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Reviews For: Comet H422

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Comet H422
Reviews: 50MSRP: 300
Description:
10, 15, 20 & 40M 'V' or straight dipole
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.comet-ant.co.jp/products/still/08.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00504.1
WX4AR Rating: 2011-05-12
Second Review Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is my second review of the Comet H-422 Rotatable Dipole. I’ve had the antenna now for 6 weeks. I have it at a height of 35 feet in the straight configuration. First off the SWR is almost perfect on every band now that I’ve adjusted it to what they call the “FM” portion of the bands.

Assembly was quick and easy and I have to admit it looks good when you look up from the back yard. The quality seems to pretty good.


On the 10, 15 and 20-meter bands I’m very happy with the performance of this antenna. DX is now a joy with a good chance of those stations now actually hearing me. 40 meters is a different story, QRN, QRN and QRN. I have a constant S-9 noise level on 40 meters. It’s so bad it really makes it useless on 40. With that said on my G5RV I have a S-5 noise level so it may not be totally the Comets fault and only time will tell.

Still as before from my first review, it’s the cost of this antenna that really bothers me but I did buy it. I still recommend the Comet but I have to say not as much as I first did.
KC0WMN Rating: 2011-04-15
Works very well 4 me Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I got my H-422 from a ham that had moved to an apt. not allowing antennas. The unit had fell from a 2 story house from a storm, it was bent but not kinked i took great pains es did a fb job on str8ing it. It mounts to the side of my trvl trlr at abt 15ft in Vee config. I trimed it to mid bands es dont need a tuner at all for phone. hitched it up to my tuner es i am doing digital, cw, es phone up es dwn da bands. I give the unit a 5/5 more easy to assemble than traditional di-pole es no guy wires. It will b a gud ant. for field day im sure. a bit pricey new, a great find in the dirt.
"73" Ray Smith KC0WMN
K2HU Rating: 2011-03-24
Worked great for me Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Very good rotatable dipole, had it up about 20ft and still worked a lot of dx even at this low height it worked pretty good on 40 mtrs.My radio's internal tuner could matched it on 12 and 17mtrs and also worked dx on these bands never had any problems with it.I wanted
more band coverage so i replaced it with a hy-gain vertical.
F5VHN Rating: 2011-03-21
Broke like the others Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Like the others have said, Good while it works, but .....

Having only used the antenna for WSPR (QRPp) and the odd 100w qsos. I was dissapointed to find the 'faulty trap' problem on 20m following this winter. It looks like I'll have to get my tools out...
I have contacted Comet about this and I am waiting for a reply.

It was good while it worked.
I bought it for about £200, new , which is about the correct price for this antenna.
If they brought out a WARC (30m-17m-12m) version I would get it.
NK8A Rating: 2011-01-29
Antenna works well Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have had this Comet H422 for about 4 months.I found this antenna to do the job for me.The 422 tunes under 2:1on 10 thru 40 meters.This antenna is much quieter than my good performing vertical.I can copy cw signals on the 422 that I cant copy on my vertical because of noise.The comet is mounted only about 25 feet high and I turn it with a light duty TV rotator.So far I have had no problems.After assembly I tuned the 422 with a MFJ swr analyzer.
MM6GLI Rating: 2010-12-23
works well most of the time. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Hi all, i thought i would treat myself to a new antenna after upgrading my licence now 2m0gli, was using a hustler 6btv.

I put up the comet up in the v configuration turning it with a yaesu rotator, but had to take it down a week later the dreaded 20m trap problem, water getting in ,swr on 20m off the scale and 40m just as bad ,which left me with 15m and 10m swr ok on these bands but with no propagation i had to make do with talking to myself!!

I taped up the plastic end caps on each of the traps with some waterproof tape and so far so good . I have spoke to a few hams who are using this antenna and they have all had problems with it !!! This antenna was not cheap to buy in the uk and i would have expected better build quality i give it a 3 ,
W4AMP Rating: 2010-11-18
20 meter traps no good Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The antenna burns twenty meter traps constantly. Even after keeping power output to 500 watts and watching the swr the twenty meter traps have failed for the second time in six months. Comet sent two replacements the first time.Antenna was purchased Jan. 2010. Did not install it until June. So in five months traps have failed twice. Antenna really performs when it works, but power handling grossly over rated. 1000 watts? No. 100 watts is more like it. Last Comet product I purchase, way over priced.

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by W4AMP on 2010-05-09

Ordered antenna with Dan at The Ham Station. It was shipped from Comet in California. Double boxed and very well packed. Mine came with the new balun that claims rating of 2500 PEP. Assembly was easy and pretty basic. Make sure the drain holes on traps are facing downward. I am a phone guy, so I picked the option where one hole is visible. The left (driven) element is 11.81 inches longer than the right. I wanted mine flat on the 40 meter phone band, so left tip was set at 62.5" and right tip at 50.74". This is for the "V" configuration, flat assembly is different length. Mounted twenty feet above ground on tv mast.
SWR is as follows:

7.1 1.5
7.15 1.2
7.2 1.5
7.3 2.0
14.1 1.1
14.15 1.3
14.2 2.0
14.25 3.0
14.3 5.0
21.2 1.1
21.33 1.5
21.45 1.7
28.1 1.5
28.5 1.1
29.0 1.1

Twenty is a little tight, but good swr for the dx window so fine by me. Have run 1k through the antenna with no problems. Mounted 20 feet from satellite dish, no rfi whatsoever. I am on a compromise lot and was trying to run a 80 meter dipole with tuner. Very lossy as you know. So I am very happy with the performance, design, ease of assembly, and the way the antenna was packed. Great value for the money.
G8CDD Rating: 2010-11-08
Works, but mechanically suspect Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought my ‘422 about a year ago but only got round to installing it in June this year (2010). It was mounted in 'V' format on a vertical pole, above the ridge line of the roof; the shack is in the roof space so the feeder length is quite short. The merit of this approach is that I can use an Armstrong rotator which is very convenient for the narrower beam widths of the 2M/70cm antennas that share the mast.

After installation the performance was OK, with acceptable VSWRs on all four bands when driven from a Yaesu FT950. From the south east of England I worked into Chile, USA, Canada, Cyprus and Israel, so I guess it radiated most of the power I fed it. For a while I was in the comfortable situation that “If I could hear them I could work them”.

After a recent wet and windy week I noticed the VSWR on 20M was poor and off scale at the top end of the band. A few days later it will not load on 40, 20 or 15 and I'm suspecting that it is suffering from the dreaded rivet problem, reported by others. Removing some soft rivets and replacing them with stainless ones is not a problem; but getting the darn thing off the roof will be most of a day's work, even with assistance... and then it’s got to go back up. I'm a bit cheesed off!

It would seem to be a good idea to brace the mid points of each side of the 'V' together with a non-conducting cord (fishing line?). I've not tried this but it should reduce wind flexing quite a bit.
M0PAW Rating: 2010-10-17
Great all round antenna! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Ok I bought my H422 6 weeks ago from Nevada here in the UK.
Firstly I have had numerous wire antennas for years (carolina windoms,long wires & G5RV's) with pretty poor results. I have worked the States only on a handful of occasions with VK & Brazil only twice (100W) using the radio on average 2/3 hours a week.
I have always had a blind spot out to the far east.
Since putting the Comet up I have worked VK ZL Kular Lumpur & Tiwan within 2 weeks it is most definitely a marked improvement.
I had it assembled within half an hour so no problems there. Mine is on a three metre mast in the V configuration in the back garden.
Just one problem in all, a nosey neighbour has reported me to the local planning office so I have put in for planning permission.
All in all a great antenna.
G0DOQ Rating: 2010-08-15
next best thing to a beam Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
if you don't have space for a beam this is the next best thing. worked the east coast 4 points up on a g5rv, also 5 and 5 into vk with 100 watts, all on a low part of the cycle.
assembly straightforward, except U bolts did not quite line up, but went in with a few gentle taps with a 1lb hammer.
a comment about my coax- aircell 7, 7 mil diameter and losses the same as rg 213.