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Reviews For: Mosley TA-33M

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

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Review Summary For : Mosley TA-33M
Reviews: 10MSRP: 300.00
Description:
The TA series, still the most copied, broadband, multi-band
beams made! Rugged construction and designed for the
amateur with a limited space and a tight budget.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mosley-electronics.com/amateur.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00105
K5AX Rating: 2016-07-10
Up and down for many years Time Owned: more than 12 months.
For a tribander, it is the best 3 EL. Easy to maintain, take apart, put back together. I bought one used when I was in the military in Germany in 1966 for $25 bucks. It worked good.
I bought a Japanese knock off VS33 on Guam in 1983. Worked well. And another used one in 2010 (no telling how old it is) and it performed as well as a TH-11DX I had up at the same time. A 3 EL monobander for 20 15 or 10 works a bit better, like an S-Unit or so, but compared to other tribanders, the TA33M is unsurpassed.
N6KP Rating: 2015-07-27
Great antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just put together a TA-33M and here is a few comments.

Construction
You MUST debur the holes where the elements sleeve together. Get inside the element with a large screwdriver and swipe the burr off. Then coat with Penatrox or the supplied aluminum grease.
Once you try to use the supplied pan head #8 sheet metal (19) screws and the screw driver slips and bites your hand, run to the nearest Lowes or Home Depot and purchase 20 stainless steel Phillips head sheet metal screws. Cost $3.90 but well worth it.

Balun or choke. I used a DX engineering 1:1 50 ohm choke insead of coiling up the coax and making a balun. Years ago I found that winding your own choke caused migration of the center conductor thru the polyethlyne to short out with heat and age. Also took off the ground strap so the driven element is truly floating. SWR curve is by the book and very happy.

I have had other triband beams and they always were flimsy and hung way low on the ends. Mosley makes up the diference by using tight specs and not very much sag.

To keep the antenna looking good Use a can of clear spray Krylon or Rustoleum . Use a good quality of plastic tape such as 3M and wrap the driven element where it connects to the balun.

The instruction manual could use some drawings and step-by-step. Such as the instruction manual to connect the driven element to the boom before you bolt the boom together on a another page. But this comment is probably because I used to design Heathkits!

Of the available tribanders on the market today in the same price range I think Mosley is on top of the heap.

VE1VOX Rating: 2015-07-19
Quality Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Mosely builds a quality product. If you have ever built any other beams from the major manufacturers you will see that Mosley sets the benchmark for quality and the number of their antennas still in use after 25+ years testifies to this. The fit is tight and precise and not having to tune it is great. I would suggest that if you live outside the USA to order an additional driven element insulator. These are approx $5 each. These have internal threads in the dialectic material and I managed to strip the threads by over torquing the screw. To be fair I did this in the sun on a very hot Summer day. Having an additional one on hand would have saved me a 5 days and $35 in courier fees. Of course I could have tapped the stripped hole and installed an oversized bolt. The balance point on the antenna is not indicated and I found it to be 1.5" off of dead centre toward the driven element. A great piece of engineering that you won't be disappointed with.
KG5W Rating: 2015-07-01
Outstanding, Reliable Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is my second Mosley. I had a TA-33Jr and bought a new TA-33 because I also bought an amplifier for HF. Assembly was a snap, as Mosley makes it simple using common tools for assembly. I use oxygen sensor anti-seize copper compound I buy at Carquest and everything slips on easy. After propping it on the tower, the antenna was perfect on SWR and handled full legal limit with no problems. Great antenna, American made, and first rate. No fussing with motors, frustrating adjustments, and first-rate workmanship. A great addition to anybody's station and heard the world over! Receives great also!
K9PLK Rating: 2014-10-02
20 YEARS Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Great beam ! Up 20 years an you cant beat it no matter what!!!!!And I had a few!!!!!!!!!
W5QC Rating: 2011-12-15
Great Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Great antenna, I have had this antenna up for 19 years through bad winters and cold hot and wet, no maint has been done on it. I have rg-58 coax on it, contacts everywhere with good signal reports to this day. I am fixing to replace the coaz with good low loss cable and do a good clean up on it. Well worth what I paid for it, I bought this used in 1991.
KD1RV Rating: 2011-08-02
Excellent Performer Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had this antenna up on a 28ft tower at 30ft for over a year. The antenna went together easily as well as up on the tower. The SWR on 20m phone is from 1.3:1 to 1.7:1 at the high end. This can be expected at this low height with some trees close by in the front yard,yet I'm still amazed at its performance. The SWR's on 15M and 10M are well witin spec. also. I will be putting it up another 10ft. next year and I will write another review on the TA33M

Performance wise? Here's a sampling of some DX I have worked with this tribander with 100watts and 1KW. Z3,VU,HS,VK,ZL,OD,JA,VP8,P2,Yb,HZ,9K,YI,9M6,FO,V5,BD,TJ,RA,ZA,HV,ZD8,ZD9,5R,and most recently VK9, and ST0.

The TA33M stood up to the most bruttle winter we've had in along time here in NewEngland,and also from severe storms this summer producing winds up to 75mph gusts. After those storms passed I was amazed to see the TA33 with no harm done.

Will I buy another Mosley again? You bet I would.


KD1RV
WN9D Rating: 2008-11-15
Solid Performer Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned this antenna since late 1994. It naturally performed great on a 55 foot tower at my previous QTH. After over 10 years of storage here at the present QTH, I mounted it on the garage at less than 20 feet above ground, due to physical limitations (long story).
It performs suprisingly well at this low height, and I get good reports while operating barefoot. Most of the time I don't need the amp, but when I do the amp loads up quite nicely.
The Mosley is a good, solid, and simple design that performs well. Spare parts are readily available.

'73, Randall WN9D
G4VVQ Rating: 2007-04-09
Great Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Hi Fred in England, very pleased with performance of the Antenna, have had some problems, vswr poor and not being able to get 100 watts from the radio up the antenna, decided the best way to nail it down was to take the phasing rods off and feed the two elements seperatly, as the antenna is sold without the warc dipole i thought it would be ok, after doing that the antenna worked perfectly, although i think using phasing rods works ok, but it's just a problem telling which driven element is causing the trouble, i used the 1-1 balun i was already using to feed the 12-17 dipole and connected coax feeder to 10-15-20 section and wound a choke, 5 turns 6 inches inside diameter...all works ok now,i suspected i had a trap down, due to lightning, but their all ok, believe the original problem was corroion at the inner ends of the driven element, as the plastic seals had come out and got lost, the performance on tx and rx is good, vswr now is flat right across the board, 100 watts out on all bands now, and more with the linear, best wishes, good dx, Fred g4vvq.
K2VI Rating: 2006-10-20
never need the amp Time Owned: more than 12 months.
What can you say about this great design,last 25+ years and super gain and rejection.I have a ham buddy about 4 miles south of my qth with a force 12 c3 18' boom model.my little ta-33 original renders the same signal report most of the time,the other times my mosley is an s unit stronger.By the way his beam is 8' higher on his tower.Another point is his front to back rejection is almost non existent compared to the ta-33.he hear stations in the opposite direction about 2 sunits stronger but i hear the ststion we are beaming at the same or 1 s-unit stronger.I owned a cushcraft a-3s and it worked fine although the swr was high on 20 and 15.over 2:1 it preformed fairly well.If i ever have to purchase another hf yagi i will try the ta-33 classic.slightly more gain and rejection.regardless of what they say about mosley i belive it is sour grapes.If you want a real preformer and an antenna that will outlast you get a ta-33.