal reports that compare with the other stations in the pile-up.
It is completely stable while driving. No flutter or bouncing signal strength, or SWR fluctuations, like in the "Screwdriver" type antennas.
It is also very noise clean. Most mobile/vertical setups have a lot of general background static/noise. I have not noticed nearly as much noise as other antennas. Which is a big plus on the lower bands.
Anyone who has ever used a "Bug Catcher" type antenna will be very happy with this one's performance. (It's a motorized Bug-Catcher)
It incorporates itself with all available antenna controllers out there. So there are several different control options. Including completely automatic "One Touch" tuning with the W4RT.
And, oh yea, It tunes 160m as easily as any other band. Gotta change to a longer whip tho, only negative I can think of. (160m to 15m on a 102" whip. 80m thru 10m on a 60")
To quote Ferris Bueller
"If you have the means, I highly recommend it. It is so choice."
73 |
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| W4AEW |
Rating:      |
2005-05-06 | |
| Excellent Antenna |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| Worked "ZK1" with only 100 watts mobile from "kp4" country...need I say more. |
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| PA3DUV |
Rating:      |
2005-03-03 | |
| HiQ 5-80: Big Coil, Big Signal !!! Well Engineered Product. |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
After some 300 000 miles with the HiQ 4-80 I made plans to improve my mobile signal on 80 meters with another 6+ dB.
Obviously way to go was to upgrade to the HiQ 5-80 since this antenna improves my signal with approx. 4 dB compared to the HiQ 4-80. The other step is to increase the output power with another 3dB.
So after 2 weeks I was able to release the HiQ 5-80 out of the greedy hands of Dutch Customs and ready to roll!
The antenna was well packed in a super heavy tube with steel caps. The caps were screwed down to the tube, Dutch Customs did not even bother to open it ;-). The antenna was securely packed and padded, it had survived the bumpy ride over the Atlantic without a single scratch.
Now here's what surprised me:
1: The weight. Clearly the HiQ 5-80 is less heavy than the HiQ 4-80. Charlie has achieved this amongst others by machining out the top and bottom caps of the loading coil.
2: The workmanship. This is a professional engineered, designed, manufactured and assembled product. Not a contraption from the garage-workshop. The antenna shows all signs of sound engineering practises, both mechanically and electrically.
The installation of the antenna took about 15 minutes. I replaced the aluminium GQD for the new stainless one, connected the motorleads and was ready to go.
After firing up the Icom 706MKIIG and the SG500 amplifier the hunt was on. The results so far?? Amazing. Performance improvement on 80 and 40 meters was clear, the big signal only got bigger with the 5" loading coil.
My rating: a big fat 5, Charlie obviously made another winner!
To the other mobile operators using brand x centerloaded verticals with skinny 2" loading coils I would say: keep on dreaming and using these big resistors guys, so the HiQ user can stand out from the pack and enjoy pile up crushing QSO's ;-)
Last but not least: the price for this antenna is a JOKE considered the professional and well engineered quality you purchase. If you ever want to part with your HiQ: the second hand prices are high, it a sought after antenna and you will write off less than the price of a Hamstick antenna!
73, Dick Knol
PA3DUV
www.qsl.net/pa3duv |
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| W4MOS |
Rating:      |
2005-03-01 | |
| 5/5 |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| Have used a bunch of antennas over the years but this HIQ-5 tops them all.Have it mounted on the rear bumper ,with the large Top Hat 2 ft. above the coil,and a 5 ft. wip above that.Have a 500 watt amp ,but have found most of the time it is not needed,because of the gain of the antenna.Use most on 75 neters and that is way up the coil,so that you are useing the antenna instead of waisted rf inside the coil as some others do.The service on parts has been great ,send mail on there site, and there on the way to you .After buying i decided to use some of there add ons ,and found what they made to be top notch.Up front you will lay out more money ,but what you will find down the road after useing ,the money is well spent.. |
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| N6RC |
Rating:      |
2004-08-24 | |
| 5" Giant on Hummer H2 |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Charlie's 5" Giant (5/80) is a winner for me. How else can you be part of an 80m roundtable at night covering six states with only 100 watts from your truck and be heard by everyone Q5? How easy was it to work Russia on 40m CW - piece of cake! Worked Japan, worked VK/ZL, you bet, no problem!
I can't wait to tie the 5/80's 108" whip to a wire slung over a 75 foot tree next time I'm at our off-road campsite. With a 400w amp, I'll be working the world from my H2.
Charlie's service has been fantastic. He's always available on the phone and on email. He sends me small parts to solve a problem, no charge!
Thank you, Charlie!
Dick
N6RC |
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| VK3FY |
Rating:      |
2004-08-23 | |
| Great Mobile Antenna |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I have been very impressed with my HiQ 5/80 mobile antenna. This antenna really works and performs. I have on numerous occasions worked Europe long-path from Australia (VK3) with 5-9 signals with only 60-80W on 40m. This antenna has outperformed guys who were operating with more power and with base station antennas. I would recommend this antenna to anyone wishing to put a big signal whilst mobile. I have used many mobile antennas and I have found this one to be the best so far. I have just returned from the states and am now adding the amplifier to my mobile system. Watch out for VK3FY/m with the big mobile signal from down-under. |
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