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Reviews For: OPEK HVT-400

Category: Antennas: HF Mobile & Accessories

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Review Summary For : OPEK HVT-400
Reviews: 60MSRP: 60.00
Description:
HF/VHF 8-band mobile antenna. 120 watt maxiumum power handling. Freq: 80/40/20/15/10/6/2 meter & "air band". Use jumper lead to change freq./band. PL-259 mount. Retractable telescopic whip for best TX/RX.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.opektech.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
24.5603.7
WN3R Rating: 2012-05-06
Brand New Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just got it yesterday and working hard to get it tuned up. The setup is for SOTA. I have it mounted on a 4' tripod and use one counterpoise of varying lengths. So far with 1.3:1 or better SWR, I got it to tune on 40, 30, 20, 17, and 12 meters. I had to make a couple of stingers as the one supplied was too long. In the case of 30m, I had to remove the telescoping section as well as it was too long. Email me if you want the cutting chart. wn3r@arrl.net. I have not yet transmitted with it. It is still on the analyzer. I'm not interested in 80m as the counterpoise is too long.
W8DCB Rating: 2012-02-11
HOLY COW!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I got an FT-857D and wanted to start doing some mobile work. So I picked up the HVT-600 and installed it on my truck, tuned it to 17m and had a 58 report from SD. Later tuned it to 20m and had a QSO with a station in the Azores and recieved a 5/5 report while I was mobile.
For the price, you cant beat it.
Pros:
Price $79.95 at Universal
Easy to use and adjust
seems to be pretty sturdy.

Cons:
The little set screw for the whip has stripped out already, but ni biggie.
Have to stop the car and get out to change bands.

Not much else to say yet. Great antenna, Great price. Good DX!
VK2CKK Rating: 2011-10-04
Great Travel Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Cant understand why this antenna does not get 5/5. $ value nothing comes near. Have used in mobile operations local and abroad in VK. Gives good results. Have had "good signal for a mobile station" reports running 100W.
You do have to make sure you set up correctly, once you have mark the whip and the job is done. Have only used on 15m, 20m, & 40m. Works fine with my MFJ mag mount. Dismantle and it fits nicely into your luggage. Have had no issues. Cant go wrong for a $50 spend.
ZL1PO Rating: 2011-08-21
A compromise antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned one of these for some years now and only recently made good use of it.Then I bought another two for my other vehicle/portable ops.Mostly used on 80m i.e. 3615,3825 and 3850.
I have not tried tuning it for VHF,UHF.
It is importand for multiple band operation to spend some time pre tuning and logging the total whip length for each band of operation.Use this as a referance for each time you make adjustments to change band of operation.Ensure the grub screws are firmly tightened and seal off with some clear nail polish or the like.
Make up and keep close by a spare jumper wire.
Only install and remove by turning the knurled base section.

A few words of warning:
I am not sure if someone else has already mentioned the following.
Install a inulated disc washer inside the PL259 base connection of the HVT-400 antenna.
The HVT-400 antenna does not have a insulated disc washer inside the PL259.
The HVT-400 PL259 connection has a larger than normal amount of metal exposed around the centre pin in the form of a metal washer.
On some SO239 antenna mounts the top of the threaded section tapers in towards the centre pin.
If the HVT-400 is mated to one of these mounts and bottoms out on installation the centre pin may go to ground!

Over all a value for money antenna.

Pros:
The low price.
More appealing to the eye than as some other antennas.
Low wind loading.
Easly to install,tune and remove.

Cons:
Fragile.
Easily damaged and or detuned.
No insulator disc inside the PL259 base.



AL7QL Rating: 2011-06-28
A great little antenna for the price. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have owned the OPEK HVT-400 for a while and intended to use it exclusively for field days or emergency communications. However, we just relocated from AK to NM and I set the antenna up in my ham shack to test my Flex 1500. I did not expect to receive a lot of stations but the radio's waterfall lit up like a Christmas Tree. I monitored stations in CA, AZ, NM, OK and KY. A great highly portable antenna that will be used in my ECOM jumpkit.
N4HAL Rating: 2011-06-25
Worth the $$ Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After some home brew and ham stick antennas, decided to give one of these a try. Tuned it up on 40m and got a SWR of 1.3 over a fairly broad range. Went to 20m with only a plug change and it gave a resulting swr of 2.3. Not bad without a tuner or retuning. As I mostly work 20 and 40 m,am pleased so far. Now we'll have to see how it holds up. For my installation performs better than a hamstick for each band.
KG6UTS Rating: 2011-06-15
Good after teaking Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought a similar HVT-600 used for portable ops rather than vehicle mobile. There are two different length adjustment charts on the web so just used those as starting places. The antenna gets mounted on a 10ft piece of 1" conduit with a counterpoise/radial. It seems the antenna is sensitive to the radial configuration so tweaking is needed as the installation changes. I adjust for an OK swr near my operating freq the fine tune with a small mfj tuner. Operating barefoot/portable with an FT857D in central Baja Ca I got 58-59 signal reports from NC, FL, etc on 20 and 17 meters. There will be more experimenting on other bands but so far it does what I need.
73!

EdZ KG6UTS
Loreto BCS
WB4WTN Rating: 2011-06-11
Good For The Price Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this antenna at Dayton this year and I'm still putting it through its paces, but overall I'm pleased with it. After a little experimentation I found a whip length that enables my TS-480 ATU to tune 10, 15, 20, and 40 meters. I just change the jumper and don't touch the whip. It won't tune 6 or 80 , but I don't operate on those bands. Since I just do casual HF mobile operation this works fine for me. YMMV
W5IEM Rating: 2011-05-25
Excellent Performance for the Price Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I really don't know if you can get much better performance for the price of this antenna. It is not a screwdriver as it has to be manually tuned by moving the whip around and changing the plug, but I am using it with a Kenwood TS-480SAT, so I can set it up for a band, use the tuner in the radio, and have worked stations in the Czech Republic.

Well worth a shot with this antenna...
KM5TC Rating: 2011-05-20
Good Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Put it on a tri-mag, on the roof of my GMC p/u
no alternator whine, no ingnition popping, 20m
qso's and in the eveing on 40m checked in on 7.195. I set the stinger per instuctions, hit the
tuner and made contacts. Equip is a 857d and a
ldg 100+ tuner. Put it on my PT Cruiser, worked.
Your mileage may vary. 73's KM5TC