| 7Z1AT |
Rating:  |
2025-01-18 | |
| good bye cushcraft |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| The best antenna and the last antenna produced by the cushcraft company works like a thunderbolt |
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| N3FAA |
Rating: |
2020-03-22 | |
| Amazing Performance! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Purchased this not too long ago to replace a Spiderbeam that had fallen apart. You can read my eHam review on that. Total disaster.
She resides on a crank-up tower that regularly sits at the 30' level due to the high winds we get here. Even at that low height, with a little bit of power, I can regularly bust pile-ups and my first call percentage is easily 95%. Crank the tower up and it's game over.
I've worked everywhere in the world with this antenna including the hard-to-get DXpeditions. From Southern California, I can regularly work Japan and Hawaii off the back of the beam. California to Florida on 4.7w? Yep, just did that the other day with the tower down at 30'.
With the 40m add-on, I can work every band from 40-6, and for the craziest part of all...after sweeping the X-7 with an antenna analyzer, the SWR is great on 2m and 70cm. And in a moment of pure stupidity (or genius), I decided to try it one day. Not only does it load up , there's actually some directivity. Pointing it at distant repeaters is the difference between hitting them and not, and I directed it for a nice, easy 50 mile simplex contact on 146.52, so it is definitely showing directionality. Is it as good as a dedicated 2m/70cm beam? I'm sure not. Is it as good as my Diamond X-510? Hmmmmm...that's the next test.
Issues:
There are a few issues, but due to the sheer performance, I'm not going to detract from my 5 Star rating. A few parts were missing. There were 3 missing screwed for the 40m kit, which I was able to find at the hardware store. The "cush-a-clamps" were not included appropriately. The number was right, but the sizes were not. Of course they are back-ordered at MFJ, with no date in sight. I managed to make due with wrapping the elements with electrical tape to make due with the large clamps, temporarily.
The build is not as bad as some people are making it out to be. Days? Entire weekends? Weeks? Must be a bunch of amateurs, no pun intended. It took us around 10 hours, and that included mounting it on the tower and tuning it. Required no tuning at all, except on 40m. It would have taken a lot less time than that, but MFJ refuses to label the darn parts, and so many look alike that it's SO hard to tell the difference. A couple of the elements had to be reassembled due to that issue. How hard would it be to put some stickers on the parts themselves, so they match the manual? It would be so simple to have stickers on the element pieces, for example. Nope, you just have to measure and hope for the best. |
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| N0ODK |
Rating: |
2018-10-23 | |
| 19 Year Update. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This antenna has been on my 50 foot tower for 19 years and been great until last couple months. Brought it down and did total inspection. The antenna looked great like the day it went up. I followed instructions when installed. The problem was found the balun was bad, ferrite ring broken up. Replaced with a DX Engineering DXE-BAL200-H11-C 4:1 , 10K watt and all new LMR400 from DX Engineering.
This antenna gets into EU and Asia no problem from Minnesota. I sometimes use the AL-80B and no issues with or without high power.
I highly recommend this antenna for still in production. Auto tunes on 12 and 17 meters also. It has made it through some bad summer storms and also very cold heavy and snow winters.
The end caps on main boom also looked great. This time I drilled small hole on end of each one so any water in main boom can drain. It is ready for many more years to come.
Mike n0odk 73
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| HA4ZD |
Rating: |
2015-06-25 | |
| More support needed |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| This is a great HF antenna even on 17 and 12m bands. The highest SWR is on 17m 1.6:1 on all other bands is better. Good for dx-ing with QRP. Carefully assembled with the lubricant came in the box and riveted. No performance degradation in >12 years in windy area. Several amateurs use it even on 6m including myself (10W) up to 1kW power. Cushraft does not give answer what their computer simulation shows on 6m, can I use it and what is the gain, directivity... This week USA stations were received with >50mtrs RG214. Is it preformer, would it make sense change coax to a low loss one? No answer. |
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| PY1BR |
Rating: |
2013-02-06 | |
| A great antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I bought my X-7 in 2001 and has been a pleasure to use it. In 2009 I bought an antenna tuner (Palstar AT2K) and since then I can operate 30, 18, 17 and 12 m with a very good performance and power. The great advantage of the X-7 compared with other tri-bands is that the X-7 doesn’t have coils that can be burned out with RF power outside the operation frequency. In 2008 I moved the a different QTH and while unmounting we really see the very good hardware the antenna is made.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by PY1BR on 2009-09-02
After 9 years I moved to a new QTH where the X7 is already installed and working as before, excellent performance. Although the previous QTH was close to the sea its mechanical parts are in excellent conditions. I still live in a big city so this antenna is the best we can have installed in a top of a building. I’m very happy with XM240 and X7 in the same tower. |
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| N4HB |
Rating: |
2012-11-29 | |
| Exceptional Performance for a Tri-Bander and More! |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I installed the Cushcraft X-7 about 8 months ago and have now had enough time with it to make what I think is an honest opinion and performance observation based on my type of amateur operation. My main focus is DX and contesting. For about 20 years prior to the X-7, I used a Cushcraft A-4 and, yes, though I had to rebuild the traps and replace all of the original hardware with stainless steel, the antenna worked very well. I have also used other various antennas including mono-band beams and tri-band yagis during my many years of this wonderful hobby.
The bottom line is the X-7 is a superb performer! For its 18 foot boom length, low wind load, and mechanical strength (which was very important to me in my storm-prone QTH) I think it is one of the best antennas on the market today. My antenna is installed at 52 feet on Rohn 45G tower. You can see a photo of this antenna on my (N4HB) QRZ site. My X-7 weathered 2012 Hurricane Sandy's 55-70 mph steady winds here very near the Chesapeake Bay for over 24 hours without a scratch. On top of the other benefits, the price/performance of this antenna is exceptional. I would put it up against any antenna in its class, including mono-banders.
The Cushcraft design team got this one right. Their mission was to redesign the original A-4 tri-bander while maintaining its reasonable 18 foot boom length. Their use of the log periodic cell for the driven element and losing the traps in the driven and reflector elements of the A-4 seems to me to have changed a good antenna into a exceptional high performance antenna. There are still traps in the director, but this is a low current area of the antenna and trap loss is minimal. The input impedance of the antenna is 200 ohms so a 4:1 ferrite balun is used to provide a 50 ohm match. The SWR across 20, 15 and 10 meters is great and by using the log periodic cell driven element the antenna is useable with forward gain and with very acceptable SWR on the upper WARC bands (17 and 12 meters). My SWR on 17 meters is approximately 1.7 to 1 and on 12 meters approximately 2.2 to 1, which most amateur transceivers will handle with no issues.
There are some things you need to pay very close attention to during construction of this antenna if you want the good performance. Take your time, measure everything twice, then measure it again. This is not an entry level project! There are over 500 pieces of various screws, bolts, aluminum and other parts that have to go together. It is a complex antenna and took three experienced hams two full days to construct it. Several people have said that they had had trouble with the ferrite balun and subsequently found loose connections inside when they opened it up. I highly suggest that before final assembly you take the cover off the balun and check the hardware. We did that with mine and found that it was good, all hardware was tight as it should be. Because my QTH is near salt water I did add liquid electrical tape around all of the balun's internal electrical connections and sprayed the entire outside of the balun box with several coats of clear enamel to ensure that no water would get inside the enclosure. Another trick that we used was to apply electrician's conductive grease to every metal-to-metal connection as we assembled the various size aluminum tubing that makes up the elements of the antenna so as to make a good connection and help prevent internal corrosion later. I'd suggest this even if you are not near the water. As with any antenna project you will also want to check and re-tighten, if necessary, all of the SS clamps, bolts, etc. on the antenna before it goes in the air. This will take additional time, but you will be glad you did it. And, as I have on all of my antenna projects over the years, I spayed all the various bolts and screws with clear enamel to keep water out of the antenna as much as possible.
There is one big potential "gotcha" that is easily missed and is not discussed in the instruction manual (Cushcraft, me and my assembly team believe that you need to address this!). The flat aluminum straps that make up the feed system assembly come out of the box with a thin clear plastic film tape covering on them. You cannot see this film and it can cause you a major headache if it is not removed! None of us noticed this covering during construction. A week or so after the assembly weekend, and luckily while the antenna was on the ground on saw horses, I was inspecting it and re-tightening things when I noticed what looked like a small bulge of something on one side of the crisscross feed system. On further inspection I saw the thin film starting to peel. Be aware, it's on both sides of the feed system flat straps, including around the bolt holes, the electrical connections, and will act as an insulator, not a conductor. I had to remove the entire feed system to get all of the tape off. Some people have complained that for no reason their SWR would go high and their X-7 would not perform correctly. Wonder why?
Once you put this antenna together correctly and get it a reasonable height above ground, you will be amazed at its performance. You will not wait in many pile ups! I hope this review is helpful. I love this antenna! Good DX!
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| W0IW |
Rating: |
2012-09-04 | |
| Best tribander EVER MADE |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have owned 3 of these X7's antennas, and they are by far one of the best triband antennas I have owned in over 30 years hands down..
It has no rival !!! |
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| VE6AMI |
Rating: |
2012-02-27 | |
| One of the Best Bang for Dollars SS |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Short of spending a lot of dollars on separate 10 - 15 -20 monobanders, this semi-log antenna does not disappoint. If you want flat SWR values across the band, then you will need to go with a full size 4 element monobander of your choice. Just make sure to add the costs of a larger tower, heavier base and stronger rotator. For a small pistol DX station or portable operations - this is a great unit for physical size, weight and build. |
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| W2MV |
Rating: |
2012-02-27 | |
| Can use on 17 and 12 Meters |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Just an update. The X7 works with some gain and reasonable match (transceiver autotuner works well) on both 17 and 12 meters. This is a bonus! The driven element is an L-P array with some broadband characteristics.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by W2MV on 2009-08-05
I've only had my new X7 up for six days, but I notice a world of difference between it and my old Cushcraft A3S. I can work anything that I can hear, and calling CQ a few times created a pileup! That would not happen with the A3, which was a nice antenna, but the X7 is definitely a level above. Too bad 15 and 10 have been dead so I can't really say anything about performance on those bands...yet.
It would have probably taken me 2 days to put the thing together and double-check everything, so I had
Hudson Valley Towers do the work. With 2 guys and a helper, they took about half a day to assemble it.
It's a big antenna and not easy to maneuver compared to other antennas, but it was worth it for me.
Thw SWR is <2:1 at band edges on 20M, and <1.5:1 in the center. On 15 and 10 the SWR is even lower.
All 7 elements are pinned to the boom, unlike the A3, so they will stay level.
Stay tuned for further updates.
Alan, W2MV |
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| PY1YB |
Rating: |
2010-05-29 | |
| Great antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have my X7 more than 10 years. Replaced the old ATB34. Very happy with the antenna. I have already recommended and installed other 5 to friends. Very satisfied. Never had any problems of lack of parts during assembly despite the box having been damaged by UPS. Small parts were protected inside strong plastic bags. Manual and instructions clear and easy to follow. Very good results on air and excellent SWR. Use mine on 12 and 17 with tuner and it goes great as well |
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