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Reviews For: Hy-Gain AV-640 Eight-Band Vertical

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Hy-Gain AV-640 Eight-Band Vertical
Reviews: 70MSRP: 449.99
Description:
Hy-Gain 8-band Vertical 40/30/20/17/15/12/10/6M
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.hy-gain.com/Product.php?productid=AV-640
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15704.2
OE3JTB Rating: 2016-08-26
Now ok Time Owned: more than 12 months.
MFJ sends me now direct from USA the needed spare part,
Now I am very satisfied!!

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by OE3JTB on 2007-01-06

My R-7000 is blown up, so I need a new one.
R 8 too expensive, so I decided for AV-640.
Setup is easy, also many spare parts included.
First raise , SWR could be better. Modifications were done, as described in the manual than
SWR is on 40m much better, also on the other bands SWR 1:1,5 is the highest SWR :-).
Also 6m is good.
So for this price a good choice.

W7OTQ Rating: 2015-02-06
none better! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have only had the av-640 up for a few days but I am VERY impressed! It is mounted on a tripod on my roof at about 32 ft. The received signals were much stronger than I had hoped and the antenna tunes with 1.3:1 across 9 (Yes, it works on 80 too!) bands. It is a very quiet antenna as well. I live within about 150 ft from city power lines and I have no noise problem. Rig is Kenwood TS-450s and the blanker seems to help a lot. I give this antenna 10 stars! I have worked s.africa,new zealand,japan and all over europe with 15-20 watts! WELL WORTH THE MONEY!
KK9H Rating: 2014-10-01
Still excellent performance Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Three years ago I wrote a review on the AV-640. My experience with it over that time has been very positive. It was tuned to near the middle of each band and the measured SWR curves have remained unchanged. Fortunately, it has survived several powerful storms with gale force winds of over 70 MPH, but I should mention that I do have it guyed with nylon ropes as suggested in the manual. My AV-640 is mounted about 15 feet off the ground on a telescoping mast achored to the side of our porch. As a DX antenna, its performance has been excellent. It has helped me go from 318 DXCC confirmed when I put it up to 329 now. More importantly, it has been a a key component of my being able to add 30, 17 and 12 meter endorsements to 5BDXCC and completing WAZ. I feel that as an end-fed 3/8 wave vertical with only 40, 20 and 30 meters having loading coils is a clever and effective design. An antenna tuner is needed only on some parts of 40 and the upper section of 10 meters. I have had no issues with the matching system while using up to 1KW on CW and phone. but I do carefully keep RTTY to no more than 500 watts per the antenna's specs. Four other members of my local ham club now have them and they have been very pleased with theirs as well.
VA3LUK Rating: 2012-12-09
not bad Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I live in Burlington ON,so on October 2012 I had some wind from hurricane Sandy not so strong like NYC and antenna still working I give only 4 because I have problem with SWR on 17 m when is rain, otherwise I have no problems with it.
K5DSQ Rating: 2012-09-28
Update Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This is an update to my Feb. 23, 2012 review. The antenna despite my original doubts about mechanical integrity has held up very well. The week after my first review we had several thunderstorms with wind gusts in excess of 55 MPH. The only thing that bent was my support mast. I used 10 feet of 1 ½” electrical conduit pipe instead of heavy walled pipe as suggested. With that replaced the antenna is working well. Results on all bands are as previously reported. It is nice to be able to switch from 40 all the way to 6 meters without tinkering with the outboard antenna tuner. This is a very good limited space antenna.
WD8AAM Rating: 2012-02-08
I asked my ham friends about the AV-640 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Considering limitations, and what Hygain says are the specs, this review made me purchase an R-8 Cushcraft. I thought this was a review that others should know about, as this was real life usage, down south USA.

One ham friends experience: He had the AV-640 vertical installed for about two years. Had to replace base loading inductor twice, it overheats and melts. I was only running about 350W and the antenna is rated at full legal limit. Also they advertise their hardware as stainless steel, most of the bolts rusted out at around one year in the weather. I rate this as barely 'OK', if you take precautions during use. The inductor is expensive.
N7TVV Rating: 2012-02-01
Continues to be a great vertical!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Since my first report in September, 2008, the antenna has performed very well. In spite of heavy snow and ice loads (which have slightly deformed the 40m cap hat, maybe 2-3 degrees), and several wind storms with wind velocities exceeding 50 MPH, the antenn remains intact. This is despite NO guying of the antenna mast itself. No problems with the mounting structures reported elsewhere, or with the matching network. Expect some VSWR changes with weather on most bands (especially with snow/ice loads).
I have had great contacts on all bands, except 6m, where I'm not active.
I continue to rate this antenna tops in it's class. It delivers the best bang-for-the-buck, in my opinion. Still a 5, in my book!
N6YJA Rating: 2011-11-04
base broke after 1yr. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is a follow up to my review in 2001.

I agree strongly with KC5TJG and others who also saw the the base as being too week. Very poor design as the brackets are too close together to provide enough torque.

Spring 2002, just after I complained to Hy-Gain, brought another windy season of days on and off gusts up to 56mph (no where near the 80mph claim) where the base brackets snapped! I already did what I could to keep it tight but snap it did. It hung at a 40 degree angle for months before I could bring it down from atop my tower. I solved the problem by removing the aluminum base with its 6" bolt spacing and shoved a steel pipe up its bottom. It's been up that way since. Other than this fault the Hy-Gain AV640 is a terrific antenna.

Oh, as a point of reference in the 1970's I worked summers as an assistant to the plant engineer at Alflex Crop. in Torrance, CA while a student at USC in Los Angeles. I know how to tighten bolts....LOL.
WB6ANT Rating: 2011-10-04
Glad I Bought It! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I'd recommend that anyone who assembles this antenna to not be in a hurry. There are a lot of parts, and the assembly is not exactly a "walk in the park"! But certainly it can be accomplished with some thought and patience. The tuning charts are quite close - good SWR readings and I didn't retune anything after installation.
I have the antenna mounted about 9 feet above ground. I'm about 6 feet tall, and the drooping counterpoise whips still easily clear the top of my head. I have been pleasantly suprised at how well the antenna performs. 40 meter bandwith is a bit narrow, but still the antenna is a good 40 meter performer, especially when you are working stations a 1000 or more miles distant. Within California, my 40 meter dipole is 1 - 2 S-units stronger - to be expected. On the higher bands I have received good to great signal reports from Japan, Australia, New Zealand and of course all over the United States. Fit and finish is good. Quality of the parts is excellent and none were missing or damaged.
I hace contacted Hy-Gain twice about the antenna and both times I received prompt and knowledgable service.
The antenna is a bit pricy, but then,8 bands - I does a lot! Well pleased with my purchase!

73,
Jim
K2TJR Rating: 2011-07-14
Huge immediate improvement! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was on the verge of selling off my Yaesu FT100D because of the poor HF performance I was experiencing. I had been usung all sorts of home brew dipoles. At the time of this writing I have an off center fed Widom that was supposed to resonant on multiple frequencies and I am still unable to make any satisfiying contacts other than NVIS since it is only 20 feet AGL. Since the Windom was not resonant at any but the odd harmonic frequencies I was forced to use a tuner and even tuning was not producing the results I wanted i.e. poor reception and low output dispite having a good tune at less than 1.4:1 SWR.

I had read nothing but horror stories about vertical antennas especially multi-band verticals. Having to run dozens of groud radials seemd like a daunting task too and I was about to give in and throw the dipole high into the trees around my property and run a very long coax or ladder line to the shack until...I read about the Hy-Gain AV-640 "Patriot".

I could not find anyone saying anything bad about it with the exception of a few clearly dissatified users with a bone to pick with MFJ customer service.

My experience was the same as most but different that others.

Yes the instructions could be clearer on a few points. Most of the errors I made were my own fault not reading fully and comprehending before assembly or tuning.

I had no missing parts, holes mis-drilled and even had quite a few spares nuts and bolts left over. If I dropped anything in the grass or on the floor I did not need to hunt for it, just grab another from the stock provided.

And performance...WOW, I've never had such good signal strength and have never made contact so far from my QTH. It was only Minnesota but I could never talk much out of state. Since then I have made numerous contacts and am working on may WAS and keeping my FT100D too!

Is it the best antenna in the world? For my needs, YES! Others will disagree but all things considered, for the price, ease of assembly, (be sure to read the manual a few time through completely BEFORE starting and BEFORE tuning and you should be fine) muli-band operation without a tuner, no gound radials, no lossy traps...it all works for me!

It does not have to be 100 feet in the air to work well. In fact it says not to put it up high another plus for me. I'll have it a few feet above the roof line barely 18 feet AGL. I can stand on my roof and tune it but I did that already attached to a 5 foot pole in the back yard. It needed only minimal tuning if assembled per the instructions, READ THEM FIRST!

And DO NOT cut the spokes to length, install them full length first and the check the tune. I have to go back and lengthen a few to get it back into that sweet spot on a few of the bands.

I think you will like it alot, I do. Ted K2TJR