| K0VSH |
Rating:  |
2023-01-20 | |
| Semi-permanent installation |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I moved to a new QTH recently, and wanted to get on the air quickly. The 2010L (also the 2030 and 2040 single band versions) have served me well. I needed something that I can deploy quickly and move around if necessary as the XYL has landscaping plans for our back yard.
I'm using the permanent mounting post and the waterproof bag accessories sold by DXE for these antennas. These antennas require no radials, and take power (I've used up to 800 watts), and they get out. The 2010L required just a slight tuning adjustment on 20m in order to optimize it for the CW portion of the band.
I've managed to work a lot of DX with these antennas, including FT8WW on 20m CW. |
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| 5B4AJG |
Rating: |
2017-01-18 | |
| Follow up from April 2014 |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Well it's been well over two years since my initial disappointment. This updated review is to confirm that the TW2010L is brilliant and the regular use has confirmed it's the portable antenna of choice. I admit I was very angry at the way it was shipped out to me BUT that is in the past and this is now......I now own two, yep, I managed to blag one from a friend and very glad I did as it's a older version and has the remote band change option for Yaesu & Icom, yippee..... |
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| KJ6VTP |
Rating: |
2015-06-11 | |
| Checked all the boxes on my list... |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I had been looking for a portable HF solution for quite some time. As a regular camper, I was specifically looking for an antenna where I did not need to shoot things into trees, assemble awkward guying systems, or lay down radial fields.
Being in a shared campsite makes it hard to work with radials or deal with guy wires. Shooting things into trees is an option, but if there was an alternative, I wanted to go that route. Well, the alternative turned out to be the TW2010L. It is certainly more expensive than a G5RV or long wire propped up in a tree, but it met all my other criteria, can handle a lot of power, is really fast to set up or take down, and it is easy to change bands.
I am near the bay area in California. When I received the antenna, I set it up in the back yard, set the jumpers to 20 meters, tuned up my FT-450D, and almost immediately made a contact in New Zealand, and a couple evenings later made a contact in Lithuania. Clearly band conditions where pretty good, but performance was on par with my DX-CC Fan Dipole that was 30' in the air. I had both antennas on a switch so I could toggle between the 2. The background noise on the 2010L was quieter.
The previous owner had damaged one of the tripod leg mounts. I sent the company an email and they sent out a replacement leg part right away. The antenna, bag, and 75' of coax weighs about 18lbs. So this is not a backpacking antenna, but the ability to pull this out of the back of the truck and have it set up in minutes, and take up minimal space is really nice.
This antenna will be excellent for camping, field day, or setting up at a troop meeting to teach scouts radio merit badge, or any other event where I want to set up a station quickly without raising masts, or staking out guy wires or radials. |
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| N0YXE |
Rating: |
2014-12-03 | |
| MORE FUN THAN A BARREL OF PL CONNECTORS |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I always carry two TW antennas with me. The 2010 model is upstairs in the attic next to the 40' ALPHA DELTA dipole. It sits over on the kitchen side of the attic and performs very well. (See my review of it on the 2010 E-HAM REVIEW site) This unit is for changing things around a bit, (see QRZ: N0YXE) It is a perfect companion to my 36' end-fed wire on the roof in the front of the house and my new ICOM 7410 transceiver. I can run outside, change bands, and scan for any homeowner gestapo members that may be lingering around, trying to take pictures in order to inform on me. My original TRANSWORLD antenna farm is still being pictured in the "COMMENTS" section on the TRANSWORLD web site. This was before the fascists and the state of Kansas were ready for action. Remember, the tops of the antenna were two feet over the fence, and it VIOLATED the DEED COVENANTS, which trumps "reasonable accommodation" requests and the U. S. Constitution! You must be careful when you use these wonderful antennas, so trying different things would be helpful! I may be contacted either by e-mail or phone and I would be glad to share my opinions with you. I hope you have great fun with TW products. Terry, N0YXE, glassterrence@yahoo.com. |
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| VR2YQK |
Rating: |
2013-09-24 | |
| Great Antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have the TW2010L primarily as my base antenna for more than two years now. It works great, very little noise comparing with other antennas I have, i.e. the BP. By changing the position of the two metal clamps at the black box, you can change bands in just a "click", simple and very easy. And, it is so easy to tune, in fact, you don't need to as it is factory fine tuned. It resonates and covers the entire band of all 5 bands as soon as you set it up (in less than 5 minutes) and you don't need an antenna analyzer.
Low take off angle easily gets you to contacts with HAMs all over the world.
I once took this antenna to near the top of the highest mountain in Hong Kong (957meters).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_Mo_Shan
Once hooked up to my FT-857D, I was connected to the West Coast of USA, Australia, Japan and China on that same morning. Four different countries on different continents. It works really great.
http://www.qrz.com/logbook/VR2YQK
It takes you less than 5 minutes to get it up or down, and you can take it on your SUV anywhere you go.
Definitely a "5". |
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| NE2I |
Rating: |
2012-11-05 | |
| Great portable antenna |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Had a few months and so far so good.
good low angle of radiation and robustly built.
Just picked up the 40m add on coil and it works great also. |
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| W6DAF |
Rating: |
2012-11-04 | |
| Nice Portable |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I purchased the TW2010L antenna for portable use when in the RV and camping. For that purpose it's a nice antenna. I spent approx one week in the middle of the desert and in the end was fairly pleased with my results. Last year I setup my ATAS 120 in the exact location (mounted to a very large metal grate, about the size of a car) so I was able to do a "from memory" comparison between the two antennas. The TW did seem to be a better antenna. Receiving stations had less trouble with my signal and receive signals did seem to be stronger than with the ATAS. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do a direct comparison as the ATAS was at home. The true beauty of the TW is how quickly it goes up and just how well built it appears to be. Within 5 minutes I was on the air and had no concern with the 30 MPH desert gusts destroying it. The included base did an excellent job so I never had to find out if it would survive if it fell over but, my guess is it would be just fine.
After returning home I was able to do a direct comparison between my compromise 40m Loop at 25ft and the TW. The loop won hands down. There was no comparison. Could I live with a TW for my primary antenna? Not if there's any way to throw a wire in the air. Unfortunately the desert shrubs are only a few feet tall so the TW will have a place in the RV. |
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| K4SHP |
Rating: |
2011-03-11 | |
| WOW!!!! |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I don't write many reviews but this antenna definitely deserves one. The first time I saw one of these antennas was at field day 2010. While it took me about an hour to string a multi band dipole in the trees the guy who brought his Transworld antenna had it up and going in about 10 min. WOW!!!!
The signal reports that he received were outstanding so I decided to order my own. It came well packed and definitely well built. All of my questions were answered by nice people when I called and promptly when I e-mailed.
When the antenna arrived I hooked it to the second antenna port of my transceiver (Ten-Tec Orion II) so that I could do an antenna to antenna comparison. Some signals on my normal multi-band dipole were stronger than the Backpacker but some of the signals on the Backpacker were stronger than the dipole. To me that would be a draw... WOW!!!! On transmission reports many people could not tell a difference between the two antennas and the ones who could only noticed one "s" unit perhaps two "s" units difference. Again WOW!!!
For what the antenna is I can't say enough wonderful things about it. The antenna will easily fit in the trunk of you car for that trip to the beach, mountains, Disney, etc. It is small and easy to assemble and take down. It actually takes longer to roll up the coax that it does to take the antenna apart and put in the bag.
73 |
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| W0JTC |
Rating: |
2011-03-07 | |
| Great Antenna |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I bought my Backpacker Antenna in January...I live in a condo with restrictions with antennas although I was able to put up a small wire antenna for awhile. I was hoping I could use the Trans World for use here and on the go.
I packed it up last Saturday and hauled it to a local park, set it up and was on the air in 10 minutes. I was using a Yaesu FT-897d with battery power (20 Watts) and one minute later I was talking to Poland and off and running on the ARRL DXSSB contest...I started on 20 meters then 15 and then 10 and then back to 20 etc...GREAT PERFORMANCE all the way around !! I didn't set new records or get a super score but then I really didn't try either, just having fun !!
OK, I was in a park with no electric wires, no interference at all, all signals were clear on all bands, changing bands was a snap, I got signals mainly from Europe (I am on the east coast) but I also got the Carribean and could hear the west coast and probably made contact if I wanted too...
I am very pleased with this antenna and cannot wait to try it out on the beach and other places to see what it can do..I like the carrying bag that comes with it, I just strap my coax to the bag with the supplied straps...I also got a tent peg to hold the coax at the 45 degree angle that the guide called for... |
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| W7SAT |
Rating: |
2010-10-03 | |
| Excellent as a portable antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I was finally able to take my new Transworld Backpacker TW2010 out and set it up portable. I was using an ICOM 718 with 100ft of Davis RF RG-213 and my new 33ah Werker AGM battery. It was my luck that the California QSO party was going on. It was a perfect time to try my new portable setup.
Like others have said the quality is top notch and it takes mere minutes to set up the antenna. I set it up in a semi wooded area at the local 900 acre park. From set up to first QSO was about 10 minutes. The SWR was 1:5 smack in the middle of the 20 meter phone band with excellent bandwidth. No more adjustments needed to be made.
Being able to switch bands on the fly and ease of setup are the main reasons I chose this antenna.
I also had a Buddipole set up at the same location. I would switch between the two to try and give some kind of comparison. The receive on both antennas sounded the same, the receive is excellent by the way. However since the Buddipole is directional (in this setup) I was able to make a contact on the first call with the Buddipole that I could not make on the Transworld. It could have just been a quick change in band conditions or that the Buddipole had more gain since we had it aimed at California.
Where the Transworld really shines is that you can set it up anywhere you want outside. I do not have to worry to much about it blowing over with the quadrapod. And band switching is super easy. With the Buddipole you have to lower it down and mess with the coils. With the Transworld you walk up to it and manually switch to the band you want,(takes about 10 seconds) walk back to your station and you are on the air.
Both the Tranworld and Buddipole antennas were great. It is just a matter of preference. To me the Transworld is the perfect portable antenna that I can take anywhere and setup with out needing any other kinds of support. It would be a lot of fun the set it up on the beach. I made 18 QSO's on my first portable outing, it was a ton of fun. I love portable HF now. Special thanks to KK7JL for helping me with my first portable HF outing, and bringing along his Buddipole. |
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