| G4UGD |
Rating:  |
2024-10-11 | |
| works great,easy to tune,fast deployment,very impressed |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
straight out of the box onto a small portable tripod with 4 correct sized radials, tuned well with an analyser, swr very low indeed, performance was surprising with only 10 watts from an icom 703,once band conditions improve i am confident the log book will have some long distance contacts in it if the last few months of operating with this little gem of antenna are anything to go by, very happy with it
xx Update xx
After 4 years ,this antenna is still performing very well when out portable with the FT 817ND and FT891, long distance contacts are being made ,good quality ,good performance for it's size. And is easy to pack away in the backpack with tripod
Highly recommend it
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| OE6BGE |
Rating: |
2023-05-21 | |
| Particular case or product flaw? |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
In my case, the upper and the lower parts fell apart before first real use in the field. Cause: the plastic screw on top of the coil broke, and the 4 ball bearings fell out - without any mechanical strain on the antenna. I'm on a sailing boat and I don't have the proper tools (tiny screwdriver) to re-insert the ball bearings. That fact (special tools needed + very tiny parts) makes that product even less portable.
Furthermore, the manual is a joke, it doesn't even mention the ball bearings, an assembly plan is missing!
I cannot speak for the electrical characteristics, but with this particular experience, I have to give a poor rating. |
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| XE1EC |
Rating: |
2023-02-20 | |
| Excelent portable antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Easy to setup, just look at the youtube videos.
I can be on the air in less than 10mins anywhere, no need to hang wires.
It is not better that an EFHW but as a small vertical it works wonders.
I have many other antennas, this one is one of my favorite light verticals.
Quality of manufacturing is good.
73s |
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| K3MEB |
Rating: |
2022-11-24 | |
| Nice in theory... |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I bought the antenna to use as a portable, out in the field. I've used it a few times with decent results. My son recently got his ticket, but lives in town, and rents, so I figured that this may be a temporary thing he could use. I was showing him how to adjust it, and the adjustment easily stripped. It doesn't stay at all now. The worst part is that it's not something like a stripped screw or nut. It looks like there are 4 TINY ball bearings that the two sections ride against. It looks almost impossible to repair. I'd have to hold 4 tiny, tiny bearing around the inside of the one section, while pushing the other section in. I'm not even sure that this is the problem, but these 4 bearings fell out when the sections came apart. Looks basically useless now. Any suggestions for fixing this? Thanks
Update: 11/2022
Sent it to Yaesu for 'repair' they are unable to fix it, and offered to send it back to me. Since then I have sent multiple emails to the rep AND customer service, and have heard NOTHING. I would at least like to have it back. Waste of money. |
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| K1YPB |
Rating: |
2022-04-10 | |
| A very nice portable antenna, but… some issues to consider |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I would really would have liked to give this antenna a 5, but… There are some issues and considerations to be taken into account that slightly mar this very nice portable antenna system that complements the Yaesu radios it is intended to work with. I like Yaesu products and have the ATAS-120A that I like very much, so I got the ATAS-25 Micro to use with my 20 year old FT-817 when I go QRP portable.
The antenna is very compact and goes together very quickly and mounts nicely on my Tricon Camera Tripod.
Here are some of the issues I had…
1. The instructions say to move the base adapter with the whip section with the rubber tip when using only one radiating element. I found that my base adapter was almost impossible to remove from the lower element. Someone at Yaesu put thread lock on the threads, and I had to use vise grips and a box wrench to unscrew the base element, working it back and forth very carefully until it came off. After cleaning up the threads, I was able to move the base adapter around as advised in the directions.
2. The next issue I found was that there was an intermittent connection with the sliding / rotating collar and coil. As noted by other reviewers, the coil is copper, so I carefully cleaned the coil up remove any tarnish. The collar has four very microscopic ball bearings that are held in place by two brass spring like retainers. As with anything like this, when they are removed from the collar they go in four different directions. Fortunately my work bench is very clean and well lit and I was able to capture the little buggers before they ruined my day. I bent the brass retainer a bit more than they were, and installed the little ball bearing with a touch of silicon grease to hold them in place while reinstalling them back in the sliding collar. You only need a micro spec to grease to hold them in place during réinstallation. That seemed to do the trick.
3. The coil end stop is a piece of plastic held in place with a clear plastic screw that had thread sealant on it. When I unscrewed it… naturally it broke leaving to super glue the retainer back in place on the end of the coil. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this glue job hold. I also have to make sure when tuning up around 40 meters with the coil fully extended, to be careful not to bump the end stop too hard.
4. As mentioned by other reviewers… this antenna is literally impossible to tune without an antenna analyzer. After putzing around following the direction with limited success, I decided to try another approach that mimicked my Buddistick. That is using one tuned elevated radial so that the antenna mimicking a bent OFC vertical dipole. And UREKA it worked!. Take the long single radial that you get in the kit, and mark it at quarter wave lengths for all the bands you want to use. After the antenna is placed on the tripod with ALL three vertical elements attached, roll out a quarter wave radial and fold up the remaining amount and retain with a rubber band. The folded up part will act as a choke and the antenna will not see that extra length of wire. Then get a 3 foot dowel from Home Depot. Sharpen one end like a pencil and push it into the ground to elevate the end of the radial off the ground. The rubber band will help keep the wire attached to the dowel. I was able to get near perfect matched on every band less and nothing more than 1.5 to 1. Once the coil gives you a dip for the best match you can tweak the elevated radial in or out a few inches to zero in on a perfect match.
So bottom line… It is a very nice antenna, but you may encounter some challenges and some issues to be considered to make this antenna work in a way you expect it to. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try different configurations. |
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| KD2BS |
Rating: |
2021-07-05 | |
| It's small and it works! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| As most all have said, an analyzer is really helpful. The ATAS-25 does have a learning curve and some time experimenting with tuning and adjusting radials should be expected. But, once you get the hang of it, it doesn't take too long to set up. I use it with an FT-818 and an LDG Z817 tuner which is really helpful. I've used it on 20 & 40 , usually with all the radials. Considering how poor conditions have been this summer, it's done quite well with my 6 watts, especially on 40 meters. I've used 2 tripods and it's easily set up and transport which is what I was looking for. So far, I'm quite satisfied! - For my 2021 update: Using it with an FTdx-10 and 70 watts on FT8. Have worked 30+ countries and lots of states. Using only the supplied radials which includes one for each band. It's close to the ground on a small camera tripod. The trick is to tune first with an antenna analyzer. I use an MFJ. Then tune with the built in tuner. Great for FT8 as the frequency is stable. A very effective portable antenna! |
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| W7JSM |
Rating: |
2021-03-09 | |
| Pretty easy setup, terrible instructions |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I've set this antenna up couple times. First time was frustrating and instructions compounded that. My next outing with a rig expert was very satisfying. I wrote each configuration down.. And using now is easy. I have a buddiepole also. I like both, but think that atas alittle easier to pack and setup. I'd recommend it. |
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| K8WAR |
Rating: |
2016-07-22 | |
| A Good Portable Antenna |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I got this antenna as part of a used FT-897D purchase. It sat for a few months and finally decided to put it through its paces. All I can say is that I am throughly impressed. First of all, you really need to have an antenna analyzer. I would hate to imagine trying to tune this antenna by noise and an SWR meter. Also, make a counterpoise system. The stock one that comes with the antenna is marginal at best. I currently have 6 - 14.25 foot radials that are elevated about 12" above ground. This allows me to work 40m through 6m. Finally, get a decent camera tripod. Something that will get you 5 to 6 feet above the ground.With this setup @ 100w, I have made contacts on 20m as far as New Zealand and on 40m as far as Eastern Europe. Would I have bought this antenna? Probably not. But now that I have had some experience with it, YES, definately! A great solution for quick setup and portable work. |
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| DJ3UN |
Rating: |
2016-07-15 | |
| Not bad at all but needs some getting used to |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
More or less everyone before me complained about shipped manual, so I will skip that part. I got it month ago, bought it together with my FT817ND. Wanted to do only portable, and wanted something that I will be able to start working in a matter of minutes. I think I got that exactly with this antenna.
Now couple of things that I did wrong:
- First thing I did when I unpacked antenna I a) set it up inside the room, and b) connected it immediately to antenna tuner. I tested this and that, nothing really worked the way I expected it, but wasn't too much disappointed as I never really believed in multiband stuff.
- Tried to follow the manual, and after like two hours trying to do the stuff as it's written there, I didn't get antenna to resonate on a single band.
- Got it outside with antenna tuner. It was basically working, I did some QSOs on 40m and 20m CW, but reports were still much worse than I expected them, even with 2w I used.
Than basically what I did - inside the apartment where I live - was:
- I decided to forget fully about manual, and started testing it first with all elements, lowering number of elements (and tuning active element), and without radials, and within minutes I got it resonating on all bands except 40m and 20m (SWR wasn't that bad even there, below 1:2). Combinations were different, and I could get it resonant on the exactly same frequency using one or two whips, etc.
- I got it working fine on 40m and 20m using radials as well, but it's not quite handy for indoor usage (yes, I know this is not indoor antenna, and even if it is, I have so much QRM inside that there's no way to use anything at all).
- After getting good SWRs on my FT817ND and having my own table with values and how to get it quickly ready for usage, I retested it with RigExpert AA34. It was consistent with what I got with my FT817ND.
However, I got it outside, and did two final tests:
- One was testing 'old way' (antenna with Z718 tuner) and then testing without tuner with antenna really being resonant. Reports went from 549/559 in first case to 589/599 in second one.
- Second one was comparing what I got at home with what I get outside. It was quite different, but I managed, being more experienced now, to really get it quite quickly working outside and to avoid using tuner for this specific case at all.
Last 'big' test was last HQ, where I got the report from every single station that I heard without having to repeat my call and with just 2W. Definitely going to test it in different scenarios.
One last and maybe also important thing that I still have to test better but saw it makes difference so far is tripod I use. I use the cheapest one I bought on Amazon, and it's different tuning when tripod is just on it's default minimum side and extended to 1.2m (it's maximum). Also, specially for 40m and 20m, it makes difference which radials are connected and in which combination, but also multiple combinations are possible. On 15m and 10m I used it only without radials and it worked fine, but definitely still lot of things to test. |
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| KD2ILG |
Rating: |
2016-03-05 | |
| Your Mileage May Vary |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I don't know how I would have managed to tune this antenna without an analyzer. To my amazement I have had successful contacts on both 10m and 40m with all 3 antenna elements extended.
Getting 10m to tune required a temporary small antenna extension which I made from a 6-8" of rosin cored solder to bring the resonant frequency down. I used a metal tripod. The balun recommended was essential - otherwise RF in the shack.
Moving the height of the antenna 2-3" by adjusting the tripod affected the SWR. I used all of the "radials" including the spare. The ground under the antenna was partly frozen, and this might have affected tuning. I was able to get acceptable SWRs on both bands. I have not tried the others yet.
I am not getting much in the way of local contacts. I think the vertical polarization is not friendly to horizontal antennas, and some Faraday rotation may be necessary for good contacts DX. My 1st contact on 40m was about 500 miles away at 100 watts. On 10m, I heard PX5E from Brazil like he was next door - probably about a 4500 mile distance.
I found this antenna tricky to use, it did not behave as described in the pathetic "manual" but once the kinks were worked out, so far, I am quite pleased and surprised by its performance. |
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