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Reviews For: Force 12 C3SS

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

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Review Summary For : Force 12 C3SS
Reviews: 43MSRP: 1229
Description:
6 Element Tribander on 12' Boom
Product is in production
More Info: http://force12inc.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00434.7
DU3HF Rating: 2002-04-03
Nice, but.... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Pros:

1. Everything packed in a 4 foot box.
2. Small size, better than a dipole.
3. Includes NOALOX Grease and brush!
4. Extra rivets and screws are included.
5. Design of the element to boom mounting is very nice. All elements will "ALWAYS STAY" in a horizontal position.



Cons:

1. The "photcopied" pictures on the manual are next to useless. Force12 could at least have the colored pics posted on their website, if manual reproduction is an issue.

2. This antenna is EXPENSIVE. But is it worth the cost? It depends on your needs. A good "small" antenna always comes with a premium.

3. I had trouble with the 14MHz linear loading. Had to trim it more than the manual say to give a good SWR.

21 and 28MHz worked out very well..as specified.


4. When I brought this at HRO, there was a 10 week lead time!

5. A lot better than a dipole, however C3SS will NOT outperform other beams with longer booms.

W2BRI Rating: 2002-03-18
You Could Not Ask For More Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Wow! Super performer. Don't need an amplifier, they all hear you. Call CQ and 5 people come back. Cut the pileups on the first or second try. This is a hell of an antenna. Do yourself a favor and get Force 12.
K7JIM Rating: 2002-03-18
Good small beam Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The first thing I noticed upon opening the box was there was no parts list.The only way to know if you had all the pieces (I did) was to build the antenna. This is bad if you ordered the antenna in the winter to install in the summer. Force 12 does not supply end caps for the elements or boom. The instruction could be improved, and the photos in the instructions were all but useless, a phone call to Force 12 to let them know about the poor quality of the photos brought the remarks they knew about the photos. I never did receive new photos. If you have a tuner it will load up on 12 and 17, but my Gap Eagle vertical out preforms the C3SS by a wide margin on 12 and 17. I ordered the C3SS because at our new QTH we have little room. It preforms good for a small beam, but if you have the room bigger is better.
W7MGC Rating: 2002-03-02
Its Hot Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Love this antenna, instructions clear and concise, really built to last and does it play!!

For a small footprint antenna, you don't give up much, highly recommend!!
UK-SWL Rating: 2002-02-28
EXCELLENT !!!!!!!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Congratulations !!!!
if you have bought this antenna ??
you will love it's superb build quality
low profile looks
excellent performance
I can recommend this antenna to one and all it does just what the ads say !!!!
no faults, no missing parts, no problems, just put it together and go !!! all parts clearly marked and correct
on air performance is superb and the size is a bonus for us uk operators with little space
I have mine at 15m above ground but even when only 20ft off the ground it still performs superb
if you don't know force 12 you should (and will)unless the rest build to this quality they won't sell antenna's !!!!!! I cetainly would buy any product from them without a second thought I had a small Cushcraft MA5B beam before this and loved it but this antenna is a step up again and only 12ft boom awsum
thanks force 12
I LOVE IT
Ian Hatton (DERBY ENGLAND)
W9DWN Rating: 2001-08-17
Excellent Choice Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
After much research and review reading, I finally
decided on the C3SS. Small profile and turning radius but excellent gain. Assembly was easy even for a novice. Excellent instruction manual. It's
up about 45' on Rohn 25 tower. Never run an amp
(don't have one). Signal reports are always good.
Good pile up buster at only 100W. The old adage is certainly true with the Force 12, "if you hear them, you can work them." Some stations bearly moved the needle but we worked them. It's been up just about 1yr now. DXCC=215 worked. IOTA=175 confirmed. It's been a great year thanks to Force-12 and the C3SS.
W2HDI Rating: 2000-11-27
Superb engineering and instructions Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Concur and endorse previous comments. Just installed, and it seems to work as predicted, with even better SWR. Company deserves tremendous credit for the quality of engineering, ease of assembly (although it is tedious - total time of about 8 hours), and excellent instructions. Very apparent that the attenna had been assembled prior to shipping. All parts are marked and everything fit perfectly, including all of the holes for the rivets. Couldn't be more pleased.
N6XVO Rating: 2000-11-01
Excellent Antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Purchased the C3ss about four months ago and it's
installed on a Rohn 25G tower about 33 feet and turning it with a Yaesu G-800DXA rotator. I must say it will get through the pile ups with 5-9 signal reports. It's a well constructed antenna. The SWR is flat 1-1 SWR through the entire 20 meter band, however on 10 and 15 meters
the SWR is 1-4 to 1-5-1. Can't complain, could be worse. On 12 and 17 meters the Ant. tuner in the Icoms will tune with no problems. If I were to purchase another antenna in the future, It would another Force-12 antenna.
YC0KTQ Rating: 2000-09-26
YC0KTQ-What a wonderful Antenna on a Small package!!! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Having long conversation with Nathan from Force-12 (via eMail) I finally decided to Order C3SS via UPS. Install it on about 30m AGL, and calling DX! Wow... it is so pleased to get 59/59+ from European station! Unbelievable Antenna.
See the picture on my site:
http://www.geocities.com/reinhardsual
http://www.qsl.net/yc0ktq
KF6A Rating: 2000-04-13
Definately no compromises in this antenna. Time Owned: unknown months.
I just want to start this off by saying DON'T buy a Mosley Mini-33 or Mosley anything. Their support leaves a lot to be desired and their claims are overstated. That said, I am happy to report that my new Force 12 C3SS works as advertised. It came packaged and marked logically, the manual was better than average and the response time on a few questions, via e-mail, I had about the antenna was either the same day or the next (it took me 3 weeks, 15 phone calls, and a whole day off of work to get ahold of someone at Mosley). The antenna went together easily in a couple of hours, it was my day off. I have operated with a KLM KT-34 @ 50ft using 600watts in quite a few contests, both phone and cw and a CC A3S @ 50ft with around 500watts out. I don't seem to experience any handicap running 100w with the antenna at 40ft on my roof tower. My friend with the Cushcraft can't even hear a lot of stations that I can hear. If it sounds like I'm pleased with this antenna, I am. 5 stars to Force 12.