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Reviews For: Unadilla \"KW\" Antenna Traps

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Unadilla \"KW\" Antenna Traps
Reviews: 5MSRP: 47.00
Description:
Antenna Traps.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.unadilla.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0055
K6RF Rating: 2011-09-19
Excellent traps Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
My three band trap dipole has been up a year now so I am posting my review now.
My orginal thoughts on replacing my open wire fed antenna with a trap dipole for 20 & 40 meters changed to 3 bands after a couple months use of the 20m traps. As someone has already mentioned the cutting instructions you receive with them is very close. It made final tuning of the 20-30-40 meter sections much easier.
I have never been one to settle to "close" in antennas. I spend the time it takes rasing and lowering them until I am right on where I want to be in the band. If you want top performance from any antenna this is a must.
The traps are very well made. They went through a very wet winter with no changes in SWR noted. I have ran QRP to a KW through them with no problems. I will also mention that they are very broadbanded and your best bet is tuning your antenna for the design frequency of the trap which is the center of the band.
This company has been around as long as i can remember and the quality in their product shows. Anyone who has problems with the traps is just not taking the time to tune the antenna properly. If I could give them a 10 I certainly would do so. Buy them, you will be pleased.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by K6RF on 2011-01-28

I work digital and CW on 30 & 40 meters. With my 40 meter antenna cut for the lower portion of the band and my other antenna a R8 vertical being a bit noisey I chose to give the KW30 traps a try. I found the measurements in the supplied document very close for 30 meters. I had it right on 10.125 for 30 meters the first try out. The 40 meter outer wire however took several up an downs with the antenna and prunning to get it back on the original 40 meter frequency. The effort was well worth the work and i think anyone who does not take the time to tune the antenna to were you operate the most is going to pay the price of lower performance (swr). The traps appear well made and weather proof. I did add some clear silicone to the connections once I had it dialed in for extra security and piece of mind.
My only con is the lack of email other than the payal invoice you receive once your order is placed. I like to know when my purchase is going to arrive and after emailing them, all I got was another paypal email saying "priorty" which I assumed was priority mail and usually can track. They arrived regular mail and I do think they could package them a bit better from the looks of the torn packaging. Despite these items, I do feel the traps deserve a 5/5 ratings. Hopefully Unadilla will spark up their customer service in the future.
K8MSH Rating: 2011-07-01
Simple and effective Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Recently rebuilt broken 5-band antenna using 8 year-old KW-40s and new Comtek 1:1 balun sold by DX Engineering. Instructions that come with KW-40 show several simple plans, with approx. wire length measurements. Simple to construct, tune. Tunes well with decent bandwidth on 80-15m, 10m tends to tune to high end of band (using rig's autotuner). Performance equivalent to or better than Alpha Delta multiband I put up during the rebuild. Durable--much better built than baluns I have purchased from them.
WA6IPD Rating: 2011-03-18
High quality Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have been building antennas since the early 1940s. Monoband dipoles on the lower bands 40, 80 and 160 are hard to beat but I wanted something simple with one coax. I built a Carolina Windom but it did not perform well on 160 so I thought I would try a trapped dipole. At first I wound my own traps but after reading about how lossy they are I decided to try the KW40 and KW80 Unadilla traps. Someone once said there is nothing like a resonant antenna and they were right, performance on all bands is outstanding. The only drawback is the bandwidth but that has not been a problem for me.
K1LI Rating: 2010-02-22
Worked right first time Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I needed a packable "holiday DXpedition" antenna for the 160-80-40 meter bands. Decided a trapped wire antenna was the best choice. After wasting days researching and unsuccessfully trying to build my own, I purchased two pairs of Unadilla traps: the KW40 and KW80. Starting with the data in the wire table supplied with the traps, adding windage for trap connections and an extra foot for "tuning," I had a three-band dipole up and working in a matter of hours. Wish I had started here - and you should, too.
M0RRQ Rating: 2008-04-02
Great Quality,Fast Delivery Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I wanted some 20mtr traps for an antenna project.

After spending hours on the internet trying to find a local supplier here in the UK at reasonable cost..I gave up !

A quick email to Frank Jannini at Unadilla Antennas in
Massachusetts USA detailing my requirements was met with a fast reply.

Customers can pay via paypal.

My order was dispatched same day and goods recieved 3000 miles away in 72 hrs...wow thats fast !

I was impressed with the build quality of these antenna traps, packing,and the customer care / service by unadilla which was excellent.

Very reasonable international shipping cost.

I produced a short video on constructing a W3DZZ wire antenna featuring the model KW-20 antenna traps from unadilla.

Please find the link below and take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP1MtiJmXy4#GU5U2spHI_4


First class all round .