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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
NZ9Z Rating: 2011-05-18
Broken Time Owned: more than 12 months.
We've had an R8 up at on the roof of a technical college club station for about five years. It worked well -- no complaints.

This spring we had an ice storm and strong winds. The antenna ended up in 3 pieces on the roof! Yes, we had the R8 Guy Kit positioned as per instructions. I suspect that the icing and strong winds bowed the R8 in the middle. All the guys held, but with the bowing, the tip of the antenna must have lowered, the guy rope(s)still holding it vertical. Finally, the bowing was too much and the antenna broke.

On talking with a Cushcraft tech, he suggested guying the R8 about one-third of the way from the top -- lower than the instructions said. I suggested a second set of guys about halfway up the antenna. The tech thought that would be a very good idea. Both of these sound better than the Cushcraft guy instructions.

A replacement R8 is on the way -- we are going to give double guying a try.

73, John NZ9Z
KB6HRT Rating: 2011-05-12
Update of my R8 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
UPDATE
I was using the R8 ground mounted, one day there was a Hale Storm and the backyard was covered with hale, my R8 CAME ALIVE that day, so I added 3500' of radials under it, an now the R8 works even better, I also have a Zero 5 43' vertical that I interchange with the R8 at different times of the year an it works equally well using the same mount . ham radio is SO SO much FUN!.....................KB6HRT
K6RF Rating: 2010-11-05
Good all band antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I hope my review of the R8 is not too long but wanted to share some insight as to what I experienced in assembly and also some helpful hints.
The R8 I acquired is a pre-MFJ production by Cushcraft when they still made the antenna in their factory. It was previously owned but never completely assembled or had RF put to it.

Reading the reviews about the antenna here on eham.net is a good way to learn what others have experienced with any amateur related product. I studied the problems encountered by others and made my notes on what to watch for and what I might prevent on my R8.

I spent considerable time assembling the antenna between two chairs out on my patio.
Each day I was recheck my measurements. After assembly I read over my notes from eham.net reviews and decided to 1. Eliminate the loose connection problem between joints. To do this I doubled up on the worm type hose clamps. The stainless ones cost me another 20 or so dollars but I felt it would be well worth it. 2. Possibility of water getting into the traps. I took non conductive silicone and even thought it appeared Cushcraft had attempted to seal the black top area, I added a thin bead of silicone around each trap. Not trusting the black plastic matching network to be waterproof as it was, I also applied a thin bead around the edge of the cover of this box and around the mounting screws.

The antenna was finally put up on a push up mast at 25 ft above ground. I guyed the antenna at the lower top hat using non stretch poly line.

My first test with RF on the antenna showed SWR off the charts. Right away I suspected something not right in the matching network box. I let the antenna down and removed the
Matching network and brought it in to my shack to examine. Everything looked in order
And still had that new smell. Yet I just knew something was wrong. So I finally removed the circuit board which holds the choke and balun. I could not find anything visible. Then on a stroke of luck I took a pin and lifted up the balun just enough to see under it and found one of the wires broken off the circuit board. You would never see this without prying the balun up just a bit. A quick solder job after reinstalling the PC board back in the case I reinstalled it on the antenna. My efforts were not in vain as all bands showed SWR readings much better than factory spec.

I have never been a big fan of verticals but am well pleased with the ability to switch bands very quickly, something I could not do with the CF Zepp due to tuner settings.

I use the antenna on digital modes only and don’t listen to the noise in the speaker so the higher noise complaint I read about in the reviews has not been a problem for me.

The antenna has preformed well and I am pleased with it’s performance, especially in DX reports.

I do believe the secret of any factory made antenna is take your time in assembly and then recheck your self many times. For the 150.00 I paid for a basically new R8 was well worth it.

73, Hal
W5EHM Rating: 2010-10-22
HF okay, 6 mtr zero Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the R-8 in early Aug 2010 and installed the antenna within two days of delivery. The performance on HF has been acceptable but six meters is unuseable.

- On arrival, the package was bent at one end and virtually open at the other. Either UPS was a fault and/or the packaging from Cushcraft was poor.

- Two of the antenna sections were not drilled properly and that required a call to Tom Stone of Cushcraft and he immediately sent new parts.

- Several of the screws did not extend beyond the nylon nuts at least two threads (this an aircraft production requirement) and, therefore, did not provide the needed friction capability.

- In terms of performance, the R-8 performs as expected on HF bands, however, the tuning chart listed in the instruction manual is not even close for 40 meters. I set the 40 meter stub for 18 ½ inches and it's still resonant below 7.000. This required another adjustment to bring the SWR within limits. This is okay for me, as I utilize the lower end of 40 for cw, but for some, that use SSB and CW, this will be an issue. In other words, the band is extremely narrow. Six meters does not work, regardless of where the tuning stub is set. SWR is infinity from 50.000 to 53.990. (with the exception of the mast, there are no metal surfaces within 50 feet of the antenna). When asked if Cushcraft had an engineer I could talk with Tom Stone advised no, MFJ had purchased the production rights and that is all. Tom did send a new matching network (MN8) but that did not correct the issue (and neither of us thought it would).

- I did read a ham in MT used the antenna un-guyed. We (AR) do not have the extreme weather and winds that part of the country deals with, but I would not install the antenna without guying. I do believe the price is too much for the parts received but it does provide the necessary guying that I feel is necessary.

In summary, in terms of the HF performance and the bands I use the antenna for, I like the performance and would give it a "4". In terms of the performance on six meters with my FT-2000, I would rate it as a zero.

73, Mike / W5EHM

















KG6NID Rating: 2009-10-26
VERY BENDABLE !! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought this vertical after reading as many reviews as I could find. I read about how this antenna needs to be guyed. That is an UNDERSTAYEMENT !! lol. It works great !! I love it !! I feel that the guy kit should come with the antenna though instead of charging an additional $55.00 for the guy kit. When an antenna bends this much in a moderate wind (5-15mph) it should come with it. Even with the guy kit installed as suggested the antenna was still moveing around pretty good. I would suggest this vertical to my friends with the warning about how intolorant it is in the wind.
Like I said, I love the performance, but I hate how it moves in the wind.
WA2WNJ Rating: 2009-08-13
Good hf antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I HAVE HAD THIS R8 FOR 6 YEARS. Never got it to work on 6 meters, but great on hf. I have a small lot and no room for anything bigger. R8 has always been guided....
KD5J Rating: 2009-08-13
Great HF performer Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
In 20+ years of ham radio, my purchase of the Cushcraft R8 earlier this year was the first time I have ran a vertical on HF.

It took about two days at a leisurely pace to put the antenna together. It has a lot of parts!

The antenna is very, very top-heavy because of the loading coils at the top of the antenna. Two people can probably put this antenna up but I put it up with three of us and we got it up quickly without any problems. I do not believe a single person could ever put this antenna up by themselves.

I chose this particular antenna because I would not have to put in ground radials. Instead, the R8 has several base mounted radials configured like a contemporary ground plane antenna. They are actually stainless steel mobile antenna whips.

I noticed that in the parts bag were several small yellow warning stickers that the manual instructed you to place on the end of the radials. The manual also states the antenna should be mounted at a minimum of 10 feet above the ground. I figured this part of the antenna manual was written by a lawyer who was worried about liability if someone walking by the antenna got poked in the eye by a radial. I ignored all of this as I had the ideal mounting location of a post concreted in the ground already. This location allowed me to mount the antenna about 4 feet above the ground.

I recommend guying the antenna. The antenna would be a better value if it were to include the guy kit. However, some light duty twine or nylon rope (very small diameter) will suffice. The guy ropes also steady the antenna when putting it up.

I recommend checking the R8 with an antenna analyzer when it is put up. I adjusted the top stinger on the antenna per the instructions for the CW portion of 40 meters. The analyzer had the 40 meter resonant point at about 6.9 MHz. The rest of the bands were in good shape. The antenna was readjusted and it looked perfect on all bands 7-50 MHz.

There is good SWR bandwidth on all bands except 40 meters, where it is particularly narrow.

The first station I worked was UA and have worked many other DX stations since then. I worked ZK2W on the first call with 100 watts on 30m CW and 30m RTTY.

The only problem I have with the antenna is that it is DEAF on 6 meters. Not much of a problem for me because I got this antenna for HF. Not sure, but this may be attributed to the fact that it is mounted so close to the ground.
KD7HVL Rating: 2009-07-06
Good Vertical antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
the R8 vertical antenna works as described, and like others have stated if you can hear em you can work them. I think this antenna is good for someone on a small lot, someone that needs one antenna for many bands etc. The antenna does not need any radials or counterpoise other than what is provided, seems to work well. I find it has at my location about 3 to 5 s units more noise on 40 then my dipole. Therefore you need to take that into consideration. However this is typical of any vertical antenna. I do have mine guide just above the first trap and it seems to do well there. It will do the job for which I intended the antenna to do, however I did not take into account the increase in noise. Price is up there, and I think its a little to much, but that is my opinion. Rain does not effect the antennas' operation at my QTH. I hope this helps someone with there decision, just remmber the increae noise level. TNX
N1FDX Rating: 2009-05-03
Worked well but needed repair often. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had the R8 up for about 6 years. In that time while it was working if I could hear I could ussually work them. The performance was maybe 4 or 5 however I rated it a 3 because at least every six or so months I would have to take it down and repair either a trap or a bad conection between sections or something. I am in the process or replacing it with a Butternut HF9V which has turned into a project but does perform a bit better. My website has details.
http://home.comcast.net/~n1fdx
N7GR Rating: 2009-03-30
Excellent Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My antenna has been in the air (un-guyed) for 9 years. It has survived 9 Montana winters and done quite well. So survivability is not an issue. I found the antenna well designed and easy to put together.

I chase DX and have been at it for awhile. The proof of how effective an antenna is how consistent it is with respect to varying conditions. Since I have been a ham for 35 years I ought to know.

Right now, my DXCC totals are 337 Mixed, 334 phone and 332 cw. Not bad for a vertical mounted 7 feet above the ground 8 feet from my house. Another test is IOTA, I am currently at 670 and am waiting on another 20 or so. Again, not bad for a vertical.

The truth is this antenna works and works well. Yeah it can be a bit noisy at times but what vertical isn't. Just the other morning I worked VK9LA, VK9AA, 3B8CF and VQ9LA all in a span of 10 minutes on 40m cw. From here, that is haul any way you cut it.

I am very satisfied with its performance. So much so that I sold a beam I was going to put up on a tower. Sure it takes me awhile to get through the pile-ups than the guys with the big stuff, but I get through and that is all that really matters.

I don't think you will go wrong with this antenna. Cushcraft has done a nice job in designing this antenna for tight spaces that does an effective job for the ham that likes to dx but has limited space.

Good job Cushcraft. Please keep up the good work.