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Reviews For: Hamstick 2meter Co-linear Mobile Antenna

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

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Review Summary For : Hamstick 2meter Co-linear Mobile Antenna
Reviews: 11MSRP: 24.95
Description:
Honest 4.5 Db gain
1000 watts DC
Very stiff black tapered stainless steel whip
Rugged fiberglass base section
Base fitting is 3/8 inch X 24 TPI
Length approximately 7 feet for 2 Meters
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.hamstick.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00114
KC0QDG Rating: 2012-10-28
Junk Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Don't waste your money. Won't tune and poor support. Throwing it in the trash today and writing it off.
KM0PT Rating: 2011-06-18
Awesome antenna! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
A truly awesome antenna! I have it on a mag mount with a couple of extra magnets to hold it up.

Performance wise it is absolutely astounding! I just switched from a hustler MX-2 and what a difference! Before I had to park at the best location within 20 miles (3 miles away) in order to hit three repeaters 30 miles away. Now I cam be driving down the road and down in valleys and still get in.

I just talked simplex with a guy 30 miles away who was using a J-pole at 15 feet in town and we were talking just above the noise floor, but you could understand the person on the other end. All that with a mag mount none the less.

I look forward to many years of service from this spectacular antenna. I will also recommend this and the other collinear hamsticks to anyone who needs to talk long distances while mobile or portable.
N4DBM Rating: 2010-02-04
Works well Time Owned: more than 12 months.
No complaints on any of Lakeview's antennas. I am using the 2M 7 foot model mounted on an L bracket with 3 radials as a base antenna. Seems to work a few dB better than a 5/8 wave, which is about what it should do.
N3IDG Rating: 2008-09-03
mixed Time Owned: more than 12 months.
compared to 1/4 wave in close 1/4 full scale co linear a 2 on the s meter on repeated 2 mile away,now on repeater 50+ miles away 1/4 s2 just copyable hamstick full scale unable to access repeater 50+ miles without high power 45 watts ,full quieting with 5 watts and hamstick so if talking distance is your think this antenna is for you around town not so good this will be my travel antenna on a tri mag mount
KC7ZRU Rating: 2007-04-15
Good stick! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I inherited my hamstick from an estate. It came with a 3 magnet mount. I ran this thing on the roof of my Ramcharger for almost 10 years. Many off-road miles! No idea how long it'd been used before I got it. I used it for dual band ops on 70cm and 2m with my TM-V7A, even made a few MIR and ISS contacts with it. Testing it first with an MFJ analyzer, I found it to be a reasonable - but not great - match for 70cm ops, it worked well enough for my needs on 440. However on 2m, it was great. Minimal adjusting required for a great match and the thing could hear a duck pass wind in the next county over.

I finally 'retired' it when the fiberglass section broke near the mount. One or two dozen too many tree hits I'd say. I tried repairing it with epoxy and heat-shrink tube, but that didn't last but a few weeks. I've heard some have had problems with the conductor breaking free from the mount over time as well. Apparently a result of repeated flexing (fatigue). This never happened to me, but I tried .

I just ordered another and will put a 'spring' mount under it. If I get another 10 years out of it, with this kind of performance, way good bargain in my book.

One unintended feature. This thing is big enough it makes finding my Ramcharger in a crowded parking lot quite easy. For me, that's a desirable feature!
KC0QME Rating: 2007-03-04
Ham Junk!!!!!!!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
OK let me say that I am sorry for having to write a review such as this but here we go. I first read the good reviews on eham then I went to associated radio and ordered 2 for my trucks. When I got them there was no tuning instructions except for a stamp in red ink that read "extend rod 44" for 146MHZ". So I extended the rod 44" for 146MHZ and had a SWR of 3:5:1. So I thought OK I will raise and lower the stinger in 1/4" increments to get the proper swr. So I did this and still no change so finally I decided to see where the antenna was resonant and it was resonant at 141.255 MHZ with a 1:2:1 SWR. So for an hour I raised and lowered the darn stinger and watched the MFJ analyzer say the same thing. So I decided to start cutting the stinger a 1/2" at a time and did this until I got down to 41" and had a SWR of 2:5:1 on 146 MHZ and also noticed that the antenna is so narrow banded that from 146-147 the swr goes from 2:5:1 to 3:5:1. I checked all my grounds and all my connections and even put my 10 meter quarter wave on the same mount just too see and it had a swr of 1:1:1.I grabbed a extra stinger I had and started trimming again and the swr got worse, So need less to say I called Lakeview and explained what was happening and my situation and they had the audacity to tell me it wasn't there product that was bad it was something I was doing. So I told them that I was going to associated radio and have them check my install and I did just that. Bill at associated checked them and got all the same results that I did and said that the mounting was excellent and there shouldn't be a problem. Any way I decided to just go with it at that point as pissed off as I was and did a A and B comparison of the Lakeview and my Comet CSB 7700. Well I can tell you this the Comet has a swr of 1:2:1 and the Hamstick.......well a crappy 2:5:1.On both antennas I had the same S-units on the receiving party, transmit to the other station on the Comet S 7 on the Ham junk 15 over 9 thats right, 15 over 9 which doesn't do me any good because I didn't just want an antenna that transmitted well and receives crappy I wanted one to have both excellent TX and receive, maybe the high SWR's play a role in the receive capability's in this antenna but for me I would rather hear farther then TX farther. So this antenna gets a crap review and so does the customer service at Lakeview for standing behind there product so well that its as good as gold and no matter if the product is crap the customer is always wrong and its there fault that the Hamstick is not performing like it should :( So Lakeview, stick this in your pipe and smoke it. I know if I owned a company that I would make things right no matter what and defiantly not blame my junk product on some nice install job on a new truck.
KT4GN Rating: 2005-07-21
i tested both the hamstick and my 5/8 roof mounted Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I tested my roof mounted 5/8 wave against the 2 meter hamstick which is mounted on the side of my truck toolbox. I can now receive 2 to 3 more "S"
units. Just think if the hamstick was mounted on the roof of the Ford F-250... I am going to order a tri-mag. mount. I will write another review after doing so.
KD4FUN Rating: 2005-03-09
Great Performance Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Hamstick does it again! Have owned a couple of Hamstick 2 meter Co-Linear antennas and currently have one mounted on the truck. Super performance..I have it mounted via a 3/8 mirror mount and with exception of smacking a few fast food drive thru overhangs I hardly know it's there. Taking a closer look at the Hamstick 2 meter Co-Linear shows that it is constructed of quality materials and that Hamstick certainly has a quality control procedure in place. I fully expect the antenna to last for years at it's current location.
K0BLR Rating: 2005-03-09
Good Antenna So far Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Well today I just got my antennas on the car! I have both the 2 meter colinear and the 440 colinear antenna, So far the hearing part seems to quite good. I will report more in a couple of months.
KG9EQ Rating: 2005-02-13
Excellent Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Replaced a Hustler CG-144 with this antenna. I live in an area where I need a gain antenna to access many of the area repeaters from a mobile environment. So far it has been an EXCELLENT replacement for the Hustler. This antenna is much better constructed, and is superior on transmit and receive compared to the one it replaced. Looking to buy the base version of this antenna for local VHF work from the shack.

73,

Jim KG9EQ