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Reviews For: Performance HF: HT/HF-HAM - HF RX antenna for handhelds

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : Performance HF: HT/HF-HAM - HF RX antenna for handhelds
Reviews: 6MSRP: USD 99.95 (as of 24 Feb 2007)
Description:
HF Antenna for HTs and Handheld Scanners
Product is in production
More Info: http://performancehf.com/Products.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0065
W8DMC Rating: 2009-10-10
Better Follow Up Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Having this HJT-HF Antenna, as not only been great fun, but acts better than my SONY ICF SW100, which is the world’s smallest and said to be best SW receiver for its size, and historically has always been the top of the line, if you want to spend 300 dollars plus for even a used one, However, the Performance HT/HF Antenna will afford a 4:1 better return on listing than the SONY......Even I was amazed at the plus 4db on hearing the HAM bands vs. the SONLY, which is designed to accomplish said task. So I can only follow up to say this product is better than when I bought it a year plus ago, and works better the other units designed to accomplish the same task. Great Job Solid 10/10 from this guy, W8DMC
K3CN Rating: 2009-01-28
Amazing antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I purchased this antenna after reading the reviews here and would like to thank the reviewers on eham. These reviews are right on. Alan has an amazing antenna here that performs just like the data on his website. I waited for months to write a review so I had enough experience with its operation. I have used it on 75,40 and 20 meters. the bands have not been great but I am very impressed with this antenna. I find that signals S9 to +20db are half to full scale on my Icom R20 meter. I used the S meter on my HF rig compared to the S meter on the R20 for this data. Of course it depends on a station's location and propagation and RF power used. I find myself using this equipment to monitor the band conditions before I even turn on the HF rig. It is sensitive and as others have said you will hear things you would never have believed possible using a handheld receiver. You have to use this product to believe it. I highly recommend this antenna!
HC2S Rating: 2008-05-30
Excellent RX Antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.

With original antenna the IC-R20 is a terrific RX all mode radio, but for the portion between VHF and UHF bands. but I'm looking for a small antenna that could hear the HF band strong and clear; I belongs to the IC-R20 yahoo groups, last year I saw a comment about the Performance HF: HT/HF-HAM - HF RX antenna for handhelds. I bought this antenna from their web page, my first impressions was I obtained more than I expected, the antenna performs very well in the HF segment all modes, I was at the beach and I could hear the 14Mhz and 21Mhz SSB 59, even with the actual poor conditions , at night with just push one or two combination buttons and I could monitoring the 7Mhz and the 3.8Mhz band with excellent reports. It's a perfect complement for the Handheld RX radios or handheld radios with bnc or sma (the manufacturer provides you with and sma adapter) by the way the client service is world class, you have a personnel advice by mail or by phone. I strongly recommends this antenna.

Rene Santos
HC2SA

KB0NLQ Rating: 2008-02-15
One Excellent Antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
First of all, Performance HF customer service is incredible. Every question was answered throughly and the antenna was shipped immediately.

At first I was skeptical due to the size of the antenna. I wondered just how well anything that size could really improve reception. Let me tell you, it's like turning on a low noise preamp. I've used it mainly with my Icom IC-R20 and it does exactly what they advertise on their web site. Actually...the improvement in reception has generally exceeded the example audio clip they had posted on the web site.

Signals that were in the noise with 0 to 1 signal bars often jump to a half meter. The tuning seems to be spot on with each band responding to the appropriately marked button.

The construction of the antenna is first rate. The body is solid and strong. The surface is some sort of slightly rubbery subsance that resists marring and wear very well. The SMA is rock solid and the buttons respond well with an audible click. The antenna comes with a small ring to bridge the gap between the BNC adapter and body to help keep the adapter from unscrewing with use but it's not really a necessity. The collapsible antenna unscrews from the body for quick storage too. You can even adjust the internal SMA clocking to fit the final position to the radio thread stop position if you find that the switches face the wrong direction when it's fully tightened down on the radio. Of course, that's not an issue if you are using the BNC adapter.

If you would like to actually use your hand held HF receiver to listen to anything other than high power shortwave broadcasters but you can't or don't want to be tethered to a cable then this is probably the best thing available.

I worried that it might be a novelty that I would end up forgetting about in no time but it isn't. It's stayed on R20 since I bought it. My only concern is that I'm going to wear out the rotary encoder in the radio from tuning up and down the bands all the time.

This thing should really be neat when the upper bands come around and things start popping on 10 meters.

It was a nice surprise to spend a good amount of money on a specialty product that actually exceeds my expectations.
N2DY Rating: 2007-04-30
Does the job nicely Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I echo the previous reviewer's comments. This is a solid product both electrically and mechanically. I tried it out on a number of my HT's that receive HF, including the Kenwood TH-6, Yaesu VX-7R and the Yaesu VX-2R. I also tried it out on a Uniden BR-330T and an Icom R-20. The antenna does as advertised. It brings these radios to life on the HF bands. I also have the Miracle Ducker and the Miracle Whip. This antenna performed on par with them. However, the HT/HF-Ham was easier to use and less cumbersome than the Miracle products. Overall, a nice innovative product that makes HF listening easy and allows you to utilize capabilities that we tend to ignore on our HTs. Great job Alan.
WB0GAZ Rating: 2007-02-24
Excellent electrically and mechanically Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Offered as an antenna to improve HF reception on hand-held receivers; I tried with Kenwood TH-F6 and Yaesu VR-500. Designed for receiving only (manual warns against transmitting.) Works as claimed on bands tested so far (indoor reception on 80, 40, 30 and 20M bands) - largely eliminates the wideband hiss that otherwise made both receivers almost deaf on HF, and enabled solid reception of a wide range of signals. Controls seem solid and very easy to operate (set of five labeled pushbuttons along antenna body) and are fully repeatable. Overall construction and fit/finish are excellent - nothing intermittent or irritating. SMA antenna connector and body geometry make for very good fit on Kenwood TH-F6, and supplied adapter enabled use with Yaesu VR-500. Well thought-out weight distribution should minimize wear on handheld's antenna connector and mounting. Compared to Miracle Antenna's "Ducker IL" - similar in overall RF performance (signal strength, selectivity, etc.), but I prefer the HT/HF-HAM antenna from a mechanical standpoint, due to weight distribution, use of SMA connector (vs. BNC), and generally more hand-held friendly construction. Finally, communications updates from manufacturer during order delivery process were excellent.