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Reviews For: Cushcraft A3S

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

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Review Summary For : Cushcraft A3S
Reviews: 87MSRP: 599
Description:
3 ELEMENT BEAM ON A 14' BOOM
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.cushcraftamateur.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00874
KA4ETV Rating: 2012-02-19
Excellent Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Easy to assemble and worked perfectly
N6WIN Rating: 2011-10-19
Small, cheap, works Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I was given this as a gift to use during Field Day. I had prior experience over a decade with the A4S and have an A3WS at home.

This is a very easy antenna to assemble. It is relatively light and cheap. The traps stand up to legal limit power. Don't believe the Cushcraft marketing numbers for gain... my F12 C31XR would be equivalent based on their crazy numbers... but this is a good antenna for it's size.

I would buy one again if I needed a 12' boom to cover 20/15/10m.
KJ4VVU Rating: 2011-07-19
Great Antenna....easy assembly. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Very good shipping packaging and instructions. A little lacking in quality control in making sure all the parts in the hardware packages. Missed on of the smaller SS U-bolts for element to boom assembly. Had to purchase another one a Lowes to continue with the assembly.

Went for center of the bands and the following were the results:

On the ground (plastic sawhorses):
13.629MHZ 1.0:1
21.068MHZ 1.1:1
28.017MHZ 1.1:1

On the tower at 40':
14.214MHZ 1.3:1
21.237MHZ 1.0:1
28.350MHZ 1.2:1

Close enough for me...I gave it a 5/5 rating and didn't downgrade for the one missing U-Bolt. The antenna works great... strong reports into Europe from east coast of Florida.
KC8IMB Rating: 2010-12-28
VERY Satisfied Time Owned: more than 12 months.
What else can I say? I have the A3S with 40M add-on kit and it's nice not having to switch to another antenna when going to 7MHz. This is my first beam. It was kind of wierd not having to call a DX station over... and over... and over. She's a pileup buster! This antenna was offered to me for a good price second-hand, but it was still fairly new (2005 MFG date). A deal I couldn't pass up, and glad I didn't! It's been said many times before, spend your hard-earned cash on the antenna system to improve ones station. Your ham-experience will be enhanced greatly.

Not sure how the ownership change is going to impact Quality, but I give my older A3S a big "two thumbs up".

73!
Zack
KC8IMB
WB7ESV Rating: 2010-03-06
Excellent antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had my A3S for many years and it performs as well today as the day it was installed.
Very good product. I would recommend it.
N8FXH Rating: 2010-03-04
Great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Mine has been up at 35 ft for 25 years without a problem for either my FT 890 or IC 718, For the price, it can not be beaten.
N0MUD Rating: 2010-03-03
Excellent Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
See my Dec 08 item and nothing has changed except the antenna is still at 60 ft on a CDE-45 rotor. Everything is still working just as it is supposed to do. I even have the Cushcraft MA5B at 30 ft and it also works just fine.

Even tho this is for the A3-s I decided to put info about the MA5b in here as both are Cushcraft antennas. Go ahead if you have the room and the tower, and it's recommended to put it on a tower, then go ahead and buy one. It's really easy to put together as was the MA5b. Of course if your lucky and have a tower that you can raise and lower then you might want to put your A3s on top of it that way if you have heavy winds, thunder/lightening storms then lower the tower to a safe height. The price is a bit high so if you can find a nice used one locally like I did then you have an opportunity to test it out and not pay full price. Good luck and 73s...Mike, NØmud
W4PJS Rating: 2010-03-03
Outstanding value and performance! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My A3S has been up at 52 feet for almost thirty years with nary a problem. I run an FT-450AT into a Heathkit SB200 putting out about 545 watts and this is plenty to get me first call returns on almost every DX station I call. High quality materials in this and the other Cushcraft antennas I own (Ringo Ranger, 6 meter 3-element beam and dual band 144/450 beam) make me a Cushcraft fan forever.
K6FAF Rating: 2010-02-03
KISS, no more to say Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my A3S some years ago, first had it on an 18 feet push-up near my metal shed, now on a 40 foot crank-up pole, rotator on basis, not on top (see QRZ pic). This little, well engineered and produced beam is a great bang for the buck!
On the push-up I had 2 other 3/3s, one German, one US made borrowed for comparisons. I decided for the A3S. Why? KISS!
I am not restricted in the size of beam nor by neighbor's influence, but the only reason to take the A3S down would be if "someone gave me a 55 foot crank-up for free and a free 4ele Stepp-ir on top of it", as my base was built for it. I guess this tells you how exited I am about the little A3S.
Last winter I lost my director in a 75 mile gust, but this was already repaired and had a weak point anyway, so no complaint about material strength etc.
Since then I have no director (It is hanging under my garage roof to be put up) and I have nevertheless worked 23 DXCC since the accident, with a slightly higher SWR 1.4:1 instead of 1.2:1 , and no director! It just takes a few more calls...like 3 more :)~

I have a hard time accepting people buying "re-invented" stuff because of "better specs" when there is a proven product available.....

A "good signal" derives from a combination of factors: audio input into a suitable transceiver, then linear, then the right cable and length into the right balun, the right antenna over good ground at acceptable height for different bands.
If you know your numbers, you know where to set your expectations.

Replacing a well functioning trap beam for a .6dB better trapless to me is void. Exchanging it for a 4-ele stepp-ir with a necessary $900 rotor and a $2500 mast seems to be expensive for 1.2dB more, if you are not doing contest or Big-Gun-DX!

Just my 5 cents..
73 de Hans

WB5JEO Rating: 2009-07-31
Nice Value Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I tagged it Great, which is to say it's a good antenna and a great small Yagi. I've had this one for something like 25 years. It's old enough that all the plastic end caps and trap caps have broken down and fallen off. The last time I put it back up, I just taped up the open ends of the traps to keep wasps out. It's consistently demonstrated the gain and F/B I would expect of this class of antenna, has been easy to turn with light rotators, and tuned up fine with the recommended assembly. I do not get heavy ice, but it's never flinched, whatever the wind. I guess it will just go on forever. I almost feels like it would be a dirty trick to replace old faithful with something up-scale. Maybe I'll but it a 40-meter kit for its 25th anniversary.