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Reviews For: ZX-Yagi Mini Beam

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

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Review Summary For : ZX-Yagi Mini Beam
Reviews: 14MSRP: 249.95
Description:
Mini yagi for 10, 15 and 20 meters.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.qth.com/mte
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00143.6
W0FMS Rating: 2000-08-28
Not quite there yet... Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The antenna seems a little lightweight, but otherwise well designed.

It does have some gain- it is about 2 S-units up from my ground mounted vertical-- mounted
on the roof of a two story house. Directivity is good, and I can even null out power line
noise (which I'm having big problems with currently) somewhat with the antenna.

Unfortunately, I'm having the same problems with SWR as N0FGK had. It has a dip way low
in the CW portions of the bands on 20/15 of no lower than 1.5:1 SWR much more narrowband
than is advertised. Otherwise the rest of the band on 15 and 20 is showing 3:1. On ten it
is 3:1 - 4:1.

I've seen three versions of the manual for the Mini-2000 and older Mini-1020 and some say to
short the ground side of the driven element to the boom, and some say not to.. I didn't-- I will
have to try the other way (up on the roof again) and see what happens.

The good thing is that the XYL really likes the looks of the antenna, and except for the SWR,
the performance is what I expected, so I would really like to try to get the thing to work right.

Also I found out today that MTE isn't going to carry it anymore, meaning that there is no US
dealer anymore. I figure that I'll probably end up getting screwed if anything ever breaks
or I need warranty work done.. Plus I imagine for US hams, the Cushcraft Mini-Beam would
be easier to get. BUT the XYL didn't like the way it looked.

I've had the antenna since May, but I didn't have the time to put it up until now.

I'll update this if I can/can't get the antenna to work properly.

Fred W0FMS
N1VEK Rating: 2000-02-07
Met and Exceeded My Expectations Time Owned: unknown months.
I knew when I entered the mini beam market that a compact beam on a short boom does not compare to a full size monobander. I was pleasantly surprised with this antennas gain and directivity characteristics. Also, the construction quality is good and easy to assemble. I have yet to get it mounted permanently but plan to tackle this in the spring.
PA1ZX Rating: 2000-02-04
Correct what N0FGK told. Time Owned: unknown months.
Afther reading the artikel of N0FGK i must told that he have correct. He have a old version with aluminium el/boom plate's the new version have plastic plate's. The old alu. plate's make a C to the coil in the mid trap and that the piont the res.Freq. are not o.k.Contact MTE abd they send you plastic plate's afther install this the antenna are o.k.

Ron Eberson
PA1ZX
N0FGK Rating: 2000-02-03
Better than my vertical...but not by much Time Owned: unknown months.
I have given the zx-yagi a low score due to my initial problems with it. Out of the box it had a ridiculous swr on all bands. In order to get it down at all I had to short one of the feed points to the boom. So I had to choose to have high swr on 10, low on 15/20 or vice versa. I also had to put a longer set of screws in the driven elements to make good electrical contact. I got this advice from Roy/WA4DOU who was extremely helpfull in troubleshooting my problems.

I know there has to be some compromises on short beams. I have learned from this. The antenna does put out a signal, it does receive, I have worked Russia. So it is performing as an antenna with directivity, it works better than my vertical. I now know I have to sell my house, buy a house with 20 acres, put up a 75ft tower with stacked mono-banders :) Seriously though the antenna does work but not as well as I thought it would. I would look at other mini-beams out there or build my own next time. Ain't experience a great thing? :) (As long as you don't go broke getting it!)