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Reviews For: OptiBeam OBW10-5 (high performance 10 el wirebeam 20-17-15-12-10

Category: Antennas: HF: Yagi, Quad, Rotary dipole, LPDA

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Review Summary For : OptiBeam OBW10-5 (high performance 10 el wirebeam 20-17-15-12-10
Reviews: 34MSRP: 1,200
Description:
Description: Extremely efficient and unique wire beam for 20/17/15/12/10m.
Use of the fantastic OptiBeam direct coupled driver feed system.
Never seen before mechanical design.
Extremely robust due to an extremely special instep framework, designed by OptiBeam.
All wires pre cut and pre assembled. Assembly is a snap within 1 to 1.5 hours.
Optically beautiful appearence.
Not just a wire beam, this is a piece of art.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.optibeam.de
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00344.9
MI0JZZ Rating: 2009-05-19
amazing Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
i have owned this antenna for nearly a year now and for sure the best i`ve owned to date.after a few emails to tom DF2BO for advise we decided to go for the 10-5 wire beam which fits my garden (30ft X 30ft) with a little room to spare. the antenna arrived with`in 7 days from germany very fast and i was surpirsed that how easy it was to build and a nice swr across the board.

28.500 1.2
24.940 1.3
21.250 1.1
18.140 1.2
14.200 1.2

over the past year on the optibeam i`ve worked 138 dxcc with a few new ones such as HAWAII, WILLIS IS., THE CONGO, MINAMI TORISHIMA to name but a few. i wouldn`t hesitate to buy from tom in the furture and i`d highly recomend optibeam antennas to anyone.
MI0JZZ.......CHRIS
www.freewebs.com/mi0jzz
DB5ZQ Rating: 2009-04-19
Great antenna ! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I owned the antenna since May 2008. It was easy to mount and has a very good performance. The best result was to contact Ecuador and Bahrain with 50 watts. I mount the antenna on my KR400, 9 meter above the ground. You can see pictures on my web-site www.db5zq.de. I got the antenna from Thomas, DF2BO. Absolute no problems with the delivery and assembly of the antenna. I would buy it again ! Thanks Thomas, you have done a good job to develop and deliver this antenna !
DL1JET Rating: 2008-12-03
outstanding Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Hello,

after 20 years practicing amateur radio at all short wave bands using
a Windom (FD4) antenna I liked to satisfy my wish in having a beam
antenna usable in the the upper bands. Since it is not possible during
the local conditions (small premises with a central standing family
house in a suburban area) to have a single tower with a big beam I was
beginning to watch out for a more suitable (more "compact") antenna.
This I found in the OBW10-5 which I bought on the HAM Radio 2008
exhibition in Friedrichshafen. Initially I mounted a light aluminium
mast (Hummel Mini-Tower) at the gable wall of our house. The OBW10 10-5
is mounted after the mast top directly at the torque tube beyond the
rotary. At the beginning I had to fix a small assembly mistake that
was already described above by HB9TZR. I suggest to have a close look
to the assembly manual during connecting the emitter elements to the
supplier cable - everything is precise and sufficiently described. My
antenna is now about 15 m above the ground and about 5 m above the
first of our house. 2 m beyond I also mounted a additionally Yagi for
the 6 meter band. Then it came to the first test on the transceiver.
SWR on all bands close to the information provided in the
documentation. After I recognised a nearly closed 20 meter band using
the Windom antenna in the early evening I switched to the new antenna.
The result was amazing... suddenly I was able to receive several
DX-Stations with S4-5 (I was not able to recognize even one of them
using my old wired antenna). Mostly one call was enough to get a good
rapport. In a few days I reached almost all of our continents exept
the Antarctic. I was very fast successful during pileup calls - and
this with only 100 watt. I think my amplifier will gather dust now :-)
As a friend of QRP I stay tuned and look forward to see what I can
achieve with 1 watt.

I'm very happy and like to say thank you for this great antenna.

Frank
-DL1JET-
IZ1NJZ Rating: 2008-10-21
Excellent Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
My name is Piervanni IZ1NJZ a young Italian OM.
Wanting to buy an antenna directive and not having experience on this I have made my choice Based on reviews of EHam.net. Now I can say with certainty that i have not wrong.

By reading the reviews I have seen that products of Optibeam were among the best.

I contacted the company directly that he promptly responded in the person of its President DF2BlueOcean. I was constantly followed from DF2BlueOcean during the selection.

The antenna is astonishing concerned both from an aesthetic point of view that the performance in receiving that transmission.

In a few months of work by neophyte and even a few hours of use I was able to connect stations in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, almost all the European countries.

The antenna does not occupy much space so I have to install it on the roof of my house to nine meters from the ground.

I am very pleased to have purchased the Optibeam OBW 10-5 and of course the council like me who started the wonderful experience of radio
If anyone is interested in pictures of my installation I will be happy to send you
email: piervannimariapero@gmail.com
HB9TZR Rating: 2008-08-01
super Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Seit ich den eigenen Montagefehler der Strahlerelemente der 10,12,15, und 17m Bänder(siehe Handbuch Seite 13 Schritt 9)korrigiert habe, liegen alle VSWR unter 1:1.3 bei 1 KWatt HF-Ausgangsleistung. Sowas habe ich bei einem KW-Beam noch nie erlebt. Die Unterstützung des Lieferanten DF2BO war grossartig.
HB9BRU Rating: 2008-05-19
My first experience Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Four weeks ago I have installed the Opti wire beam OBW10-5.
My ham friend (a well experienced antenna installer) says that never before he had to do with such kind of a well advanced technology. He especially liked the great OptiBeam work regarding the pre installation and the well done instruction manual.

Within the first four weeks of using the OBW10-5 I have worked 71 countries.

As well the antenna is unique regarding the aesthetics.
My wife is extremely sensitive in this point.
Therefore last year I took her with me to the big European ham show Ham Radio 2007 in Friedrichshafen.
As a matter of fact it was her who discovered the antenna first. And it was here opinion "This one or none!"
Isn't it wonderful if the XYL is that enthusiastic about our antenna?

And finally, thinking in terms of high winds.
Where I live we do have extremely high winds and lots of snow in winter, and so the OBW10-5 was the best choice for me also in this respect.

All in all, an antenn which I only can highly recommend.
GM0VRP Rating: 2008-05-05
OptiBeam OBW10-5 Highly Recommended Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased the Optibeam OBW 10-5 in the UK from Martin Lynch & Sons who gave excellent service.
The antenna arrived six days after the order direct from Germany with a phone call telling me what day it was arriving; it arrived in a very well packed box.
Building the OBW 10-5 is pretty straight forward a good instruction manual and clear markings on the antenna parts makes it a pleasure to put together (The antenna is partly built coming out of box),all component parts are the usual high standard from Optibeam.
Once the antenna was built and on the tower, a check with the antenna analyser showing the SWR much the same as the instruction manual it was time to give it a try.
On the air my first contact was with VE3BDN in Canada having a nice 2 way QSO, I also called 2 V8 stations in Brunei with nice contacts all 20M.
The antenna has a very low visual profile in the sky,E-mail support from Thomas Schmenger DF2BO is first class.
Over the coming months I’m looking forward to getting more contacts in the log, So far performance with this antenna is looking excellent with no disappointments.
Highly Recommended.

Raymond GM0VRP
PA7JS Rating: 2008-05-01
Great Antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The obw10-5 is an great antenna easy to build because every thing is allready preinstalled/connected and every peace of it is marked, so if you can READ THE INSTRUCTION step by step then it can not go wrong, and the tests we did with low power to measure the lobs of the antenna is wonderfull and the front to back ratio excellent and then the results are FB.
I think without coils and condensers its an very good concept straight without any loss of power. That was all 73,s Jack Pa7js Netherlands
G0NDE Rating: 2008-01-08
excellent antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My station comprises a IC7800 and FTDX9000D,I wanted a full sized light weight beam and opted ,forgive the pun ,for the Optibeam OBW10-5.

The new beam arrived a few weeks latter and I set about assembly.
Optibeam have already pre assembled most of the beam and with good instructions and clear markings on the main components,the beam is a pleasure to build.
I should add that all components are of the highest quality.
Once the beam went up on the tower the other thing that strikes you is just what a low profile this beam has,it seems to blend into the sky,good for the UK.

Turning to performance,this is one very impressive
beam.I worked two Ve6 stations on 20 with the tower down(5M) and got 59+ reports!Two calls two stations.
I have used trapped beams in the past,the Optibeam
simply out performs them.

lastly, I had a swr problem caused as it turned out by one of my feed lines.Before solving the problem I E-mailed optibeam for help/suggestions.
The main man Thomas Schmenger replied almost instantly and supplied further suggestions that evening.Hows that for first class customer service!
The swr range is great 1.2-1.6 on 20 and all other bands 1.1 to 1.3.
fantastic beam, buy one you will be pleased.



TF1EIN Rating: 2007-06-26
Very good Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This antenna was recommended to me by TF4M and on his advise I bought this antenna. The antenna is working very well for me. It has survived all the bad weathers here in Iceland. I put the antenna together by myself and it took me something like 6 hours to finish the job.
I highly recommend this antenna to radiohams who need a lightweight and strong antenna.