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Reviews For: Comet CHA250B

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Comet CHA250B
Reviews: 138MSRP: 449.
Description:
The Comet CHA250B broadband vertical antenna will amazingly cover 75/80 meters through 6 meters with no gaps! Transmit range is 3.5-57 MHz and receive range is 2-90 MHz. SWR <1.5:1. This 23.5 foot vertical requires no radials and weighs only 7.1 lbs. The antenna consists of five sections of aluminum tubing that slide into each other. The bottom section has the matching network built-in. Only two simple measurements are required during the easy assembly. It can handle 250 watts SSB and 125 watts FM. SO-239 input. Mounts on a 1 to 2 inch mast (not supplied). Rated for 67 MPH wind survival.

Product is in production
More Info: http://www.cometantenna.com/amateur-radio/base-antennas/multi-band-hfvhfuhf-2/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
24.51383.7
K5LXY Rating: 2012-03-10
I was WRONG!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have to rescind my initial glowing review, so if you have some bacon I have enough egg on my face to feed 50. While it works fine on 10/15 I realized it worked better than my G5RV because of mounting issues. After correcting the issue guess what? If your only option is a vertical and you only want 10/15 this antenna is OK, but just buy a CB antenna.
It is not worth the price for 2 bands.
Sorry for not spending more bench time with this product before posting.
K3NOQ Rating: 2012-01-17
Motorhome Installation:simple-ez-respectable performance! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this for "parked" use on my Motor home, it is now my primary antenna for HF, my screwdriver is now my "road"antenna. It Needs a coax isolator at the antenna feed point(mfj)915. I Made a HB ArmStrong fold over mount for it and mounted it to the rear ladder. It raises easily to about 15' off ground when set "up". I realized it was a compromise antenna and I found its operation very respectful, I am not a rabid Dx oriented operator and this antenna has provided some very nice enjoyable chats across many miles already (5 continents!). I bought mine used for $225 and would do it again.
Îëåã Àøìàðîâ Rating: 2012-01-01
For $12 you can't go wrong! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Just finished building another replica of this antenna. Average cost $12 a piece. Gets you on the air anywhere, anytime, no ifs or buts. It is NOT R8, but still its not $500+ either.
KI8DJ Rating: 2011-09-07
jetstream cloneclone Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have a copy of the cha250b sold buy jetstream,seems to compare to the comet at only 250 bucks . It is called the jtv 680 and well built. it loads 80- 6 meters without tuner and work pretty well on 40-10.
N7SMI Rating: 2011-08-10
Works well Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I'm a new ham, so I don't have much to compare this to, but considering my limitations for antenna options, the CHA-250Bx is working well for me. I have it mounted at 22 feet with a 60' run of LMR-400 into an Icom 756-PRO2.

In fairly limited time on the bands, I have 12 DX countries (Georgia, Lithuania, Hawaii, Brazil, New Zealand, etc.) and have worked about half the states. It tunes easily using my rig's internal tuner and I have made 5/9 contacts from 80 meters to 6 meters (excluding 12m, which is either really quiet or is deaf to the antenna). It tunes and I can listen on most of 160m (haven't tried a contact yet). I've easily worked through moderately big pileups for DX on the first few calls, yet I sometimes can't even hear contacts (Western Europe, Africa, etc.) that other big guns around me are reaching.

The biggest issue I have is the NOISE! I know the bands aren't in great shape now, but I believe the antenna to be much, much noisier than other comparable alternatives. I can't imagine using it without a modern DSP-equipped rig. I'm going to try some 1/4 wave radials and adjusting my ground system to try to clean it up a bit.

This is clearly a compromise antenna with some losses, but it does well what it says it should.
N4ZAW Rating: 2011-07-27
Pleasantly Amazed! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I would never have purchased a compromise antenna like this. As a MOF, the closest I ever came to compromising on an antenna was a G5RV (Which is my "go-to" favorite). But I ended-up with one of them from a fellow on craigslist. He had an Astron SS-25M power supply for sale for $50, and this "CB antenna" as he called it, was thrown-in,as was a "hunk of power cord" that turned out to be a complete plug-n-all power cable for my Yaesu FT840 twins (i run two of them). After coming here and identifying this "CB antenna" as a "cha-cha vertical", I decided to shlap it together on a 10ft pole and see what it would do. I need to now move it to a permanent install because it simply WERKZ! I can now have a garage rig without breaking the bank, or doubling-up on my antenna farm. The CHA250 is one compromise that is 100% USABLE throughout the HF spectrum -- and without a tuner! Boy, did I SCORE!

W7RUE Rating: 2011-07-20
Good Compromise Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had this antenna for over two years now. I use it only as a backup now. I live in a very restrictive CC&R neighborhood so it was a logical purchase and choice for me. I have since built and bought other antennas which are much more effective and hidden. So far so good.

The Comet CHA250B works as advertised; but nothing exeptional. A good compromise antenna but not very effect during low sunspots. It was easy to assemble and it went up quickly. I have the base of the matching unit at 37 feet on four, 1.5" sections of conduit painted with camoflaged paint to blend with the foliage in the greenbelt. If you can put up a wire or dipole then you would be better served. If not, it will get you on the air which is what it is all about.

W7Rue
VE3QTH Rating: 2011-07-20
Great Antenna,period. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
First EVERY ANTENNA will be a comprimize, unless it is designed and built for one spefic frequency and even then the feedline could be a comprimize. The key is to know what you want to achieve.

I wanted a simple, low windload, durable, all band 80m-6m, wide-band, vertical HF, without ground radials, that I could mount on my 36 foot tower and handle my 100 watts max.

Guess what? The Best and only choice in my book was the CHA-250bx. The 21+ feet is a little tricky at 36 feet up a tower but works flawlessly.

Enjoy it.
VE3QTH, Barrie, Ontario Canada
KC2ZUL Rating: 2011-06-07
Good Vertical. Do your homework. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The Comet CHA-250bx is a pleasant surprise. After reading some of the other reviews, I flipped a coin and purchased one from HRO. My house is on a small property so I am constrained on footage for everything including radials. Guy wires for products like the GAP Titan are out of the question as they must be 25 feet from the base on 3-4 sides. Wow, that's a footprint! So on paper, I'm the perfect candidate for a compromise antenna.

Anyway, I mounted it on a galvanized 10 foot, 2" OD Pole and sunk that into the ground 2 feet and then U-bolted the pole t to my tool shed. I purchased a DX Engineering Tilt Mount,(DXE-TB-4P) which costs some money, but this will save the antenna from stormy gusts and the occasional Hurricane we might get on Long Island. Just tilt the whole thing down and lay it on a support! From the Tilt Mount, up another 4 feet with a steel mast and so roughly, the antenna is only 12 feet off the ground from the base. Looks very sleek and nice. Good quality product and easy as heck to put together. No guys, no worries. The aluminum vertical sways very slightly and gently in 20-30 mile winds as it is essentially as streamlined as a fishing pole.

I ran 175 Ft of good quality buried RG-213 to the unit and grounded the antenna mast to an eight foot grounding rod. (Some reports of this increasing noise?) which I cannot verify.
I'm using an ICOM IC-7000 and can only push 100 watts even though the antenna is rated for 200 watts on various frequencies.

First out of the gate, the SWR is as reported by the manufacturer. I tested the unit on all HF Bands noted here using the built in IC-7000 SWR meter and also a Diamond SX-600 SWR/Power Meter.

Listening is good on most HF. 10, 15, and 50 Meters is dead completely where I am, and I know that 10 meters has been bad lately, but 17, 20, 30, 40, 60, 75/80 meters are all good
with regard to listening. Noise levels are higher than what I would like, but I expected this with a vertical.

I was out there this weekend and was able to QSO to Michigan, New Hampshire, Alabama, Florida, and Quebec from Long Island, NY. I can hear Europe and South America and will start to try further DX locations as I get used to the antenna and its nuances. I would love to hear this thing mounted another 20 feet higher and who knows, I may do that one day, but right now I'm DX'ing and I beat out some big guns this past weekend on some pileups. All with 58's and 59's reported back to me. (I give the IC-7000 some credit here as well...)

I will be trying out an IT-100 tuner with this just for fun and I really don't expect it to do anything as tuners don't fix antennas. But I'm real curious as to what, if anything a tuner will do considering the SWR's are already so low. My guess is that it will do nothing. But this is why we play. The antenna is limited. You can do better. But it works and for me right now that's what I wanted.
AF6VH Rating: 2011-02-01
Good performance in less than ideal circumstances Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Even though the current band conditions are certainly less than ideal, with 100 watts I have had very good success making contacts.

I needed an antenna that would be visually unobtrusive and yet readily cover a broad range and bands. This antenna is extremely good at that.

I needed an antenna that I could easily put on a simple mast with some clean grounding and have very good success making contacts. This antenna was extremely good at that too.