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Reviews For: Tarheel Little Tarheel II

Category: Antennas: HF Mobile & Accessories

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Review Summary For : Tarheel Little Tarheel II
Reviews: 65MSRP: 379
Description:
When properly installed on your vehicle this antenna will provide continuous coverage from 3.5 to 54 MHz with the supplied whip. The Little Tarheel II antenna like all of our motorized antenna models are built to meet the highest standards but in a smaller size.

All of our antennas come with the sensors already pre-installed so if you decide to add one of the auto controllers (Tarheel Simple Controller, Tarheel Programmable Controller, Turbo Tuner, Antenna BOSS and BOSS II, SDC-100 or the SDC-102) now or later everything is ready.

We designed this antenna for the person who wants to enjoy HF mobile but is not interested in our large antennas. Don't let the small size fool you because we designed this antenna to be mounted higher on the vehicle, and when mounted higher on the vehicle you have less ground loses which equals higher performance. Also, because of the smaller size you can use a more common type of mount like the Diamond K400 Series, the Comet Series or similar 3/8" stud type mount.

And like our other antennas you get the same great look with our Dupont Imron 5000 system with standard colors of black, white, red or silver. It also comes with the LexanTM Weather Shield like its big brothers, not the flimsy stuff others use. This model also uses the commercial 12 volt gear motor.

We designed the Little Tarheel II as a package. All you need extra is a mount of some sort and a nice HF radio. Included standard with the Little Tarheel II antenna is: the whip, 20 ft. of plug & play control cable, manual control box, ferrite decoupling core and 3/8-24 stud.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.tarheelantennas.com/little_tarheel_ii
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00654.9
ZS5J Rating: 2009-02-01
It doesn't get any better... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I ordered one of these, in December, and had them ship it to a dealer I was visiting. The folks were great to deal with - WB0W I believe, very efficient and friendly on the phone. I installed it on the back of my work 4x4, on a K-400 mount. I then installed a new Icom IC-7000 radio, and a "Better RF" 7000 auto screwdriver controller, and "Better RF" 7000 tune control, to handle the auto control of the antenna. What a perfect mobile setup !!!! The Little Tarheel is VERY well engineered and finished off. Top quality workmanship. I ordered a silver one, paintwork is top notch. Performance is excellent. I have to conclude that this is the finest all band HF mobile antenna out there, taking into consideration size and asthetic appeal. Sure the full-size screwdriver antenna's will out-perform this baby, but then you have a huge antenna that looks ugly, knocks into tree branches, and underground garage ceilings. I have a high Sierra sidekick HF screwdriver, but the workmanship is better on the little tarheel - the sidekick uses a cheap ugly control cable and connector, and the pvc around the coil is thin and collapses inward if pinched. My setup replaced an FT-100D and Atas 100/120 setup. Installation was easier with the Yaesu setup, but performance is better with my new setup. Little Tarheel II - simply the best.

73
John, ZS5J
K3GO Rating: 2008-12-18
EXCELLENT Construction, quality and operation A+++ Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Unlike the person who kept his Tarheel II in the garage for 2 years before trying it ( it probably oxidized and seized due to it's storage location) and then whines about no one support a 2 year out of warranty product-BS.

I ordered my Tarheel. ( I have owned High Sierra 'great antenna', Tarheel200 Excellent, MP1 ok, Outbacker pretty good and Hustler sticks fair) This antenna performs on par with my HS or 200 (little less gain) but I fired it up today and Europe, W7s, on 20, All over the East half of the US on 40 during lunch time. It's truly a delightful antenna. The construction is EXCELLENT. Fit and finish is on par with my other antennas.

I can tell you honestly while it's not a 2.5" plus diameter coil and i do notice less efficiency with it's smaller diameter, the 1.5 pound weight and the extra long 56" whip makes this a great combination for smaller size and performance.

Don't let these smaller screwdriver antennas fool you, Tarheel - work great.

It just that these Tarheel antennas I have hammered out over 150,000 miles and that is why I chose a Tarheel again. Highly durable construction.

Signal reports on 40 meters are fairly balanced and the antenna works great at 100watts with the 706MKIIG. It's mounted on a Bandi mount on the hinge of my FJ cruiser. 20 meters is a blast.

I will be posting a pictures soon.

If you want a small lightweight solution and want a little compact construction at 16' this is it.

I give it an A+++ and highly recommend it.

One thing this antenna like all other mobile antennas MUST BE GROUNDED. You need to insure your car, truck or SUV has ground straps(Braided copper) on the mount to frame, chassis to frame and exhaust system to frame. No good ground- you will loose ability to tune accurately, RF gets in your audio and cars electrical system and can make interesting variations on the cruise controls -
Please install this or any mobile antenna correctly with good grounding and bonding. You will enjoy it when you do.

Best regards de K3GO
W1PO Rating: 2008-11-28
Excellent Mobile Ant! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have tested this little antenna for the past 10 months and am truly amazed at the performance when installed properly. I have it side mounted on a 2000 Subaru Outback wagon using a Hustler Ball Mount. First off, the antenna does require an excellent ground. I am comparing it with my old Outbacker Perth Plus which is also amazing but lacks the flexibility of sitting in the vehicle and changing bands! I will say however that I tried the short 32 inch whip first and it lacked some RX and TX performance on 20-80 meters, but after switching to the 56 inch whip I was more than pleased (although you do loose the 6 meter band when doing this). It comes extremely close to the performance of the Outbacker, which is a very good mobile antenna as well. But, the ability to sit in the car and switch bands in an instant truly makes up for it. In my opinion, it's built extremely well and with the 56 inch whip is a winner!
KG4RUL Rating: 2008-11-13
EXCELLENT! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Let me start my review by pointing out that there are LOTS of FAVORABLE Lil Tarheel II reviews included in the reviews for other Tarheel antennas. See this page:

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1953?page=1

My Four Year Review from the Above Page:

I still love my Lil Tarheel II after over four years of use.

Not many antenna manufacturers can boast of of 4.9 out of 5.0 rating for their products. In fact, I was curious as to what the problems were that caused reviewers to downgrade these excellent products. These seemed to be the following:

- Not understanding how to tune the antenna
- Poor installation (grounding is VERY important)
- Unrealistic expectations (apples to oranges comparison)
- Problem with cold weather operations

---------------

Don't take these few negative review presented here as definitive - read ALL the Lil Tarheel II reviews on the above page THEN decide!
AA0TT Rating: 2008-11-13
Great on 18 wheeler! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I drive an 18 wheeler and needed a smaller antenna to fit on my headache rack on the back of the truck. Initially I had some difficulty with some grounding issues as the rack is mounted directly to the frame and I thought this would work. However, it needs a horizontal plane (duh) once I added a piece of aluminum I had to the bottom it has worked much better. Yesterday I worked a JA7 and a KL7 on 20 M with this and a barefoot Icom 7000, even with the poor band condx. One thing that I will say also with the 6-80 it is easy to blow past the band that you are tuning to. I would recommend getting an auto tuner for this unless you are VERY patient when trying to get tuned to other bands. (I am not)