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Reviews For: Force 12 C4E

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

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Review Summary For : Force 12 C4E
Reviews: 2MSRP: 1,499.00
Description:
Product is in production
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# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0025
KD7DCR Rating: 2008-09-07
Best $ I have spent for ham gear! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought this antenna "used", along with some other gear in 2000. UPS size boxes are nice!

Instructions are easy to follow...just take your time. It does help if you have "seen" one of their shortened elements before, to figure out the tuning wires. The rivets I used came from F12 without a hitch - the problems came later with customer service...(hope they are gone now that there is a new owner...).

First installation was at 48ft - worked fine, but spent most of my time on 2m.

Second installation (after move of qth) is at 77ft and it plays great. During this extended "low" period of sun spots, etc..it has pulled in VP6DX on 7 bands with only 100 watts. I now have 70 Countries and looking for more.

My signal is commented on "most of the time" as GREAT...5/9's are common here in the states. Crete, most of N.Europe, Angola, most of S. Amer., down under and islands/JA in between...one station in Antartic...one in Russia so far...most are first call contacts!

My new qth is at 6,000 ft above sealevel in the Rocky Mtn's...eastern slope.

All in all, this antenna is doing exactly what they advertised it would do! No problems with wind or ice loads, the riveted construction seems to be the ticket. Even after 3 up's and down, they still fit tight and don't loose tips.

I think today's list is around $1,100...for what it does and the bands it covers...worth every cent! I might try one of the X series next, but this one stays on a tower along side it!!
N3MVF Rating: 2004-01-27
Worth it Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Not going into the tech #'s as the C4E is a hybrid C3E, extra 10 meter element and a 40 meter dipole. First, instructions were excellent and the longest part was going 3 miles away to get a POP rivet tool. The elements are riveted.

Performance on 10, 15, 20 and the WARCS is very good. The first day I had it up, I worked Rodriques Island, Japan and South Korea. On my Cushcraft MA5B, I couldn't even hear those stations. Granted we are talking 2 different antenna designs. Worked Europe easy on 100 watts and got 59+20 when I hit 500 watts. Antenna is up 60 feet. The SWR on 10 meters is a little more sensitive to tune on my C4E, but I will double check the elements at a later date.

For 40 meters, the element is basically a 37 foot rotatble dipole. Worked into the OK state with a 59 on 70 watts from PA and worked a KG4 with 90 watts at a 59. So, I'm very pleased with the 40 meter element. Previously, I was using a wire dipole at about 40 feet.

As a side note, I installed the 80 meter rotatable dipole as well underneath the C4E. Worked 3 countries on my 100+ feet wire dipole with 500 watts and usually it was "repeat your callsign". With the Force 12, 80/75 meter rotatble dipole, obviously at 55 feet, I worked 16 countries in 2 nights on 75 meters. Farthest east was Croatia and furthest south was Argentina. This too inluded 500 watts.

We have had one helluva winter here in PA including about 3 ice storms this week alone. I check the antenna's with binoclulars and pulled it down after a month in December after sustained wind gust of 40-50 MPH for a few hours, to see how it weathered the WX. It's on a US Tower retractible, tilt. All parts, tuner cables, loading coils, rivets etc were in great shape.

Very happy that I purchased it.

73
Greg