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Reviews For: Blue Star Antennas 6 Meter 4 Elements Yagi Beam Antenna

Category: Antennas: VHF/UHF+ Directional (Yagi, quad, etc.)

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Review Summary For : Blue Star Antennas 6 Meter 4 Elements Yagi Beam Antenna
Reviews: 16MSRP: 100.00
Description:
Covers 6 Meter Ham Band.
Maximum Gain 9 dBd Front / Back 20dB
SWR > 1.5:1

* Easy to set up and use. Delivers outstanding results.
* Computer designed, SWR tunable.
* Can be horizontally or vertically polarized,
* Uses standard 50 ohm coax with PL-259 terminals.
* Heavy Duty, weatherproof construction:
* Boom is machined from 6061 T-6 Structural Square Aluminum Tube.
* Elements are machined from 3/8" Solid aluminum round 6061 T-6 stock and attached to the boom with stainless steel hardware.
* Clamps to masts up to 1 1/2" in diameter.
* Adjust for any frequency from 50 MHz. to 54 MHz.
* Mounts Horizontal or Vertical
* Elements grounded for lighting protection
* Approx. Turning Radius 80 inches
* Power Legal Limit
* Approx. Wind Surface 2 SQ Feet


Antenna is optimized for number of elements and size.
Use for 50-54 Mhz, Ham radio, or Packet Radio.
Product is in production
More Info: http://bluestarantennas.com/sales//catalog/index.php
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00164.2
W5JAO Rating: 2009-06-04
A good yagi for the $$$ Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My first 6m yagi ! I purchased my Blue Star 6m 4el. beam on E-bay for about $90.00. about what buying new material would cost then fab. It arrived in fine shape about 8 or 9 days later, and the day it arrived, I set it up per the instruction booklet in about an hour and up on a 8 foot test mast, achieved 1.2 to 1 at 53 ohms over most of the SSB frequencies in another 30 min. Much better than the inverted "L" I have up

I give two thumbs up to this antenna. W5JAO
G0KSC Rating: 2009-05-26
a nice little Yagi for the money Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I design antennas myself and have commerical companies sell antennas of my design. I live in the UK but travelled to Georgia in the US for 6 weeks last summer visiting my parents and wanted an antenna to use my ft857 while I was there. I found the Blue Star on Ebay at a very resonable price so bought it.

It was very easy to contract, rugged and light weight at the same time. One of my first contacts was a multi-hop E skip QSO with the West Coast.

I was happy with the performance of the antenna and it is now packed away in the garage at my parents awaiting my next vist.

Justin G0KSC
www.g0ksc.co.uk
FM5BH Rating: 2008-08-03
A very good ant Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is my very first 6m antenna
and I was QRV on the magic band this week with this antenna for the first in my ham life.
I followed the instructions and put it on the tv mast on the roof beaming to the north.
after several cq I worked EA7 - CT1 - EA6 - HI3 - FM5.All the dx in CW with 559 report.
My tx is the FT897 bear foot.
I learned that CW is very useful to work the DX like on the top band (160M);
The blue star antenna is very rugged.
If you want a low budget and a vedry good ant to start on the magic band you can buy it.
I will put it higher with a rotator very soon.
I have the 6M virus

73

Laurent FM5BH
N6NKS Rating: 2008-06-27
Great beam - works fab. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
My first 6m beam too! I purchased my Blue Star 6m 4el. beam through the 'bob-and-linda' store on E-bay for about $90.00. It arrived in fine shape about 8 or 9 days later, and the day it arrived, I eagerly set it up per the pretty decent instruction booklet. Since I have yet to obtain a rotor and to undergo the effort of mounting it really high up on a pole I have, I opted for a temporary set-up whereby it is on a pole only 8 feet above the ground, in horizontal-polarization fashion, to an cnecrete unbrella stand in the back yard. I simply hand-turn the beam whever the skip is coming from.

Even with my modest setup, running 100 watts into this low-beam, after eagerly awaiting 6m to open up this past spring and summer, the 6 meter fun began! On several occasions, I got a "strong signal" report from even mobils. The big fun was during the ARRL VHF QSO Party when 6m opened up double-hop to FL from my California desert location. SO this beam, in its totally sub-optimal location in my yard, ha sproven to be a great performer. Tuneup was a snap. per instructions - I just set the element via the instructions, and was happy to have very excellene (low) SWR. That was probably the hardest part of set-up, and it was easy too. So I give two thumbs up to this antenna! Steve N6NKS
WA8MEA Rating: 2008-04-15
My very first Yagi! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I was SO afraid that after all of the work (a few hours on a Sunday afternoon....) that the dumb thing would not work right....and I would have to put it up and take it down just like adjusting a dipole. I was in absolute shock when I noticed a 1.1 to 1 match the first time up in the air! In fact, the SWR on the upper band edge wasn't even high enough to monkey with since I was using it for CW/SSB anyway. (And had adjusted the elements and gamma match according to instructions for this lower frequency segment.) It was only about 1.6 to 1 on the top side of six meters.

Great craftsmanship, easy instructions, and again....I was SO HAPPY to hit the SWR I did right from the get-go!

I worked a lot of "E" skip last summer. And used a simple Archer rotator available at "Radio Scrap."

By far, a quality Yagi at a VERY reasonable price and polite, prompt service. I'm hoping to use it once again to work a little "E" skip on the magic band this summer.
N1RIK Rating: 2008-01-14
Didn't work, poor customer service Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This antenna looks unbelievably rugged, and I thought it would be a performer, however, I could not get it to resonate above 46.7 MHz. I was in contact with Bob-and-Linda Amateur Accessories (the ebay seller I bought it from) and Blue Star Antennas about the issue. They had insinuated that I put the antenna together wrong, so I verified with them that I put the elements together as spec and also verified the element legnths. I also adjusted the gamma match to specs, and then whatever it took to get the job done, but still could not get a match. After I had asked for a new gamma match seeing the antenna was spec, both Bob-and-Linda's and Blue Star Antennas stopped emailing me and responding to my emails. Finally after a week of my emails being shunned, I had to open up a Paypal dispute to get someone's attention. At that point Bob-and-Linda's responded VERY quickly, but inferred that I had been using the reflector as the driven element. This really insulted me not just for the fact I've been a ham for 14 years and have built yagis from scratch, but I informed them that I had the elements on in order and measured all the elements on one of the millions of times I had pulled the antenna down off my 20 ft. mast. They said I could send the antenna to Blue Star and they could check to see it was defective, however they still were insinuating that the antenna was still fine. At this point, I didn't want a new antenna or want it fixed. I just wanted my money back. I finally did get a refund 3 days after they received back the yagi. I would of been happy to send the antenna to Blue Star or Bob-and-Linda's for them to check it out if they offered, however they decided to suggest that after I had to get Paypal involved. I'm sure I just got a dud on this antenna, however they could of saved me as a customer if they had some sort of decent customer service. Leaving a customer in trouble blowing in the wind for a week on email lockdown does not improve customer service etiquette. Well this week I'm purchasing a Cushcraft A50-3S. BTW I've never seen a gamma match as weak as what I found on this antenna. The gamma match aluminum tubing was very flexible, and had to be bent back into reasonable shape after I first got the antenna. The material is highly mailable. The adjustment rod of the gamma assembly is insulated #12 AWG copper wire. It too is very easily bent. Too bad my volt meter was toast because I would of tested it. -- 73 ~ Bill