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Reviews For: Yaesu ATAS-120A

Category: Antennas: HF Mobile & Accessories

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Review Summary For : Yaesu ATAS-120A
Reviews: 119MSRP: 369.00
Description:
The ATAS-120A is the upgraded, more weather resistant version of the ATAS-120. Leave comments only on the ATAS-120 "A"!
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
24.51193.9
WA7NTL Rating: 2018-02-23
Non-mobile Evaluation Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I originally purchased this antenna to use with my FT-857D mobile in my pickup. $400due to a property purchase I wound up using it in a recreational trailer with a metal snow roof. This is review is based upon this fixed location. As are retired engineer, I can say that producing a mobile antenna with moving internal components which is exposed to the physical stresses of wind and weather, and be robust enough to provide years of service under $400 would be very challenging design criteria indeed. I have to concur with others that a sound ground is paramount. For mobile operation, the ground must be solid from your antenna mount to the battery. This would require refurbishing the ground straps to the frame. Without such ground integrity, the resulting various impedances will stymie the tuning process. Having a metal snow roof provides a magnificent ground plane. I also have the rig and snow roof connected to a copper ground rod driven into the ground. It loads up on flawlessly on 40 meters through 70cm. Despite the not so good band conditions, I get 5-7 to 5-8 signal reports from Europe. For a portable set up, it's very streamlined and being able to load up on so many bands is a big plus. Once spring gets here, I'll continue with the truck installation and provide a follow up review on my mobile experience.
2M0LDT Rating: 2017-12-13
better than some say Time Owned: more than 12 months.
i suspect the poor reviews are due to not having a good enough earth .. ive been through that, thought it was crap, THEN i got a nice chunky earth strap and it works a treat every time.. 1 star knocked off as it would be nice if it did 80M and its kinda expensive
ive owned this for over 2 years and use with an 857, on HF and 6 but uhf / vhf is possible with a duplexer, but i prefer a separate antenna for that.
VK3FOAC Rating: 2017-09-24
Great resonant antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
If you’re looking for the magical antenna which will work 100% out of the box, this is not the antenna for you.

If you’re looking for a great auto tuned vertical antenna for 40m - 70cm, and are prepared to get your grounding or counterpoise right, this is for you.

I’ve installed this antenna at my QTH. I have limits on height and size of antennas. It sits on top of a 2 inch mast 4 meters off the ground. I’ve attached counterpoise wires for HF, Cut to 1/4 wavelength and I can not fault the results I’m getting. It’s resonant it gets out well with 10w. I am very happy with what I have now. It is outperforming a 4:1 OCF I had. My issue with the OCF was not enough height.

Contemplating a second one for mobile operation.
ON4XA Rating: 2017-05-31
Now perfect Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Hi all, after my review of Oct 30, 2011; probably my antennas has some manufacture problems. So, after a year it was totally out of service. I contacted Yaes, explaining the problem, and I could buy a new one with a nice discount. I use this new antenna since mid 2012 without any problem. Antenna works great. Little ugly because I glued water repellent paste up and down the antenna and silicone on the screws and stinger areas, and no water problem anymore. Antenna resist 150Km/h on diamond magnet tripod and can be tuned when driving. Vy 73
XE1EC Rating: 2016-12-18
Great Antenna when properly grounded Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is a great antenna.

Pros:
- A great match for the FT857D for mobile operation.
- Very easy to use while driving, tunes at the touch of a button from the radio.
- All power and control is done via the same coax feed line.
- Overall great performance for a mobile antenna.

Cons:
- Requires great grounding.
- Al coax connectors need to be VERY tight or the antenna will not move, this is a constant complain from some users reporting their antennas not moving at all... tighten the coax connectors and the antennas will move.
KK8ZZ Rating: 2016-11-16
Works Great, Easy Operation Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Good antenna ! Have this mounted on the roof rail of a Honda Pilot using a Diamond K-550L clamp-on mount. (L=larger... the size of the roof rail is considerable larger than many other cars' rails). Took time to make a short braided ground cable going from the mount (between the SO-239 mount and the bottom of the hole it fits through on the 550L) and then direct to a large bolt which held the lift gate arm to the body of the car. Total length of the 1 inch braid is about 8 inches in my case. There was bare metal under both ends, which I coated with No-OX and tightened everything down well. The cable from the ATAS-120A ran down inside the lift gate and into the Pilot with a little 'drip loop" to prevent water getting into the car. Once the cable was attached to the FT-891, I ran another short ground strap from the radio's ground screw (not the mount screw) directly to chassis ground. Added a couple of clamp-on RF chokes to the power cable and remote control cables leading from the radio to the control head up front, turned it on and initialized it, and the ATAS-120A has worked perfectly ever since. Great unsolicited signal reports, and works well in rain (the new watertight boot that is provided with the 120A works well). Band conditions have been wayyyy down over the past few months, but I'm very happy with the ATAS-120A and FT-891 combination thus far (and I'm comparing that with my previous antenna, a "Little Tarheel II"). While I know that any short antenna is a compromise, the ATAS-120A doesn't seem to be much of a compromise to my mobile operations thus far. Highly recommended, just remember it loves GOOD GROUNDING. Wax it once before winter. Rinse it off every now and then. You take car of it, it takes care of you ! YMMV

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Earlier 1-star review posted by KK8ZZ on 2011-05-26

Looks great, works when it wants to. Quit after short time each. Went through two, never again.
KI7AQJ Rating: 2016-03-20
Not sure what the problem was, but.... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I don't know why, but I will give this one a 5. I suppose it will counter my bad review. I have to remember it is only a mobile antenna. I have had it apart twice since buying it. There is no weather boot on this one, so I will have to put some silicone where the whip goes in. These do like to get cruddy & corroded inside. It refused to tune, and would just run up or down and give up. I had plenty of counterpoise, but it had come apart inside from vibration, and the ball bearing contacts were rattling around in the housing. I put a tiny dab of the crappiest epoxy I could find on the fiberglass core, after I screwed it back down. I may need to take it apart again, so I used just a dab of some thick Devcon 2 minute epoxy. I fixed that but, no soap. It still would not tune on HF at all. The transceiver is an FT 857D. The control head had an unfortunate encounter with a bucket of water. I cleaned it up, dried it out, and the ATAS 120A has been working as well as it possibly can for what it is. It actually works quite well for a mobile its size. I ran an MFJ analyzer on it, and on HF the SWR is usually no greater than 1.3:1. 1:1 is pretty common. The FT 857 is happy with 1:1.4, so push the "TUNE" button again, for the same or different parts of the same HF band. On VHF/UHF the SWR has peaks of up to 2:1, & drops to 1:1 across the usable bands. It is not a great VHF/UHF or even a super great HF antenna, and the 857D is not really a great receiver either. They are fairly good, but both have some design issues that make you want to slap someone in the accounting and design departments around. It is a pretty good mobile antenna though. It is just not really made for the shock & vibration encountered in severe mobile use. I have used way nicer screwdriver antennae. Once you get the ATAS grounded, fixed, and the ATAS & 857 or 897 talking to each other, they do fairly well. I kind of doubt this antenna will last very long on the road though. I don't know how many more cleanings it can take before the coils get worn down. I will probably shim the core so the wipers roll across a different part of the coil. That sounds like a plan, if it makes it that far. I got it used. The problems were in "both" the ATAS 120A "AND" the FT-857D. Somehow, the FT 857 was just not getting any SWR feedback from the ATAS to know where to stop, AND the ATAS's coil wipers had come loose. Until I fixed both issues, it just refused to work at all. Having taken it apart, the build quality is not that good. The screw holes are misaligned, but not quite enough to be a form of keying it for reassembly. It just comes across as sloppy manufacturing to me. You can force the screws in in 3 positions. Only one is correct, and it does not line up as well as it could or should. I find that rather disappointing in this day of modern precision manufacturing with CNC machines. Having seen what is inside these, and no better than they are put together, I may take a stab at making one of these myself. It sure won't be too hard to improve upon it.
EDATMORSTR Rating: 2016-03-04
Not Tuning Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Trying to use the 120 with the 857d. Antenna not moving in any direction. In down position and staying there.
Using Breedlove mount, Good solid ground. Had long jumper to put battery voltage at mount from jumper to mount ground reads battery voltage. Have tried to move on bench with 12v with no luck. From what I read on the internet this is typical of this antenna. Should have bought a Tarheel.
Overall a very bad experience with this antenna. Probably end up sending it back to Yasue.
KJ4TQ Rating: 2015-09-08
Can't get mini coax replaced. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The antenna worked great on my pickup truck. I fed it with the Yaesu 857D. However, the tiny coax failed and I tried many times to contact Yaesu America to get a replacement. At least 6 emails and not one reply from them. The silence is deafening from their service department. I've never had a problem with the 857D but I wonder if I did would I get the same response? Equipment is only as good as the service you get. Buy this antenna but hope you never need anything fixed.
NJ6K Rating: 2015-07-31
it works when it wants to Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I used the ATAS 120 on my Jeep TJ for a year or so and I worked the world with it,along with the 857D its a good combo ....However if you ask me if I would ever buy one again? then I would say NO, THERE ARE PROBLEMS some times it would get stuck,and sometimes it wouldn't tune,(it was grounded very well) and It doesn't like rain,I still have a 857D but I have it hooked up to a Little Tarheel II,in the end I would go with the Tarheel I think Yeasu needs to do a little better job on quality control. by the way its priced they are real proud of it. 73