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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
KB2RXN Rating: 2005-12-04
Thumbs up AV-640! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just got the AV-640 less then a week ago. It took a few hours to install, would probably have been less, but it was cold out, and took periodic breaks to warm up my hands. It went together with relative ease. That issue of the lower holes not lining up in the fiberglass section. I just turned the fiberglass section around, or flipped it, and looky that all the holes lined up just fine. Got it together, and up in the air solo. Works great compared to my dipole, and can't wait to see the performance once I move it up to it's permanent mounting location. Currently only 2 feet above my roof on a vent pipe mount. Planning on getting it up to maybe as high as 10 feet on chimney, or tripod mount. So far so good on this antenna. As for tuning. I just did the basic install instructions on band lengths, no cutting, or pruning the spokes. This thing tunes up on all the specified bands (6m-40m), as well as on 80 with my AT-100PRo auto tuner. Definately give this antenna two thumbs up!

-Rob
KB2RXN
www.kb2rxn.com
www.wb2hww.com
K9UQ Rating: 2005-11-14
a fine antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
My luck with the AV-640 is about the same as the others. The antenna went together nice, taking me about 4-5hrs over a weekend. Sort your parts out before hand. They gave me a few extras.

It seems solid in construction, but some of the details were a little rough. The top tube section did not go in the right distance (off about 1-2cm). I sent an e-mail off to Hy-Gain and they got back to me and told me it should not make much of a difference and just see how it tunes up. A few of the bolts in the fiberglass base did not fit great, but I did not have to re-drill anything.

Where the antenna shines is in its ease of setup. I was putting this up on top of a roof and was not very excited about taking it down and putting it up a hundred times to get the darn thing in tune. This thing is BIG when standing on top of a roof, even with a second person to help. I put it up one time, took some SWR measurements, calculated where to trim and did it. After that no problems and the thing responded just as advertised.

As others have said, it is not a beam, but it does a good job and for the most part if I can hear it I can work it as long as the pileup is not too big. 92 countries in 3 months using this antenna at this point in the sunspot cycle is not bad from the Midwest.

5/5 for performance
3.5-4/5 for quality

Total about 4/5.
WD8NUP Rating: 2005-10-03
Hy-Gain...Low-Quality Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased this antenna at AES more than two weeks ago and still it is laying in my yard half assembeled. Between missing parts, damaged parts and poor quality I have yet to get it on my roof.
Here are the issues:
1) Matching box full of cracks. I'm sure it'll fill up with water at the first rain.
2) Holes won't line up during assembly. Had to re-drill several.
3) The "coil assembly section" would not slide into the next lower section far enough. Had to cut 1 full inch off of it to get the correct lenght.
4) One of the brackets used to mount the "capacitance hat" was missing.

Called Hy-Gain twice in the last two weeks, was promised missing and damaged parts would ship, still waiting.
Is this what "Made In America" means?
What a poor company...what poor quality control or should I say lack thereof. It's not often that I spend close to $400 on an antenna so forgive me if I expect what is promised.
I can only hope it works better when and if I finally get it on the roof.
WA5CUY Rating: 2005-09-30
Excellent Vertical Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've had this antenna for about a month now and it works exactly as advertised. I have it mounted up approximately 3 meters on a TV mast next to the house. It was not the easiest to construct, but the instructions were clear. I do have a suggestion, make copies of the pages in the instruction manual to avoid going back and forth between pages to see illustrations. I put it together with the recommended settings and haven't had to tune any band (yet). I'm most pleased with the antenna and recommend it for those who have limited space.
KX5L Rating: 2005-02-17
very satisfied!! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
After moving to another location which has no trees for my old G5RV to hang in, I decided to go the vertical route. Not ready to lay out the funds for a tower, etc. just yet. After reading many reviews on the AV-640 and others here and elsewhere, I decided on the AV-640 and have not been disapointed. The assembly was painless (did have to re-drill the holes in the fiberglass insultator, but not a big deal). The antenna performs great mounted just 10 ft. off the ground. I have it on a mast attached to the corner post of my wood fence and it seems to perform as well or better than my old G5RV that was 50 ft. up in the trees at my last QTH. Alas, not a beam at 50 ft., but I have worked a lot of DX and so far am very pleased.
2E1RDX Rating: 2004-06-19
very pleased Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
it took me a long time to choose the right vertical ??? I read reviews and solicited advice from vertical owners and read and re read
I then decided that for my location the AV-640 looked to be the best bet and I believe I made the right decision it came well packed and with no parts missing
it took me 3 hours to build from opening the box to checking the swr with it up on a 12ft scaffold pole ready to go I built the antenna from looking at the diagrams with a quick read of the instructions from time to time it was easy to build no problems experienced the build quality is excellent and swr is outstanding I didn't trim any of the spokes they are all as supplied and the swr is outstanding on all bands including 6m I have worked EA8,CP6,LU7,on 15m OD5,4U1WB,JW7,EA8,W9'on 20m CX5, on 40m all other bands I worked many Europeans and this is just the first nights operation today I have worked IW,SP,9A,GD,G,DL, all on 6m so all things considered I am very pleased with this antenna I will update as I use it more but so far it looks good
73 Ian
K6RB Rating: 2004-06-04
It works well Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I would have given it a 5 but for the misleading users manual and poorly aligned hole. It took about 4hours to put it all together, and I checked the SWR with it horizontally before putting it up. It checked out okay. I put it up using 4 Radio Shack chimney ratchet mounts on my wooden chimney and it's about 35 above ground. My first QSO with it was a YV4 on 40 meter CW. In comparing it to my 40 meter 2-el yagi (at 60 feet), I found at most a 1.5 unit difference in signal strength but, of course, higher ambient noise with the vertical. I used in the recent WPX CW contest as the antenna for the second radio. It worked very well and added to my overall score. I'd recommend it as a competent multiband vertical.
KA4LKQ Rating: 2004-06-02
Vert satisfied! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Getting back into ham radio after being away for many years. Tower and beam had appeal but not yet given time, money, and construction issues. Used a Cushcraft R-5 before and got reasonable performance. Now use R-5 has camper antenna. AV 640 was easy to build and tune. Much better performance and with a 500 watt amp an easier choice than a gain antenna with tower. Other reviews swayed me to AV 640 and agee with favorable reviews.
EA2COH Rating: 2003-10-15
Works fine! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have got one for 2 months and works very well. I have worked without problems 3C0, BQ9, VK9C, FO/A, P29, FK, XZ, D88, KH2 and many more with only 100 Watts. The only bad thing is that the assembly is a little complicated. This antenna isn“t a 3 elements beam but works fine.
KC3QL Rating: 2002-08-17
SECOND REVIEW AFTER 10 MONTHS Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
It has been up for about ten months. The only problem that I have had was sudden high SWR on 20M.. Found loose connections in the factory preassembled sections. Besure to TIGHTEN ALL connections before you put the antenna up. Also do not trim the spokes for each band for ( CW / CENTER / SSB ) before hand , you will probably not need to, This is suggested in manual and I didnt listen. Had to replace some. SWR is now perfect all bands..

In comparison to all the other verticles I have used, I still like this one above those. I would buy it again...

There is NO perfect verticle but this one performs very well as far as verticle go !! It is not a dummy load HI !