Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes
Reviews Home

Reviews For: Waters & Stanton 80PLUS-2 80/40/20M Antenna

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 : Waters & Stanton 80PLUS-2 80/40/20M Antenna
Reviews: 3MSRP: 79.95
Description:
The 80Plus-2 designed by G3OJV is a compact antenna that covers the three popular bands 80, 40 and 20m. Measuring just 15.8m (52ft) in length it is ideal for small gardens. For an even smaller garden, the system can be erected as an inverted V and will take up a horizontal length of around 12m (40ft).
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.wsplc.com/acatalog/Wire_antennas.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0031.3
M0LEP Rating: 2010-05-24
A disappointing but educational experience Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have space enough in my garden to hang a dipole for 40 metres, just. The best end support I can arrange is 7 metres above ground, and at the other end it's nearer six metres. Not ideal, but could be worse.

I went looking for an antenna that could cover 80 metres as well, and chanced upon the "80 Plus 2" design by G3OJV. The description made it sound fairly promising, and it was short enough to fit into the available space, so I bought a kit. Having read the instructions through several times, I put it together and strung it up more or less horizontally. I then set about trying to tune it. It quickly became apparent that a transmitter and SWR meter wasn't going to work. An antenna analyser revealed the resonance frequencies near 20 metres and 40 metres, and they were a long way low. Another re-read of the instructions picked out the comment:

"Whether you use the antenna as an inverted V or as a horizontal dipole does not really matter, although the final dimensions will differ a little."

I figured I would have to find out what was meant by "a little". One thing was clear; the tuning stubs were not going to be sufficient. I found a couple of places where folks had recorded apparently successful tuning of this antenna design, and concluded that I'd have to remove a portion of the ladder-line section. I took out about four inches (on each side). That brought the 20 metre resonance to just below the bottom of the band. The 40 metre resonance, however, remained rather low. It didn't get close to the bottom of the band until I'd removed three feet (yes, feet!) from between the end of the ladder line and the choke. In the process, the resonance on the 20 metre band shifted up a bit, so that instead of being just below the bottom of the band it's now just about at the top of the band.

At this point I've got minimum SWR readings at 14.350MHz (SWR 1.6) and 7.030MHz (SWR 3.0) but it isn't clear where the 80 metre resonance is. There's one slight dip around 3.1MHz (SWR somewhere around 11 or 12) and another rather deeper dip around 4.5MHz (SWR near 7 or 8). I'm not convinced I'll manage to persuade either of them to play nicely and I'm not sure which one to aim at, anyway.

Disappointed reports like mine are not that hard to find. I've found only two detailed positive reports, though. They are:

* http://www.g4ilo.com/watson-80plus2-antenna.html
* http://www.markm5mkw.force9.co.uk/antenna.htm

One of them mentions a published detailed description of the antenna, and I can't help wondering why a copy of that description isn't included in the kit along with the instructions.

For the time being I'm going to investigate alternative solutions to get me up on 80 metres, and I'm setting the "80 Plus 2" aside as an interesting but disappointing educational experience.
GW4PJQ Rating: 2006-04-17
Not good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I needed a resonant antenna for the lower bands but have restricted space. The 80 plus 2 seemed the solution. I built the antenna as described and put it up with the balun 25ft agl. With the trimming sections completely removed resonance was way below 14 MHz on 20m. On 40m again with the trimming pieces removed the resonance was way below 7 MHz. On 80m I had a modicum of success with resonance occurring at 3.65 MHz but the bandwidth was hopeless. The load was way beyond the ATU in my IC7400 as well. I must also add that the construction is awful and there is no way it would withstand even moderate wind for very long.
G8KVP Rating: 2005-07-27
Disappointing Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I really wanted am antenna that offered true resonance on the bands for which it was going to be used in my smallish garden and this one seemed to be it. First impressions were very good. The antenna comes as a 'kit' which basically means you have to thread the main wire through the 450ohm ladder line and attached the chokes. Stubs are supplied to make tuning easy. Here came the first problem, Having removed the stub on the 20M section it's lowest swr was still too low being about 13.971Mhz. But no matter the bandwidth is wide enough on 20 to cover the part of the band I wanted. Both 40 & 80 tuned up fine. I placed resonance at 3.730 & 7.130Mhz and went to try it out......

My first three contacts had me hoping I'd hit a winner. On 80M I worked into the States 59, then two contacts on 40M again to the States again 59. Wow was I impressed or what, then it rained.

The instructions that came with the antenna tell you that rain may lower the resonance of the antenna 'slightly'. Well:

On 80 3.730 went to 3.687
On 40 7.130 went to 6.878
On 20 13.971 went to 13.462

Having such a small bandwidth on 80 & 40 this change meant that I could not operate without an external ATU, the very situation I was trying to avoid. The internal ATU on my FT-1000MP is good for 3:1 but this antenna had moved way out of it's range on the frequencies I wanted to use. I contacted W&S for their comments by email but heard nothing.

So in conclusion, if you live in an area which gets any rain at all, this antenna might not be the one for you, shame I live in the UK.......