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Reviews For: Pacific Antenna

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : Pacific Antenna
Reviews: 31MSRP: 120
Description:
Multi-band portable vertical HF antenna designed by KA5DVS
Product is in production
More Info: http://qrpkits.com/pac12.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00314.9
KU3X Rating: 2023-06-04
Good quality, great compact portable antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased my PAC-12 from AliExpress. It arrived here in two weeks. The quality is excellent. The contact slider on the loading coil is super easy to use and makes a positive connection. The idea of using four each one foot lengths of aluminum for a mast under the coil makes this antenna stand out from other’s. That mast is the current portion of the antenna as does the most radiating. AliExpress also sells an 18 foot long telescopic whip also of a very good quality. By using this whip instead of the one that comes with the PAC-12, you will increase the performance of the this antenna on 40 meters as well as increase your usable bandwidth.
The only downside of this antenna is it comes with ribbon wire that is only 18 feet long. So you end up with 10 each 20 meter radials. I like using quarter wave radials per band so I made up three each 35 foot long radials to add to the 20 meter radial field.
The one thing you must pay attention to is the feed insulator. The writing goes up. I see numerous YouTube videos where they install this up side down. The center wire on the coax is then connected to the radial field and the shield is connected to the vertical antenna. OOPS !
On the air tests were great. I got a very low SWR on 17, 20, 30 and 40 meters. I made lots of contacts.
KC7MAW Rating: 2020-11-09
Great Portability - Good Performance Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I pulled the kit off the shelf during the early COVID-19 shutdown phase, assembled it, and put it to use.

Portability is EXCELLENT. This antenna can be set up or stowed in less than two minutes.

On Air Performance - Works reasonably well with reasonable expectations. If you think you're going to work outside your region on 40M using SSB at the bottom of the sun spot cycle, well you will be disappointed. However, you will be able to work across the country on 40M using FT8 at the bottom of the solar cycle. The same applies to other weak signal modes (CW and PSK). That being said, the bulk of your contacts on 40M will be within 1000 miles or so. There are compromises that come with the extreme portability this antenna offers.

On 20 meters at the bottom of the solar cycle, I would say this antenna performs twice as good then when configured for 40M. Expect contacts during those brief "Openings" to extend across the country with DX mixed in.

I use the multi-band coil and the stock counterpoise wires that came with the kit. These counterpoise wires are about 10 feet long or so. I speculate that performance on 40M could be improved by adding longer counterpoise wires, but performance is just good enough that I'm not motivated to spend the time and money to add the wires.

I operate without a tuner and enjoy SWR's of 1.5:1 or better on all bands and frequencies. The SWR BW sometimes is quite narrow on the lower bands, but is easily dealt with by changing the coil tap or length of the telescoping whip.

I don't operate on QRP levels and am usually less than 75 watts when doing SSB or CW. with FT8 and PSK I'm usually at 30 watts or so.

In a few years when the solar cycle is on the upswing, I would expect this antenna to be a solid QRP weapon. At the bottom of the solar cycle, patience and reasonable expectations are key.

73 KC7MAW

N7KFD Rating: 2016-07-14
Love IT Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I built the homebrewed version of this antenna about 6 years ago right after I bought the Elecraft K1 and it has performed flawlessly. I breaks down small enough to fit in the go bag with the K1, assembly is quick and easy, it took very little time to tune. It covers the portion of the bands that the K1 covers with low SWR and I can't tell you how many contacts I've made with this setup. I would recommend this antenna without hesitation to anyone wanting to use it for portable or back packing use.
KC0YEF Rating: 2013-10-01
Still being made Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Works great, inexpensive, easy to maintain you do not need a tuner if you can measure and read a swr meter. This antenna is great for QRP qhich I use it the most for but works also on 100 watts just fine.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by KC0YEF on 2009-09-02

Simple efficient design, easy to erect, inexpensive to own, light to carry, simple to repair if damaged and a great carry case I think James' Mom sewed my case!

I have had the PAC-12 since Dayton 2oo7. I wound my own coil for 75/80 it was patience and commitment to keep costs down that worked for me.. This is a fine QRP Antenna and I use it with my Yaesu FT-817 5 watts or less additionally I have used it with my Alinco DX-77 40-100watts and Kenwood TS-940 100-150watts with similar excellent results. I have since made several other coils for specific frequencies they really are so easy to make or buy here are the instructions www.njqrp.org/pac-12
AF2DX Rating: 2012-09-01
Gotta be a 5 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Sad to say this antenna is no longer being made.
Their easy to make and I made about 6 of them.
Copper end caps can be driven inside the proper size PVC riser and you can go an inch or more.
Just drill the copper cap and tap it and screw the rod in.
The Budd Vertical by W3FF is a very good replacment for just a few dollars more and W3FF also offers the 10 foot whip.
Excellent picnic table antenna
BOB
AF2Q

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Earlier 5-star review posted by AF2DX on 2009-04-22

Hi Gang,
I been reading the reviews on the PAC 12.
Working from TX to WA. With 100 watts is nothing to brag about.
About that same time I worked Germany with 2.5 watts from my SST 20 meter QRP rig.
If your using a tuner with the PAC 12 your doing something wrong.
When I made my 1st PAC 12 I had either added or removed turns and always had a flat SWR.
I also noticed in different locations I was still able to alter the SWR down to nothing by just moving the counterpoise wires around.
I saw many hams think that for 40 meters the whip needs to be extended out.
I pushed mine in about 5 inches.
I'm building another one up and have a factory made PAC 12 on the way.
It fits nice in my pack and I jump on the motorcycle and if I can fit between 2 trees I have a road that takes me away from all th eman made QRM:-)
BOB
AF2Q http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CW_QRP-Code-Warriors/
OLLIEOXEN27 Rating: 2011-08-12
Works well portable Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a re review of my previous post. I had a chance to use this antenna portable away from obstacles and in the field. I works fine and eliminates the need to run a wire up in the trees with only an s unit or two decrease in performance. I have coils for all bands 40-15 meters and have made contacts on all but 15. I use a tuner so no need to collapse the whip.

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Earlier 3-star review posted by OLLIEOXEN27 on 2011-06-26

This is a re review of my origin review posted a week ago. I rebuilt all the coils per instructions in the njqrp group website but for the life of me can't seem to be able to find resonance on any band. I don't have an antenna analyzer and collapsing the whip to find resonance became exhaustive so I now tune all bands with a tuner.
The antenna works ok having made contacts on 20 and 30 meters running 100 watts.

For comparisons I matched it against an end fed half wave vertical hung from a 37 ft tree branch. With the Pac-12 a DL station was right at a noise level of S3. With the vertical half wave the station was a 5x5 with background noise of S1.

Comparison unfair? The end fed half wave is cheaper and although it requires a tuner at it's base the Pac-12 ended up requiring a tuner also. So the Pac-12 works but is clearly a compromise antenna solution. I can't see any way a qrp station running 5 watts would be impressed with it's performance unless they had no other antenna to compare it to.
K1OIK Rating: 2010-04-22
My first review was wrong Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used it for 3 years, great bang for the buck. Not perfect but more perfect than anything else
NI2S Rating: 2010-03-11
Simple lightweight portable that works Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Been using this antenna for the winter now as my home QTH antenna has been on the ground.

As a portable antenna, this one is hard to beat. Lightweight and collapses into a small package for transport.

The only reason I don't give this antenna a 5 rating is because I find the ground stake too thin and bend-able when you are trying to drive it into hard ground. If the ground stake were made out of a larger diameter, that would be an improvement.

I don't recognize BV2DQ's You tube demo model from Pacific & I don't see his antenna pictured on Pacific's web site. The BV2DQ version has a beefier ground stake like what I had in mind. That said I wouldn't recommend pounding on the threaded end of an alum. ground stake like that. I'd get a nut or perhaps two to protect the threads while hammering into the earth.

W8MKH Rating: 2010-03-10
5 YEARS STILL ROCKS Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had my pac 12 for a 5 years now
and love it
I have worked all over the world with it at 5 watts or less
Never a problem .
Worked Spain,Italy today 5 watts with my 817
also have used my 40m pixie at 350 mw and have worked 38 states and into south america
BV2DQ Rating: 2010-03-08
excellent, 10 mins installed. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I'm enjoy outdoor QSO because easy installation, easy tune for SWR from 70cm~80m.
I'm using a 41.5 meters DP+AH4 tuner, and Pac-12 antenna for vertical.

It's coveraged for all bands QSO.
see my youtube installation guide. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8_8e3emU1Q

73 de BV2DQ/ KD8MBE
in Taipei, Taiwan.