Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes
Reviews Home

Reviews For: Maldol HVU-8 compact HF/VHF/UHF vertical

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Maldol HVU-8 compact HF/VHF/UHF vertical
Reviews: 13MSRP: $349.95
Description:
Unique and ultra-compact HF, VHF, and UHF antenna developed for confined and restricted space installations like apartments and condominiums, or for temporary or portable use.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.cometantenna.com/article.php?sid=4&mode=nested&order=0
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
14133.8
M0NYW Rating: 2023-09-17
Works well for a shorten 8 ft antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
My first property I bought had no garden and I couldn't string any wire antennas up either. So the only option when looking at commerical vertical antennas that were compact and gave me quite a few bands was HVU-8.

So I purchased the antenna mounted on a large pole with T & K brackets. The antenna was the MK 1 and required a few mods by changing the length of the whips to get all the bands tuned in to where I wanted.

Once it was in the air it gave me ability to operate HF and UHF. Performance on the VHF/UHF was similar to 1/4wave vertical. On HF band like 80M/40M I had to run 175watts to get 5/6 report within the UK.

If you are limited for space and only one antenna to cover 80M-70cms, I don't think you can go wrong with this.
KD2HAY Rating: 2017-09-14
Super good Time Owned: N.A.
Before I put my tham up or down should mention that my
experience with antennas is not so great. But I had a chance to install previously 2 verticals. And that should be quite enough,but my "dear" neighbors drop a dime on me .
I was forced to look for a solution.In aQSO ham magazine I stumbled over ad for Maldol hvu-8, and I took a chance.
That was a blessing!
I mount this baby in the attic,and rooted cable to my basement
My advise to all: follow the instruction very careful. Do not unpack and mix up packages,start assembling from 3.5 m,
use a short tail peas cable for antenna tuner (right at the base)
and after you done that,tune again from the rig end.
I am switching frequencie channels without difficulties no matter of any meteorologig condition.
I made a proving contacts with HAM's in Washington State,
Cuba,Venezuela,on 80,40,20,15and 10 meters.
There not much activity on 6meters.
P.S. I live in State on New Jersey Good luck 73 KD2HAY
PY2ONU Rating: 2015-11-08
good short antenna! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This antenna is very good for short places. I live in na appartment, and this antena Works great for me. I worked many contacts UHF-80 meters no problem. UHF and VHF is a very good antena, i made many DX with MALDOL HVU-8 in 6-10-15-20 meters band CW and SSB. In 40 meters i work some brazilian states and listen USA amatteurs. In 80 meters i made contact with 3 brazilian states, WOW, very good for too short antena!
Good job Maldol for ammateurs that no have big áreas for yagis, dipoles or big vesrticals antenas.
WB4SLI Rating: 2011-06-07
It Works Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is not a five element yagi. For its size the performance of it is good. I used an MFJ 259B to set the antenna up. 80 meters is testy, but I had reasonable results on 40 and up. I use it with a Flag Pole Buddy on the ladder of my motorhome. I would recommend at ny HF operator buy an antenna analyzer if he/she is serious about making an antenna resonant. It is indispensible for an antenna like this.
KI6YRD Rating: 2010-05-29
Good antenna, narrow bandwith Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This antenna preforms very good taking into account the challenges in fitting a multiband antenna in such a small package.

In addition the quality of the construction is very good, easy to assemble and lightweight.

I will have preferred another type of connector instead of the SO-239 like an N because it can go up to the 70cm band.

If you want to see some real life measurements for this antenna please visit my web site.
http://ki6yrd.com/hamradio/52-hvu-8-antenna-measurements.html

--ga ki6yrd
K7TMG Rating: 2009-10-29
Nice design and does what it says Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
For the design goal of getting 8 bands (3 VHF,5 HF) on a small "vertical" this antenna succeeds nicely. It is well built with quality materials and met the manufacturers specifications (for me at least).

From comments it looks like the antenna was originally restricted to the CW portion on 80/40m but my antenna shipped with extra elements which can be cut down to extend the range up to the SSB portions. There is a table in the revision sheet with lengths of radiator and radial to do this.

The antenna went together in about 20 minutes and I just used a ruler to set the elements roughly according to the instructions. All the elements have labels indicating their purpose.

Next I mounted it on a 10ft RS mast section which I had lashed to a wooden fence post at an angle of about 30 degrees - this was so I could adjust the elements on the ground easily using my ZM-30 analyzer. I had no problems with 80m and 40m and they were easily made to be resonant. Next I placed the mast section on top of its base and elevated the antenna to about 25'. I noticed that the resonant frequency increased a little on all bands. For instance on the ground the 80m freq went from 3.544MHz to 3.557MHz and the 20m freq went from 14.160MHz to 14.170MHz so figure about 10-20KHz higher when you get it in the air.

Back down it came and I set the elements where I wanted them less the 10KHz. Back in the air it showed it was tuned exactly where I wanted it on the CW/Digi portions. I imagine that without an analyzer this could be a very labor intensive job.

So how does it play? Well I am QRP only and I have managed decent contacts on 40m and 20m working all over the states in CW and PSK31. I was surprised at how well 40m seems to work, I had feared it might prove poor but it seems fine. Not managed anything on 80m yet but I don't spend a lot of time trying. The higher bands will have to wait until propagation picks up but I figure they will be fine.

Another thing you should be aware of is that this high Q antenna has a narrow bandwidth on each band (if it doesn't then your Maldol isn't working!) and the resonance can be quite severely affected by rain,snow & birds taking a break. My antenna resonant on 14.1MHz takes a detour to 13.9MHz in heavy rain and doesn't return until fully dried out. If you are in a rainy location this might prove to be frustrating. On the wet days I use a Z match tuner and have no difficulty with SWR. Whether the antenna is performing less effectively this way is not clear to me but an added advantage of using the tuner is I can use it on 30m which it seems to do quite well. The vertical 80m/6m/2m element is not as affected by precipitation so tuning is more or less unaffected on these bands during rain.

I have a datafile from the ZM-30 for the Maldol on my website if you want to analyze it in ZM Data Plotter (www.qsl.net/k7tmg)

The things I really like about this Maldol are the things it was designed to do: Multiband coverage HF & VHF with a very small footprint and sturdy construction. It looks great and shouldn't cause neighbors to complain. I think it would also be a decent compromise for RVs and extended camping trips.

So all in all I'm giving it a 5 because it is well built and performs to its specifications. If you need a very small HF/VHF combo antenna for whatever reason with acceptable performance then this antenna will fit the bill. If you need the performance of a 20m beam or a full sized dipole on 80m then you won't be satisfied.

If you think it's a piece of junk, take 12 or so hamsticks, some fiberglass and try and arrange it all to provide the same specifications & a low SWR feedpoint and then tell me how well the designers actually did with this antenna :)
N4WSH Rating: 2009-06-18
Gave it a second chance. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After talking the the rep from Comet Antennas at the 2009 Dayton Hamfest I decided to try another HVU-8 with the suggestions he gave. I use it mainly on 20 or 40 mtrs for PSK-31 with a Yaesu FT-100D running 50 to 70 watts. (My main rig for SSB is a Yaesu FT-1000MP, running a Yaesu FL-7000 amp into a GAP Titan DX) So the bottom line if you buy one of these is, 1st. Take your time in the assembly and use an antenna analyzer like the MFJ. 2nd - tuning 80 meters, good luck. A great vertical? No, a good one for limited space and what I use it for, well not to bad at all.

----------------------
Earlier 3-star review posted by N4WSH on 2009-04-29

I had one for about six weeks, I never really got it to tune anywhere on 80 meters, 40 was so-so and anything 20 and above was ok. I too had the limited space issue, well more of a wife didn't want some "big" ugly antenna near the house. Anyway I eBayed this antenna, and talked my wife into letting me get another GAP Titian DX and I couldn't be happier with its results.
KG6WVY Rating: 2009-02-12
good two meter antena Time Owned: more than 12 months.
this antena works well on 2meter 70 cm ,20 and 10 meter .has high swr on 80,3++and on 40 workS only the lower part of the band and not very well.
73,s and good luck
TODD
GI7FGQ Rating: 2008-10-21
Good product for those with limited space Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I used to have a multiband trapped dipole about 10 metres in the air which was OK but as I live on a fairly exposed site it kept breaking in high winds.

The HVU-8 is much more robust and gives better results. I couldn't get it to tune up at first. I then got the use of an MFJ-259 analyser and this turned out to be due to a broken connection (my fault entirely). I fixed this and was able to get it set up in about 30 minutes. Bandwidth is limited at 80m and 40m but I only use voice so not really a problem. The auto ATU on my Kenwood TS570 can match right across these bands anyway.
KC7FYS Rating: 2008-02-19
Not without an Analyzer you won't! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This is a great product, but I finally unloaded it after six months of poor results. Now to be fair, I have to attribute that to my own inability to properly tune this high-Q antenna. It's much more fun to mess with wires--even shortish ones--than try and tune this touchy antenna. Having said that--if you have a ham friend who will help you, and you have an ANTENNA ANALYZER to find resonance on this thing--then I'm sure you might get the results advertised.

One more important point: when you disassemble the main 80 meter vertical element, thoroughly saturate the threads with WD-40 or similar through the provided holes in the steel nut. The threads of the main mast are aluminum, and I ruined mine by unscrewing it. That reduced a nearly 300$ antenna to nothing in zero ten seconds flat. Hindsight is 20/20, I know.

Nice looking Japanese antenna. I highly doubt you'll have the motivation to tune this extremely touchy radiator, however.