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Reviews For: KU4AB SQ-50 6m square loop

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

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Review Summary For : KU4AB SQ-50 6m square loop
Reviews: 33MSRP: 59.95
Description:
Horizontal polarization and a omnidirectional pattern makes the SQ design GREAT for VHF sideband. The Hairpin match/mount makes the antenna extremely quiet for weak signal receiving because the DC ground keeps down static.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ku4ab.com/index.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00334.3
N5VOO Rating: 2005-01-24
What does it take to tune this Antenna? Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Answer: Nothing, This weekend was the ARRL vhf/uhf contest and we were in a pinch for an antenna. Talked to phillip via email and he said he could not only do next day air but saturday delivery. The antenna came in with minutes to spare before noon. we opened the box, but it on our rover rig and hooked up cables. Thinking it might need tuning we threw a MFJ-269 on it to tune it but didn't need to touch a think came out of the box tuned with 1.1 to 1 swr reading. we were in a hurry so we took off and had a blast. also ordered the 2m stacking cable for our stacked 2m halos and this worked just as well as the antenna. This is a Top notch job on building antennas. Recommend this to everybody!!!
W2EV Rating: 2004-08-25
Best Bang/Buck Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Made of solid aluminum rod. Hardware is stainless steel. The only head-scratching comes when examining the connection between the SO-239 and the loop. For the model that I received, this connection is made with tinned coper braid-strap. It is crimped *and* soldered, so it probably isn't that big of a deal.

I highly suggest liberal use of "moisture proofing measures" to assure superior operation over the long haul -- a suggestion that isn't specific to this antenna, by the way.

Overall construction is firm and tight. Shipping is professionally done and followthrough is excellent. Phil (KU4AB) is always willing to offer suggestions to help.

Upon unpacking one (I now have 4, by the way), I promptly mounted it to my tower and swept it with an MFJ-269 Antenna Analyzer. Of note: I mounted the loop so that it wrapped "around" the tower (imagine looking down from above...the antenna formes a square around the tower). With this configuration, the MFJ-269 offered these insights:

SWR 2.0:1 @ 49.580 MHz
SWR 1.5:1 @ 49.780 MHz
SWR 1.0:1 @ 50.095 MHz
SWR 1.5:1 @ 50.380 MHz
SWR 2.0:1 @ 50.630 MHz

Note: do not adjust these antennas unless you know what you are doing. Phil knows what he's doing and will custom tune the antenna to any frequency that you desire. Order it the way you want it. The information above is for a "stock" antenna.

I'm impressed with the bandwidth. It covers all of the interesting spectrum: European TV, Beacon sub-band, DX window (50.1-50.125), SSB (50.125+), PSK31 (50.290), AM (50.400) and PropNET (50.620).

Why buy a "no gain" antenna? Because you can work greater DX with it than you can a big yagi, when all things are not equal. Because the KU4AB has such a small wind area, you can probably mount it higher in the air than you can a big yagi. Use your favorite antenna modeling software to examine the vertical takeoff of a loop at 50-feet vs. a 5 element beam at 25-feet. You will notice that the (no-gain) loop will actually have more RF at lower angles than the yagi will have. Astonishing.

My plan is to stack 4 of them (12' apart) with a switch that will allow me to select all-4 or only the bottom one. That should cover me for all the DX that I could hope for, without regard as to the angle at which it arrives.

I highly recommend this antenna. It is easily purchased via eBay.
KB8RMN Rating: 2004-08-18
great reliable little antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Well, I decided to try this for getting on 6 meteres. Got it up, and my first contact on 6 during this time of little propagation was from Georgia to Wisconsin in the afternoon, so apparently it works.

The antenna came completely assembled, whcih is very nice for something this size. Mounting it was very easy, and it is also worth commenting that the antenna is very light weight, but a very durable aluminum. So far it has stood up to some storms here with fairly high winds (50 mph) 3o ft up in the air with no problems.

Under normal conditions, groundwave propagation of out ot about 100 to 150 miles from my IC-736 with it is pretty much the minimum standard. Generally, if I can hear them I can work them. The SWR on mine is flat without a tuner in the upper portion of SSB on 6 meters, and is under 2:1 acorss the lower half of the whole band. With the autotuner in my IC-736, I can keep it flat with high efficency from 50 to about 52.1Mhz. The non-tuner SWR was dirven a little high up frequency by another antenna that is a little less than ideally close.... teh realities of operating from an apartment even when they let you put antennas outside. Before that it was flat from 50.4 to about 50.4 Mhz on my setup.

For the size and price, you really can't beat it if you don't have the room to set up a beam for 6 - plus it is nice to be able to receive contacts from all sides - would be a good add on to a tower array with a beam, especially stacked (stacked it should give similar gain to 3 element beam anyways).

If you're looking for a cheap, inexpensive, low maintenance antenna for 6 that comes ready to go, you can't go wrong with this.