| YB3OX |
Rating:      |
2011-10-18 | |
| Great Antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
It's about 2 meters above Hygain TH-11, almost no interactions between two antennas. SWR as advertized and performance is outstanding (in my opinion better than my prior 3 elements monoband yagi from C.....).
Relatively easy to install and supports from Tom was excellent.
I am happy with this antenna
Agung, YB3OX |
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| F4DCG |
Rating:      |
2010-12-11 | |
| welcome to the 40m antenna with OptiBeam |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
hello,
I use this antenna for 3 years.
he is 77 feets.
this construction is very sturdy and solid.
ros perfect.
no work for 3 years .
no default.
I am pleased to have purchased this antenna.
good system ,mono bande.
the performance is exelent
thank you for this manufacturer OptiBeam.
trust for your project thomas df2bo
good dx with antennas OptiBeam.
thanks arno
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| KF4WGR |
Rating:      |
2010-12-10 | |
| Simply The Best! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Ordinarliy I would not review a product that I've only had for a week but this antenna deserves it. I replaced a F-12 two element antenna with the Optibeam and the difference is incredible! The pattern is much sharper so I can actually reject unwanted signals. Front to Back is noticebly better as is forward gain. One might say this is just ancedotal evidence but I ragchew with the same group of guys every day and xmit/rx signals are consistantly better. I was able to work DX with the other antenna but again xmit/rx signals are higher with the Optibeam. Antenna resonance is exactly as advertised and the support from Optibeam owner, Tom DF2BlueOcean, is second to none. All my questions to Tom before and after the sale were answered promptly and in great detail. I would be remiss if I didn't mention quality. Again, the best I've seen. The workmanship and quality of parts and mechanical construction is fantastic. Night and day difference between this antenna and what I had before. Optibeams are expensive but worth every penny if you want the best. The antenna will outlive me!
73...Barry KF4WGR
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| WW4LL |
Rating:      |
2010-11-03 | |
| Outstanding |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The OB-2-40 is the second Optibeam that I've purchased and I've owned 2 other 2 element 40 meter antennas made by two different manufacturers. There is absolutely NO Comparison!
After putting it up, I got on the radio and beamed NE listening to a pileup on a Russian station. I made one call and the response from the Russian was humorous, as he started laughing and said, "WW4LL your a true 20/9 and are loud". I can go on about the performance as there are many similar stories already related to the performance of this beam.
However, I want to tell you that assembly of this beam and the OB 16-3 that I just put together is very intuitive as Tom has the boom marked where everything goes.
There are NO missing parts, no burrs and no excuses. It's simply First Class! The craftmanship is outstanding. Don't hesitate to buy one as I promise, you won't be sorry. No, I'm not on the payroll, I'm just tired of buying products that don't live up to the promises, no quality control and no one to stand behind them. Wish I'd bought these long ago, instead of screwing around with some of the others on the market.
73'...Fred WW4LL |
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| KB0EO |
Rating:      |
2010-10-04 | |
| Outstanding! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
What a great experience, from ordering to operating! I contacted Array Solutions to get pricing and availability - Tom at OptiBeam immediately emailed me back to let me know there was one in stock in Germany. I ordered the antenna and Array Solutions set it up to direct ship to my QTH via UPS. I expressed my concern about damage to the antenna during shipping - Array Solutions said they would take care of any malfunctions.
The OB2-40 showed up and was exceptionally packaged - there were no missing parts and no damage. As I uncrated the parts, I noticed how meticulously everything was arranged and labeled - it made it very easy to inventory all the parts.
I soon started assembly - with very minor exceptions, this antenna almost puts itself together. OptiBeam has done most of the difficult assembly - everything is very modular and compartmentalized. OptiBeam also marked all the parts with permanent marker, which made identification a breeze. My only negative...and it's very minor...is there is some language disconnect in the assembly instructions - the translation from German to English had a few odd sentences that were difficult to understand. On a whim, I emailed Tom at OptiBeam to ask for clarification (on a Saturday) - to my surprise, I had a return email within 1/2 hour. Tom and I emailed back and forth, including sending some digital photos both ways for clarification. I have to say, I thought that level of customer service was extinct - Tom at OptiBeam did a great job helping me out. His remark to me that "OptiBeam is on the job 24/7 to take care of their customers" is no distortion of the truth.
Before mounting the antenna on the mast, I had it sitting on saw horses 3 feet off the ground, pointing due south. Just for the fun of it, I connected a coax and fired up the rig. I heard an HA station calling CQ, which was off the side of the beam. I tried calling him - to my surprise, he came right back! I couldn't wait to get this thing up on the tower!
Finally, my entire tower and antenna stack were installed. I fired up 40 meters in the evening and was not disappointed. With 100 watts, I worked 7 continents from Minnesota in about 2 hours. I broke through a significant pileup for RI1FJ and for Antarctica. In addition, when I called CQ DX, I experienced several significant pileups of my own. Everyone is giving me 5-9/599 + signal reports on only 100 watts, from the black hole of the midwest.
I highly recommend this antenna. On second thought, don't get one - it will give me a better chance to break through the pileups :-)
If you have any questions or want to see pictures of my installation, send me an email at kb0eo@yahoo.com
73s and good DXing |
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| W1MU |
Rating:      |
2009-10-25 | |
| Still very happy |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
My Optibeam OB2-40 has been up for six years and has just been taken down so that I can perform some unrelated tower and station maintenance. In the six years I have owned it I have used it for casual DX’ing as well as more serious DX contesting, all on CW.
Other reviews on this website, including my own original review from 2003, comment about the performance of the antenna. In a word, it is “superb” and I believe that any buyer would be quite happy with how the antenna works.
Now that I have had a chance to inspect the antenna on the ground after six years in the air I can say, in addition, that the mechanical design is equal to the electrical design. The antenna has passed “the test of time.” After six years of exposure to the sun, snow, ice, rain, and wind of the Maine seacoast, the antenna sits on the sawhorses behind the barn, offering me a close-up second look at all the mechanical design decisions that were part of it. I can see that each and every one was well thought through and that the materials selection, fabrication techniques, and finished assembly are all rugged and survivable. The extensive use of aluminum and stainless steel hardware, the simple but reliable trussing harnesses, the de-tuning stubs, the low-loss coils and the tapering schedule for the elements were all wisely combined to create a lightweight but strong mechanical system. It is an elegant mechanical design.
In the six years that the OB2-40 has been in use at my QTH I have experimented with five other 40M beams. I have had 2, 3 and 4-element beams in the air and compared them to the OB2-40. For sure the OB2-40 makes compromises, and any prospective buyer should understand them. The OB2-40 may not have the most gain or the best f/b, and it may not be the most broadbanded. But from six years of use I can tell you that in my opinion, electrically and mechanically, this is the all-around best commercially-available 40M antenna out there.
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| KK9A |
Rating:      |
2009-09-21 | |
| Amazing |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
In March 2006, I installed an OptiBeam OB2-40 at my contest station in Aruba. I needed a small 40m beam with big beam performance and I knew that its large loading coils provided the most efficient method of loading. I often build my own antennas and I take great pride in my workmanship and use the best materials available. Optibeam uses this same quality standard. The antenna went together very easily, some sections were preassembled and all of the pieces were included which is important when you are on a small island with limited time. The OptiBeam OB2-40 performance has been spectacular. I have won numerous all band and single band contest plaques using this antenna. Aruba is always windy and the salt spray causes rapid corrosion and this antenna has survived the harsh environment. I liked the antenna so much that I recently purchased and installed one at my station in the U.S. The second antenna was as good as my first, however there is much more to this company than making a quality product. Their customer service is fantastic. The company’s owner Thomas Schmenger, DF2BO, is amazingly quick to answer questions about his product and he has spent countless hours with me discussing all of the antennas in my system. During these discussions, I realized how great his modeling skills really are. OptiBeam antennas are well built and optimally designed and Tom did a fantastic job of ensuring that it would work with my system before my purchase. Tom’s customer service and helpfulness is exceptional and I highly recommend buying his products.
John KK9A / P40A
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| VK6EA |
Rating:      |
2009-01-10 | |
| Awesome |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Thanks to yourself and your engineering team Tom, fine craftsmanship and a ripper of an antenna, have a 3 element tribander 2m above the OB2-40 and no problems whatsoever with your decouplers installed.
Put it together in a pretty casual day alone (it was 44 deg celsius) so plenty of resting, total work time involved I would estimate at 6 hrs alone to put together and mount. The instruction manual is concise and precise so follow it closely when putting it together
I have it installed at 21m of height and am getting pileups into europe on 100w with 57 and 59 reports.
It really is like walking from the dark into daylight.
73
VK6LCT |
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| PA2MRT |
Rating:      |
2008-12-10 | |
| Realy a dream |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have installed the OB2-40 on top of an OB11-5.
This antenna makes 40m dxing just a snap.
The big awesome 40m air coils shorten the elements down to a length of a bit below 15 meters, and they certainly do it really lossfree, this definitely can be believed by just watching their size and the way they are made.
The big square boom is more than just robust, the elements are just straight due to a well designed element support system and the entire mechanical design is a dream.
A need feature are the 40m decoupling stubs which avoid any interaction into frequencies above 7 MHZ. I can really tell that, my OB11-5 plays like being alone on the tower, no screwed up SWR or screwed up radiation patterns.
And regarding the performance on the air? Just wow, 40m is like being on 20m, working dx with big signals is a standard as well as it is normal to work the pile ups (and they are huge on 40m) totally easily with this antenna.
This is the 40m Yagi for the demanding OM, I only can highly recommend it.
73, Hans, PA2MRT.
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| HB9FAX |
Rating:      |
2007-05-20 | |
| tnx Thomas |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
The OB2-40 was recomended to me by my friend Alex (hb9fbo), I was going for the single beam when he convinced me to get this one.That was a tip I never regreted taking.
The signal reports are between (loud and clear) and "booming" !
mounted on the tower, the Optibeam is a beauty antenna
I've had good contacts with Tom. A nice and hardworking guy in a difficult business. Every mail was immediately answered
I am very happy with the OB2-40.tnx Thomas |
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