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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
VE3YF Rating: 2002-07-17
So-So Performer Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Hi:
I had this antenna for 3 years and during that time had quite a few problems which created endless headaches. I wanted to get replacement caps from Cushcraft and they would not sell them to me, I had to go thru a dealer. Also needed a replacement trap and it took well over a month to get a replacement. Service sucks. I always found that 10m was a little on the quiet side as compared to other antennae. SWR during heavy rainstorms was always a big problem, thank God don't get too many of those beasts. Finally decided to take down this headache and get a KT-34A (KT-34M2), something with much better bandwidth and performance and have not regreted my decision.

73 De Mike
VE3YF
W4WHW Rating: 2002-07-13
Product -- OK, Service -- NOT! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I purchased a used A3S from the estate of an SK last year. It had been up in its previous location for about 10 years. During that time, it had sustained some damage to the boom and had some rusting of the hardware, all of which needed replacement.

Consequently, I contacted Cushcraft Customer Service with a parts listing of items that needed replacement. When I received the quote from them on my parts, I was shocked. They were quoting $278 for the items I had requested to repair my antenna. One piece of aluminum tubing was $55 for a single 84" piece! (I had priced T-6061 tubing and I knew that a mill finish piece 30 feet long could be obtained at the local metal shop for a bit over $40!) I thought this price was exorbitant, but I figured they had to justify their investment in stocking parts... so I decided to order the parts anyway. Unfortunately (or fortunately as it turned out,) I was unable to purchase them at the time due to an unforeseen financial hardship.

About 9 months later, I wrote Cushcraft again with the same listing of parts and asked them for an updated quote so I could order the parts to repair my antenna. I received a note from them telling me that "it would be cheaper for me to buy a new antenna than to order parts for my old one." Since I was unable to locate a new A3S for $278 at any of their distributors, I asked them to quote me a 'factory price' on a new one. I received no response to my inquiry.

I next wrote to the head of the Amateur products division, Ed Hammond (WN1I), with a detailed explaination and a request for help in resolving the matter. (I figured that a fellow ham would be willing to help out or at least offer some suggestions in resolving the problem.) I received no response.

To this day, I have received neither a price quote on my parts listing or a price quote on a replacement antenna from Cushcraft. By their own actions (or lack there of) Cushcraft has lost my business for good!
AD6PB Rating: 2002-05-28
Great results, but problems Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Works generally very good. Have worked 200+ countries in 2 years with only 100W. Problems: 15M trap has become intermittant, the 40M element rope has broken after 1 year in service, 20M VSWR is rather high in mid-band (the dx portion!) and has a couple of "funny" dips, and the sucker made an awful low frequency whine with the 40M sections installed. Factory didi respond, but had no clue. I fixed the noise by damping the rope with some pieces of no flux solder attached every 12 inches or so. Probably why the rope broke? ANyhow, moving up to a pair of Force 12 trapless beams with much more gain. More expensive, heavier, etc. Will be mounted on a new 55' crank-up tower, rather than the 30' push-up mast I'm now using on my roof. The A3S is good for the money, but the traps MUST be fixed somehow as they are the weak link. Don't block the condensation holes in the bottom, BTW. 73s de Don.
W4YHD Rating: 2002-05-23
Great Success With The A3S Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Mounted the A3S to the Chimney with heavy duty chimney mount brackets and used a HAM IV rotator. The antenna was assembled with no problem and the SWR was actually better than claimed in the instructions. Works very well with no mechanical problems and certainly no electrical problems. SWR stays put in all weather and does not show any sensitivity to rain or ice. Performance is excellent with very good directivity (F/B ratio). If you build it right you will have no problems. Great light weight beam for those who don't have a big tower and the room for the monster beams. Definitely a 5 rating!
VE3IOS Rating: 2002-04-26
Works Great!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My A3S went together no problem and works like a champ. First two stationed I worked were P5 North Korea and VK9 Mellish Reef. SWR is as specified for center tuned assembly. Actually the SWR is a little better than specified.
Manual was clear and easy to read. Had a couple of questions and was emailed a response within 6 hours.
I had originally bought a Hygain TH3MK4 but the holes did not line up and the stainless bolts stripped on me and had to be cut off. I called Mosley but they are to busy with the Government contracts and 6-8 weeks for a basic 3 element beam to be delivered just does not fly with me. Glad I went for the Cushcraft A3S despite the poor eham reviews.
ON4CAS Rating: 2002-02-07
ON4CAS - Very happy with it! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've been using an A3S since about three years now and it works just great. It's on a roof tower @ 60ft. Living in front of the police station, I decided to keep my output power to a modest 100 W. Before I had this ant, I used an old TET HB43sp (4 el), but the A3S outperforms that one without doubt. Worked 311 DXCC entities using this setup since I got my license back in Nov. '95... I hope to add the 40m add-on soon...
73 es CUAGN...
ON4CAS
W4USM Rating: 2001-12-27
very good Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I must have gotten a good one. I have used the A3S since 1993. Antenna has worked flawlessly. No problems with traps or swr.
AA4PB Rating: 2001-11-04
condensation problem Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
It's been almost 15 years now since I had the A3 with the 40M add-on. I had problems with the SWR being high (especially on 40M) due to condensation on the traps during the cool early morning hours. Key the rig and the SWR would begin to drop as the traps heated. Unkey and wait a couple of minutes and the SWR was high again. I replaced it with a Mosley TA33 which has a much wider bandwidth (much bigger traps and heavier). The TA33 has been performing great for all these years. The only repair has been (after about 10 years) to replace the 40M support rope with Philystran.
W8KQE Rating: 2001-11-04
Greatly dissapointed! Mosley much better. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
A while back, I had this antenna up for only a few months, and watched the SWR climb greatly during this time period, especially after a rainstorm or snow/icestorm (ice on elements and traps). Upon taking the antenna down and examining the traps (one became defective), I found out about the water problem as well. I finally took it down, and invested in a 2 element, Mosley TA-32 Junior tribander. Over the last 2 years, I have had NO problems whatsoever with the Mosley, and it is more broadbanded than the Cushcraft. It's been through all kinds of storms and ice formations, and the SWR continues to stay put, and the traps have not given me problems. Customer service was, as others noticed, almost nonexistent. Obviously, there are better choices than the A3S.
KE1EH Rating: 2001-07-09
No problems Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had my A3S up about six years and no problems to date, still working FB. I have it mounted on a lightduty 40 foot tower that broke a guyline a couple of years ago in strong winds and landed on my roof and deck. Sustained some fair damage to some of the elements,so called Cushcraft and odered the parts needed, no problems. Not living very far from N.H. here in R.I. and having to go to HRO in Salem, N.H., I stopped at the factory and picked up the parts, I even got a full tour of the facility. But talking to a rep at a hamfest, thats no longer a policy, now that the companys been bought out, too bad. I guess I hit it just at the right time. As an added note I'm also running a R5 vertical (7Years) and a ARX-2B (4 Years) with no problems and, New England winters can get pretty bad here.