Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Cushcraft R-8

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
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
W8BYA Rating: 2002-08-11
Makes a Great Wind Vane Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Previous to the R-8 I owned the R-7. The R-7 was a good all-around performer but did not survive a wind storm several years ago. The R-8 was purchased as a replacement. After talking to several friends who have installed the R-8 it was obvious that the antenna had some serious mechanical limitations. Everyone who I spoke with told me that the antenna will bend significantly at the base after moderate (20-30mph) winds. My aim was to stiffen the base section of the tubing before ever putting up in the air. I used a 3' section of hardwood dowel that was epoxy coated and force-fit up into the lower tubing section. Once the epoxy cured the antenna was assembled per instructions and placed on top of a 60' self supporting tower. Within 3 or 4 weeks we got our first spring time winds and the R-8 looked like a limp.....well lets just say that it was not a pretty sight. The antenna will bend and take a set once the winds die down. It makes a dandy wind direction indicator. Currenly the antenna is bent over at about a 15 degree angle. The antenna should not be sold without a guying collar and suitable out-riggers in at least 3 places. As soon as I get the time the antenna will be coming down and guyed to prevent damage. This antenna is poorly designed from a mechanical standpoint. On the air performance is about what I expected for an electrically shortended half-wave vertical with a minimal ground system. Performance on 40-m is 10-12 dB down from a 45' long reference Aluminum dipole element at 80' with stations greater than 500 miles distant at night. This dipole element is actually one-half of the Cushcraft 2-element 40-m beam which also got destroyed in a wind storm.....Are you starting to see a trend yet? Tests on 20-m compared to a medium sized 18' boom yagi shows it to be 2-3 SU down. Again, this is about what I would expect. The antenna SWR on all bands is acceptable with the exception of 6-m.
W4YHD Rating: 2002-08-09
Excellent Antenna! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have the Cushcraft R8 vertical mounted on a pipe that extends 8 ft. above the ground. The antenna was easy to put together after some careful study of the instructions. It is a two person job bringing the antenna to vertical and mounting so be sure to get some help. The SWR is very low on all bands except 40 meters where it produced the specified 150 Khz bandwidth as advertised. Performance is excellent on all bands 10 thru 40 meters. I have run full legal limit power into the antenna with absolutely no problems. Mechanical design is above average and it should hold up in all but the worst possible conditions. The antenna does have two "inductive" traps, one for 17/20 meters, and one for 30 meters. I can't really find anything wrong with the R8, except for the soft stainless steel U-bolts used for support mast attachment, which will break if you try to really torque them down. I really like the sleek look of the R8 antenna as opposed to the bulky appearance of the other designs out there. Performance has been excellent with many DX stations easily worked on all bands. No problem here running 1.5 kW in wet weather, or any condition. Also have a multi-band dipole at 40 ft. which I switch between and find that the vertical is better about 1/3 of the time. About what I would expect given the average soil conductivity in my area.
The Cushcraft R8 is a well made vertical antenna that provides an excellent low VSWR on all bands as specified, handles full legal power with no problem, and is not difficult to build after careful study of the directions. It is a little over priced in my opinion, however the performance is excellent! Every reason to get one.
CU2IJ Rating: 2002-04-30
A good antenna for quiet places Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I live in the Azores Islands, a windy place. I was glad with the performance of the antenna. It performed well even in QRP, were I made QSO's with Europe, USA and Asia with 2W RF.

Owever it is a big vertical. The manual indicates that no guyng should be made. It survived 3 or 4 storms with winds bellow 100Km/h. After that, in a relatively quiet day, the antenna main assembly tube got broken. It have sent emails to Cushcraft, but got no answer.

My advice: If you live in windy areas do not use this antenna. Mine last less than one year. The garanty does not work outside USA. It is an very expensive antenna.

Owever, in quiet places, it is a good performer.

Luis Pacheco

CU2IJ
K4FRC Rating: 2001-08-12
The R-8 from Cushcraft is the real deal! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Assembly was no real problem but watch out for the "U" bolts because they tend to freeze on you. I have mine mounted on top of a 60' tower and it has surpassed my wildest hopes for dxing 6m through 20m. This is the second vertical I've owned...it should have been my first.
K2CAD Rating: 2001-08-09
What a piece of Junk Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this since it had good reviews. Assembly was a nightmare, with contradictions in the instructions and illustrations that do not show what they need to. You need a mounting pipe that is about 5 inches in diameter in order for the supplied clamps to work. I installed it at ground level adn right away I could see that the design was not good. The antenna coud not support its own weight. The fiberglass insulator Borke in about 5 minutes. Dismantled and throw it in the garbage. I will go back to my Huslter antenna.
W4ATL Rating: 2001-07-15
Good Performer Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this antenna to take to the beach for a week of hamming. I hammered a mast into the ground and provided guys to stabilize it.

Assembly was a pain. The antenna base had a fiberglass insulator and it did not have any holes to mount the ring mount for the counterpoise. So off to the hardware store for a drill motor and drill bit.

The small worm clamps break easy. I broke two.

The U-bolts have nylon nuts. One of the nuts froze as I was tightening. I had to break it off. Back to the hardware store for a replacement U-bolt.

After I got over the pain of putting it together, the antenna worked great. Over 20 Countries 40-10 meters for the week I was at the beach. I would put this antenna back up for another portable operation.

If you are going to take this antenna on a portable operation, definitely put it together before the trip so you can iron out all of the bugs.
AC7CA Rating: 2001-06-25
Fantastic Antenna! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased the R8 a few months ago and got it set up without any major problems. I've had great luck with every band except for 6 meters. That's OK, though as I don't get on 6 meters too often. Like one of the previous reviews state, the clamps are a little weak, but a quick trip to Home Depot and $3.00 later, I'm good to go! SWR is low on all bands, and it totally out-performs my dipoles I had up! A great product!
KH6DC Rating: 2001-06-10
Excellent Update Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Cushcraft improved on their great R-7. The R7000 was a flop but made great improvements on the R-8 with the use of weather sealed inductive traps rather than the capacitive traps in their R-7/R-5 series. Had an R-7 which was 1-2 S-units better than the Hustler 4BTV and about the same as the GAP Titan DX. Heard about people who melted those traps when SWR was excessive. I had the R-8 up and running for about 3 months and with the same test station in Pennsylvania from Hawaii, I have 2 S Unit better signal report than with the GAP and R-7. I also get 2-3 S-Unit reports better than the Carolina Windom 40 I had up.

You have to follow the instructions to a tee, but some sections contradict later sections of the instructions so be carefull and read and understand the thing before attempting installation.

This one will be up for years to come until Cushcraft improves on it again with an R-9.

73, DE Delwyn, AH6OK
PA3DUV Rating: 2001-04-02
Solid performer Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought the R8 through their German dealer. The antenna was well packed, no parts missing.
Assembly took 2 hours. The antenna sits on top of a aluminium 21 meter (68 ft) tower. 3 meter (10 ft) lower sits a 3 ele FB33 triband yagi. Due to the length of the R8 you need a jig pole to mount the antenna. I used a 3 meter (10 ft) jig pole with a wide sling. The R8 hangs in the sling during assembly so the bending moment is taken by the jig pole. Then the clamps could be fed through the holes in the mounting plate and tightened. Please note the base mounting plate of the R8 is a considerable improvement over the previous tube mounting system of the R7 and R7000. An advantage of the R8 over for example the GAP Titan is that the clamps accept 50 mm (2 inch) tubing!
Then the coax was connected, I use a N connector on the cable and a N to PL adaptor on the R8. Finally I assembled the counterpoise rods. This is recommended because when working up in a tower the stainless steel counterpoise rods are a real pain. Please note this is a deviation from the assembly order as stated in the manual. Cushcraft could improve to pack some spare Nylock nuts and the mating screws for the counterpoise rods!
Especially in Europe a stainless steel Nylock nut with inch thread is hard to find.

After firing up the IC756 the SWR was checked on all bands. The SWR bandwidth is as advertised but please note that Cuscraft is not giving specific Frequency - SWR graphs, but only a table with the band and corresponding bandwidth. The R8 is used with IC KL500 amp.

The performance of the antenna is excellent. I did many a/b comparisons with the FB33 triband beam and found the beam on 20 meter approx. 2 dB better, on 15 approx.4 dB. Please note I used the S meter of the IC756 for these readings. The tests where carried out during my weekly contacts with ZL2BSJ, Wilbert in Wellington New Zealand. Since the propagation on these long distances (14 000 miles) sometimes varies more than 20 dB the difference between the beam and the R8 are neglectible. The difference was the most clear during path openings and closures. Then the beam picked up slightly earlier and longer than the R8. There where also some instances when the R8 was even doing slightly better.
Of course the front / back and side surpression is an advantage of a beam antenna but when the channel was clear the difference was hardly noticeable. Please note the R8 sits very high and complete in the clear with a total free take off over more than 8 km (5 miles).

Later in December and January the R8 was subject to some heavy winterstorms. Wind gusts of more than 55 miles made is move violently but the R8 remained in shape. After the storms I inspected the antenna and found loose screws on the BT1 and BT2 traps. Tip: buy 4 large diameter stainless steel hose clamps and clamp these over the trap screws. That will solve the matter.

So far the antenna has met my expectations and I am very satisfied with its performance. The antenna is now in use as HF vertical for my pactor gateway station. I can recommend this antenna to any radio amateur looking for a good quality general purpose HF vertical.
Dick Knol, PA3DUV
W1IQW Rating: 2001-03-24
Performance generally good, but VSWR bandwidth not as advertise Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've been using the R-8 for about 6 months with generally good results. However, I was not able to achieve the advertised VSWR bandwidth. My greatest concern is mechanical. I have the antenna mounted atop a MA-550 55-ft mast. At a previous location I was using an A3S and A3WS stacked. Even though the wind area of the R8 is much smaller than the combined areas of the two stacked beams, the turning moment produced at the base of the antenna is higher because the effective moment arm is longer. Prospective users should keep this in mind, and not skimp on the strength of any supporting structure if guying the antenna itself is impractical. Due to the high wind loading, I have kept my mast cranked down to its nested height of about 22 feet.