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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
K2VI Rating: 2001-04-08
a3s Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Awful antenna, high swr, crummy traps which suck in water. Do not buy Cushcraft products. If you get a bad one (which is quite possible) forget about getting a part or even talking to a rep. There are none it seems. In my 39 years living this is the worst company I have had to deal with. Never again. Get a Mosley or a Force 12. Much better product for the same money.
AL1F Rating: 2001-04-08
Intermittent Problems & Poor Customer Service Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I purchased an A3S with the 40 meter option seven months ago. Within the first month I lost one of the XHat assemblies in a wind storm. It was EXTEMELY frustrating trying to get a replacement part and took five weeks and many long distance phone calls. After four email messages to them I got a reply asking me why I wanted a new X-hat! Calling their factory number only gets you a recording, you don't even get the option to leave a voice mail message. I called the dealer who I purchased the antenna from and was told they had difficulty in getting parts from Cushcraft too.
They finally agreed to send me the part, but guess what? They won't ship to Alaska. I had to have them ship the part to my father in Arizona and have him ship it to me in Alaska. But there are more problems....
Now the A3S gives me intermittent high SWR on 20 and 40 meters. I suspect an intermittent in one of the traps. So I now have to wait until the ground thaws enough to take the pole down to work on the antenna. That'll be at least three months. Then I'll have to deal with the frustration of trying to order a part from Cushcraft again. I'll never order a product from them again and would consider selling this one if anyone is interested.
NN3RP Rating: 2001-01-04
Great Antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Before buying this antenna Aug. 2000 I asked fellow hams about it. One of the main complaints I heard was that water gets into the traps with easy. This is due to the clamps used by Cushcraft. The recommendation was to use a sealant all over where there were opennings (clamps).
The antenna is very resonnant in 10 and 15 covering almost the entire band. In 20, however, it only gives me good SWR from the lower portion up to 14.2 after here the SWR raises to above 2.
KG8DP Rating: 2000-06-08
The product is great. The service sucks Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had my a-3 up since 92 and at 2 different locations. I also have the 40m add on kit. During this time, the only part the antenna required was replacement of one 40m. trap. It was like pulling hens teeth to talk to someone or even getting the damn part ordered. I believe in cushcraft. also ran a used r-5. I have a 20el.
2m beam made by them. The 40m trap arrives after 4 weeks. And yes i was smart enough to order 2 of them. The good part is that i have worked 270 countrys from the antenna. The manufactured product is great actually 4-5. but the service Dept. is a zero to .5 I really dont know but perhaps parts can be ordered over the web. If they can, i would strongly suggest it as long as they use a safe site. any questions, please e-mail me kg8dp@arrl.net thanks Mark harville
W8OB Rating: 2000-06-08
great antenna but customer service needs lots of work Time Owned: more than 12 months.
i have had my a3 up for almost 3 years now it has survived a ice storm as well as severe wx here in northeastern michigan. it went together in about 1 hour and the wife and i installed it on the tower in a short time. performance is great nice front to back and forward gain gets thru the pileups on ssb and cw with 100watts. customer service is poor as everytime i have called for something one get a recording and sometimes it takes several calls to get any replies. come on fellows i like to talk to real people when i call customer service
NP2BT Rating: 2000-06-08
POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I discovered the 15 meter traps were defective, one was burned causing high swr. I called Cushcraft and after 5 calls and 6 weeks they sent one under warranty, then another three calls and three weeks they sent the second one under warranty.Always seemed like they were putting out fires there, never answered my e-mail. I gavce up on them and bought a Tennadyne t-6 log periodic, no traps and 12 and 17 meter bands, very well built, very well engineered, and very helpfull staff (Chuck).
VA3FX Rating: 2000-02-10
Works Great, Good Bandwidth For A Small Beam! Time Owned: unknown months.
I Purchased A Used A3S And Had No Trouble Assembling It One Evening (First Time
Putting A Beam Together!).
I Had It Put On Top Of My 45 Ft. Tower And The SWR Was FLAT On 15 and 20 Meters, About
1.3 to 1.5 On 20 Meters Depending Where I Was (I Set It Up For Center Frequencies).
Made A Contact With A UA9 With One Call And Found Signal Reports For The Most Part Were The Same On Rx As Tx (I've Had It Up Now For About 3 Months Now).
Can't Wait Until I Get A Linear!