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Reviews For: Cushcraft R-8

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Cushcraft R-8
Reviews: 105MSRP: 450 to $480
Description:
40-6m omnidirectional vertical antenna
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.cushcraftamateur.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001054
K6KAV Rating: 2001-01-27
Additional Info on the R-8 Time Owned: N.A.
I live in a Mobil Park in Redding, CA. I am getting back on HF after 15 yrs. I cannot have a tower so a long wire or a Vertical is my best bet. After reading some of the reviews I was looking at Cushcraft and Butternut, but the prices is what scares me but the one review with the pix really scared me. I do not have a lot of money and I had a butternut back in 1981 I hope to beable to work 80-10 but not the 30 Meter band. I cannot do CW due to several disabilities
I may have to wait. a friend is making me a dipole. and I have two mulberry trees in our yard about 65 Feet apart. I am open to some help?
Thanks,
73's
Kristyanna
K6KAV
KD6UU Rating: 2001-01-27
First antenna that needs Viagra? Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I would give this antenna a "good" in overall performance. I can't get much bandwidth on 40 meters and am over 3:1 on 6 meters, but it works fine on 10-20 meters and I have gotten good reports while it was in the air. But in all honesty, I would give this antenna close to a zero in structural design. It is far too top heavy. See this pic of my R8 before I took it down for safety reasons: http://www.qsl.net/kd6uu/leaningcc.jpg
The installation instructions should read, "take the flimsy 25 foot fishing rod and attach the 16 pound bowling ball on the end. Now try to erect it vertically so the bowling ball stays balanced at the top". The two giant traps at the top swing around in the gentlest of breezes and trying to get the top of the antenna perfectly vertical is near impossible for me. It looks like it needs some Viagra. I wrote to Cushcraft and asked for suggestions, such as sacrificing 40 meters and removing that topmost trap altogether or swapping the antenna for the R6000. They won't even write back after they sent a snide comment about SWR being the only thing they could help with! Very bad form. Other hams have had the R8 break and Cushcraft has apparently not repaired the antenna during the warranty period because the damage was due to the wind. Well, doh! Just because it CAN be built doesn't mean they should manufacturer it. Apparently, Hygain has a similar antenna that is lighter and uses lightweight tuning stubs instead of heavy traps (see reviews of AV-620 and 640). These antennas might be a much better choice.
WB5DNT Rating: 2001-01-12
Great Job Cushcraft Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I replaced a decade old R-7 with the R-8, and am so happy I did. If you can't get a beam up, and use an amp and tuner, THIS IS YOUR ANTENNA! It is not as "delicate" as the R-7, and handles mismatches much better. It worked out of the box, with good swr profiles. The redesign makes this a whole new vertical, the best I've ever had. Great DX antenna!
KC3HN Rating: 2000-12-13
It will survive high winds! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I purchased and installed an R8 in July. Performance is consistent with previous reviews. I did want to comment on the antenna?s ability to survive relatively high winds. My R8 is attached to an 18? mast consisting of 10? of 2? EMT and 10? of 2? aluminum tubing (6063-T832, 0.058? wall thickness) telescoped from the EMT with an overlap of 2?. The mast assembly is sandwiched between a pair of 2?x6?x8? pressure treated boards. The pressure treated boards were place into a 4? deep, 10? diameter hole. The hole was filled with concrete. A pair of ½? bolts attach the mast to the boards. With just the lower bolt installed, the mast with antenna is easily raised and lower by one person. The antenna is located in the clear so it gets the full force of any winds.

We recently experienced strong winds by Western New York standards with sustained velocity over 40 MPH for 5 hours. Peaks gusts of 72 MPH were recorded a few miles from my home. I am happy to report that although the antenna swayed violently, it was not damaged. The upper aluminum section of the mast did bend about 15 degrees, but the antenna did not. Further, its performance is unchanged.
KG9SF Rating: 2000-12-07
A Good-Working Antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I put up the R8 after my old vertical was hit by lightning. I use it with my Icom IC-746, which has a built-in automatic antenna tuner. This combination gives me virtual 1:1 SWR across all bands. Without the tuner, the R8 meets manufacturer's printed SWR specs, except bandwidth on 40M is slightly less than advertised. I assembled the antenna very carefully, including steel-wooling all of the aluminum tube sections to a bright finish and coating all mating surfaces with Penetrox. I feel this helps assure good performance. I would be pleased using the R8 without a tuner, but with a tuner it's great. My only complaint is the cost. It sure doesn't look like $400 worth of material, but supply and demand govern, I guess.
AA4V Rating: 2000-10-24
improvement over R7000 but.... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had been using an R7000 at my seaside location for about 4 years. The antenna
exhibited the usual problems: changing SWR when wet, blown traps, relatively
narrow band width on several bands. When I read the reviews of the R8, I thought
I might try it out. It went together fairly easily (LOTS of parts) and I thought
the instructions were straight-forward despite the fact that there is not a full
'readable' view of the completed antenna anywhere in the instructions.
The results? The R8 is 5 feet LONGER than the R7000 and in my fairly windy
location, it moves around a LOT. I have it mounted on a piling on the end
of a 150 foot long pier over salt water. The base is about 15-20 feet over the water
(depending on the tide). The SWR and bandwidth specs are as reported AS
LONG AS THE ANTENNA IS MOUNTED ALL BY ITSELF IN THE CLEAR. After
installing the R8, I also installed my 160M inverted L (supported by a 40 foot high
aluminum mast) about 15 feet away from the R8. The SWR on several bands
changed (the worst was on 12M....the resonant freq changed from 24.900 to
24.500)....the other changes not too dramatic. A touch up with the tuner brings
everything back in line but defeats the purpose. I have used the antenna with
my tuner and Alpha 87A running about 1KW with no ill-effect. I have noticed some
electrical-like RFI in my receiver on 10MHz and am still traking it down. Nothing like
that was heard on the R7000. All in all, on the days that I don't feel like
raising my Tennadyne T-6 LP on MA550MDP motorized tower, the R8 works
like a charm. I think Cushcraft has it right this time....
VA7OJ Rating: 2000-09-19
Excellent HF vertical. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The Sunday before Labour Day, I assembled my new R8 on the patio. Labour Day, at 0930, a buddy and I went to work taking down the "fried" Hy-gain DX-77 and erecting the R8. By 1130 the antenna was up. I checked the tuning on all bands, and it is textbook. Even 6m is right on the money. All I did was follow the assembly instructions and tuning charts. 40m is somewhat narrower than on the DX-77 (2:1 SWR bandwidth = 150 kHz). However, it is well within the range of the Yaesu Quadra autotuner. The R8 is mounted on a 2-section push-up pole attached to the garden shed. The base is elevated 6 metres, and
the top of the antenna is 15m above ground.

Operationally, I am very pleased with the performance of the R8. With my first DX contact on the new antenna (around 0600Z), I got a 57 report from ZL on 40m SSB, with 1 kW PEP. The "grass" (baseline noise) level on the IC-756Pro spectrum scope is at least 5 dB higher than with the old DX-77, and I find I can copy weak signals much more effectively now. All in all, I can strongly endorse the R8 as an all-around multi-band HF vertical. The construction and materials are of very good quality; the R8 has only 2 traps (17/20 and 30m). Side-mounted stubs tune 6, 10,12 and 15m. The full length of the radiator covers 40m.

EA4AHD Rating: 2000-09-17
R8 - Great Job !! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have a short exprience with this antenna but I can say the next: Was easy to install it, only is necesary to follow the Cushcraft manual and all the bands will work fine at the first time. From EA (Spain) I have worked Australia some times in the first week ... was a good start !!! I think that the R8 is a good DX antenna. But if you can buy/put a YAGI ... do it. 73 de Ignacio, EA4AHD.
TI2ERS Rating: 2000-08-21
Tested at 100 w Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.

When I bought this antena my expectations concerning vertical antenas was very low. I have had a bad experience with a hustler ATV4 that never adjusted the swr. I took my time and put together the antena as acurate as possible then I mounted it on my balcony in a second story apartments. I tested 10 meter with exelent result but swr was 1.8 to 2.2. in 15 meters exelent result swr 1.1, 20 meter exelent result swr 1.1. in 40 meters I was not able to adjust it properly because the specs. said certain measurements but when tested it was something diferent. in six meters the measurement was put aprox 50,110 but the swr says 3.1 in the whole band spectrum.which is not very good. The other problem was that the clams which hold the antena in place are not made from a strong enough metal becase when tighten the tend to break off(this problem was quickly fixed by replacing them with stonger clamps).

K3IVB Rating: 2000-07-29
R8 Versus R7 Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I am giving the R8 a 5 for structural integrity and put on par in performance with the R7 which I had up for 5 years. Using R8 for several months now and feel that's a fair call. As for SWR, on the R7 I never could get it down on 30 meters and on this R8 it's the same story on 10 meters of all places. If you read the paper work that comes with these verticals, it does state SWR results advertised are taken with 250 foot of clear space around the antenna! That said, it's a wonder most people realize respectable SWR readings given the reason they are purchased in the first place. In my situation I don't come close to that kind of free space, but I am on a nice hill and get very good reports on all bands just like I did with the R7. I agree with the reports of time taken to build it, but it will be up for many years so no big deal. Six meters is the only reason I bought this vertical, and I am happy with the six meter performance and SWR realized. To me it seems if you can load this R8 or the R7 for that matter without much difficulity even when using a tuner, it will be heard no problem. The big plus I see with the R8 over the R7, is the additional six meters and the fact it doesn't look like a banana after a few strong wind storms living on this hill.