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Reviews For: Hy-Gain AV-620 Six-Band Vertical

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Hy-Gain AV-620 Six-Band Vertical
Reviews: 38MSRP: 599.95
Description:
Six-Band Vertical 20/17/15/12/10/6M, no traps, coils, radials, 1500W, 22.5 foot
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.hy-gain.com/Product.php?productid=AV-620
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
14383.9
LA5RT Rating: 2011-10-02
At this price, I would have expected everything to fit Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Greetings. I just received and assembled this antenna.I bought this antenna for us dollar 600 at my local store here in Scandinavia.The only reason I didnt send it back to seller is what Ive read of its good performance.



1)
In bag 1 :
Manual tells:
2 x partno: 656-1750S, 6-32 x 13/4" Screw SS.
Physical screws are 6-32 x 1-3/4" Screw SS.

The below is not what I would call good craftmanship
[url]http://home.broadpark.no/~jeik2/bilder/bilde3b.jpg[/url]

Smaller parts was easy to sort out:
[url]
http://home.broadpark.no/~jeik2/bilder/bilde4b.jpg[/url]

There is wrong perspective in FIGURE C, manual, sketch at top right of manual sheet.

Its very difficult to get perspective view correct between the sketch in FIGURE B and skectch at midpoint of FIGURE C as it seemes drawer has rotated antenna between drawing theese two sketches.
This is what confused me most in assembling.

In FIGURE F, Linear load. CK er screw doesn't enter more than half way into CK.
The length of CK doesnt fit in (too long).(Asuming length of CL is correct.

My judgement is just from assembly. From what Ive read elsewhere regarding performance, Ill give it a strong 3 or weak 4. The service was ok, but I had to pay for freight when returning bad parts.

Some pictures of assembly:

Section BB
[url]http://home.broadpark.no/~jeik2/bilder/bb.jpg[/url]

Section BC
[url]http://home.broadpark.no/~jeik2/bilder/bc.jpg[/url]

[url]http://home.broadpark.no/~jeik2/bilder/bdbc.jpg[/url]

Stubs mounted
[url]http://home.broadpark.no/~jeik2/bilder/stubs2.jpg[/url]

73's de LA5RT

KK9H Rating: 2011-05-09
Excellent multi-band vertical Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my AV-620 in 2001 to replace a Cushcraft R-5 that had succumbed to the effects of weather. This was prior to MFJ having bought HyGain and I don't recall any problems with putting it together other than it has many parts requiring careful assembly. Since I already had a 3 element yagi for 6 meters, I did not install the hardware for that band. The antenna went up easily and required minimal adjustment to get it to resonate exactly where I wanted it to on each band. In fact, this has got to be the easiest antenna to tune of any I have experienced. It was recently taken down, after being up for nine years, to inspect it and there was no visible deterioration to be found anywhere. Once reinstalled, all bands continued to resonate exactly where I had set them nine years earlier. I have not noticed any significant change in SWR during rain or snow and all SWR curves behave just as shown in the specifications. My AV-620 is installed on the roof of my house and I run a kilowatt through it regularly with no issues. I strongly recommend that the AV-620 be guyed with some sort of UV-proof daycron rope about 1/3 down from the top to protect it from high winds. I am convinced this is why mine is in such good shape after nine years. When I first bought it, my DXCC total was around 150 entities, I am now up to 318 with practically all of the difference attributable to the AV-620. That includes pursuing many DXpeditions successfully on multiple bands. I definitely would recommend this antenna for anyone looking for a non-radial required vertical.
K8OPV Rating: 2009-11-16
Works great for me Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased this ant. new in 2000 and put it on an outbuilding where the bottom is 25' up using a small 3' roof tower. It was guyed with nylon line about a third of the way from the top and it has performed flawlessly since. There have been several 50-70 knot winds and lots of ice, but no damage. The SWR on all bands is close enough that I can use the autotuner in my rig.
N9VR Rating: 2009-08-23
Works Well Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The assembly isn't bad, other than having to re-drill a half a dozen holes that were off center from the factory. SWR came out very good untill I raised it up to 45'. Then the 20 meter band was lost. Lowered it back down, added some length to the top and raised er' back up. Works well on all bands now. I have it sitting on top of a T6 Log and it performs as well as the log in most cases. This antenna sure bends in the wind though, so far so good but still wonder how long it will last.

Bill N9VR
IW0GVG Rating: 2009-08-21
Good antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I mounted the AV620 antenna at 5 feet above ground.

SWR measurement(SSB point):
20 mt 1.5
17 mt 1.6
15 mt 1.8
12 mt 1.3
10 mt 1.3
6 mt 1.2

My strument is Diamond SX-200
I have a Icom IC706 MKII with only 100 watts.
I used guys the center radiator.

The result is very satisfactory.
Good antenna.
W8MIS Rating: 2009-04-06
No Wet Snow/Ice Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Put this antenna up last fall. Seemed to be a little flimsy but looking are specs seemed it may work. Worked nicely on the bands, but in the wind sure looked like could bend. Only a slight curve when winds would subside. However this week we had some heavy snow and some freezing and it has a very bad bend that will not come back. I supect that the design is not would it should bet it will break soon. Beware in ice/snow conditons.
DH4SC Rating: 2009-01-25
Good antenna but.... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Good antenna wich allows you to work a lot of DX stations. Good radiation angle. The AV-620 is made of very good materials and has a nice and strong design. The SWR on all bands is excellent and can be setup very easy. But you should spend a little more time to have a perfect setup especially when the antenna is roof mounted. The AV-620 should be guyed with light nylon ropes when mounted on a high or windy location.
The antenna is well done at all but some of the holes for the scews were drilled not as exactly as they should be. No problem to fix this little mistake but MFJ should improve their quality control!!!
KV9L Rating: 2009-01-10
Great Antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased it used for $75 and this antenna replaced my A99 recently. All I can say it was a huge improvement both locally and DX wise. I almost didn't install the 620 as I have a Gap Titan that could have went up as well, the Gap isn't going up as the 620 is a keeper.

The construction of the antenna is fine, sways a bit but it is sturdy. If you are looking for multi-band vertical that needs to be elevated fairly high off the ground... I say this one fits the bill quite well. Very happy with it.
KK5DR Rating: 2008-11-27
Performs, if mounted high. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I got the AV620 as an interum antenna until I build a new beam, but after using it and finding that it performs very well, even for a vertical, I might keep it up permenantly.
I like the design of no traps, coils, capacitors, or other lossy tuning systems, the tunable stub system is easy to adjust and independent for each band, however, the hardware is somewhat complex to install. The manual was OK, if you pay little to no attention to the text, and use the drawings to construct it.
I mounted mine at 60 feet above the ground to the base of the vertical, the top of the antenna is at about 83 feet off the ground. It performs very, very well on all the bands I tested it on, near equal to the beam it replaced.
I did have a problem with 20 meter tuning, the tunable element was far too short to allow the center resonante point to be in the middle of the band, I had to add a 9 inch long tube to the top, and now it works fine. I think it might be due to the height above ground that I mounted it, de-tuning the vertical.
As I get older, climbing towers and handling big beams is getting very difficult, so this vertical might be the way I need to go to make it easier to maintain, since the vertical is light weight and easy to handle. The key to making a vertical perform is to mount it as high as possible, even if it has little to no gain, it will perform when it is at or above one wavelength (at 20M) above the ground.
The AV620 is DC grounded to the coax shield and the mast mounting bracket, via an RF choke inside the matching network box. It is possible that a nearby lightening strike can blow out this choke, so to check that the choke is good, place an ohmmeter across the coax input in the shack, it should read below 1 ohm, if it reads a very high resistance, the choke is open and should be replaced. This check should be done at least once a year, or more if your area has lots of thunderstorms. Be sure to completely disconnect the vertical whenever a storm is expected in the area.
If your the type of ham that dislikes traps, or coils on your antennas, the AV620 will make you smile, and even better, it actually works.
K9GTJ Rating: 2008-06-30
More Than One Year Later - Great! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It has been more than one year since I installed my antenna and I want to take a moment to review it again.

The antenna is still working flawlessly after a harsh Indiana winter and some very active spring/summer storms. The SWR was easy to tune during assembly and has remained tuned.

One concern I have seen mentioned is how flexible the antenna is and after several strong thunderstorms and winds over 50 MPH, the antenna sways but has never been damaged.

So how does it do? I use it mainly on 6, 10, and 20 meters and I have made contacts all over the US and Canada.

It doesn’t require anything more than the built-in tuner on my Icom 746Pro to keep the SWR perfect even in rain and snow conditions.

Other than the very poor assembly manual (with an excellent chart for SWR tuning), it has been a great antenna that requires no ground radials and can mount on the roof a home on a small lot.

http://www.ap1.net/antenna/ground.jpg & http://www.ap1.net/antenna/roof.jpg