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Reviews For: ZEROFIVE-ANTENNAS 10 THROUGH 40 METER GROUND PLANE VERTICAL

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : ZEROFIVE-ANTENNAS 10 THROUGH 40 METER GROUND PLANE VERTICAL
Reviews: 73MSRP: 379.
Description:
A 10 though 40 meter multiband vertical ground plane.Has 6 aluminum radials 100 inches long.Vertical element is 27 feet tall.This vertical is self resonant across the whole 20 meter band So it can be used as a monoband 20 meter vertical.mounts to a 1 3/4 inch OD pipe and it can be mounted on a 10 foot pipe in the ground.Requires a matching transformer.
Product is in production
More Info: http://WWW.ZEROFIVE-ANTENNAS.COM
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15734.9
W9JB Rating: 2013-07-09
Rock of Gibraltar build quality Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Performance equally good, too. I have the 10-40 Meter Ground Plane, with "built in" radials/counterpoise. Mounted "sub-optimally" at about 2 feet off the ground in a cluster of pine trees. Fed with about 130 feet of buried high quality coax. Use a Ten Tec AutoTuner (not needed on all bands, however). With about 400 watts (via a Ten Tec Hercules II), I can usually work anything I hear on CW, and most everything on SSB. Durability outstanding. Will operate (via tuner) on 80 meters, but not as effective as my O-C-F on that band or 160 meters. Bottomline: excellent value and durability for the money.
N0DSQ Rating: 2013-07-08
Works for me Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Built like a tank, something you don't see these days made to last, light enough to install by myself. Assembled in about 30 minutes and even spray painted it an air force camouflage to reduce its visual signature. Using a Palstar tuner gets the job done.
W2PIR Rating: 2013-07-07
So far, so great! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Before purchasing, I personally was able to speak to Tom, describe my proposed setup, and get a few helpful pointers on prepping my site for installation. Received the antenna in the morning on the promised day of delivery. Assembly was extremely straightforward with all parts marked and labelled. Took less than an hour to assemble and double-check all connections. I was impressed with the build quality. Using my 897D and a YT-100 tuner, the antenna tuned quickly on 15 meters. By noon, I had made contact with Japan, NJ, and, NC from my Southern California QTH. Being so new to the hobby, I was simply elated with the result!

I've since worked contacts up the west coast, in the Rockies, and Canada. Very, very pleased! I'll try to update this review if I can after more experience, but my experience with it is off to a great start!
N8LOQ Rating: 2013-05-13
Fabulous! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Very well built, easy to assemble, pleasing to my eyes (and the neighbors), and works so well, I cannot believe it! The most difficult item is to put up a mast. Made mine from 1,25" black iron pipe, 4' in 12" dia. hole with fast setting cement, 8' above ground. Fed it with RG-213 to my Icom 7000 / MFJ-929 and was promptly amazed at how well it performed, especially on 17 & 15 meters. Tom makes wonderful stuff so have NO FEAR. Get one and you'll see! Well done, Tom. 73
Sid Grant W8SFC
N2DY Rating: 2013-05-09
Follow-Up Review It's Rugged Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had the antenna for almost two years now. It continues to work great just as when I reviewed it in 2011. I am located on Long Island and I wanted to highlight that this antenna has now been through two hurricanes, Irene and Sandy. It came through both storms unscathed even though I lost large pine, oak and other trees during both storms. The ZeroFive bent over in the strong winds but always went right back to an upright position as the gusts subsided. It is as straight as an arrow today. Hopefully I will not have to test it yet again with a third hurricane this summer! You cannot go wrong with this antenna. It is built incredibly well.
KT9O Rating: 2013-05-08
Most Impressive !! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I mounted this antenna at 12 feet on a sturdy mast that is attached to a garden pergola behind the house. It was easier to assemble than I ever imagined! It tuned to resonance on 20 meters without any additional tweaking. I had some trepidation about those 100 inch radials, but they look great and obviously work as designed. Fed with 100 feet of coax, this antenna is ready to go. When the tuner is needed on 40 or 15 meters, my Tokyo Hi-Power handles it with ease. No whacky settings or complaining by the tuner.

It should be noted that this is also a very fine looking antenna. Nothing sags, including those long radials and the 27 foot vertical element is straight as an arrow. The center insulator and matching network is built for very heavy duty use and should survive many years in harsh climates. We'll see how well it does after coping with strong winds. I did not elect to guy it, but may do that in the near future. It's wind survival rating is 90 mph.

Performance has not disappointed so far. Right out of the chute, I added HB, PA, LY, 9A, and RA to the log book using a KWM 380 and about 400 watts from my Ameritron ALS-600. Busting through a few pileups was easy and consistent. This antenna performs quite well on 20 meters. I've used it on 40, 17, and 10 meters with good results. Phone, PSK, WSPR, SSTV, and RTTY are my favorite modes, so this one antenna provides a lot of versatility.

Finally, the price / performance ratio is astounding. For $380 bucks, you get performance and quality that I've not seen in a ham vertical...at any price. The quality of the fit and finish was really unexpected, and pleasantly welcomed. More like a commercial antenna, really. If you want good value and performance in a vertical that has no motors, or other moving parts to give you trouble or traps that might fail, have a close look at the ZeroFive vertical product line.

73 and gud DX

Ted KT9O




W8BCJ Rating: 2013-03-29
Outstanding! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased in November, 2012, but just installed it today. Our Florida home is in an HOA community, so I needed an antenna that can be put up and taken down quickly. Used with a Force-12 tripod, I can put the antenna up or take down in less than ten minutes.

In the first half hour of operating, running 100 watts, I worked nine countries, including Bulgaria and Serbia on 40 SSB; the other contacts were on 20 SSB. I will be adding a 500 watt amp in the near future, so working DX should be a snap.

Tomorrow I will paint most of the antenna black to add a bit of stealth to it.

I researched a lot of verticals; believe I made the right choice with ZeroFive!
AC4BT Rating: 2012-12-04
built solid, easy to install, works great Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is my first Vertical, up to now I have being using wire dipoles. I had a few questions so I called Tom, who was extremely helpful and provided tips on getting the correct support post and installing the antenna. Tom answered my call directly during the weekend which is fantastic customer service!

Assembling the antenna is actually very simple, the hard part was digging the hole for the support pipe. Once installed I put in a copper ground rod close to the antenna and connected heavy gauge solid wire to the rod and grounded the other end to the bolts on the base of the antenna. I had already prepared a run of coax that I buried.

It was late afternoon when I went to try out the antenna and I broke thru pileups the first or second call and immediately worked two new countries. I am using a Palstar 5k tuner and I am able to tune all bands from 10 to 80 meters. I didn't try 160 since I have a 400 foot lw that I use on the low bands.

In the last two days I have made many dx contacts on every Band (10 thru 80). Signals are very clear and not at all noisy as I would expect from a vertical. I am getting through the pile-ups just using 100w and this antenna.

I am very impressed with the solid construction and ease of putting this antenna together and getting on the air. Add the outstanding customer support that Tom provides and the discounted sales price from Black Friday sale a couple of weeks ago and I am a very satisfied customer!
W0NTS Rating: 2012-11-27
terrific Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Due to the fact that I don't have a large amount of real estate to put up a horizontal antenna or a vertical requiring a radial field my only option dictated a multi band vertical sans a radial field. By chance I became aware of the Zero-5 GP 10-40 ground plane antenna. The reviews are excellent and I was fortunate to purchase a used one in very good condition, complete with 100' of 213 coax but no assembly info. A quick call to the manufacturer and I was informed that all tubing overlaps 3 1/2". Assembly was a breeze and I mounted the antenna about 7' above ground on an old 'C" band satelite dish mast. The SWR is within specs on all bands and can be tweaked lower with my MFJ auto tuner. Performance on both transmit and receive is excellent. Most impressive is the build quality of this antenna. It is heavy duty and made to last for the long haul. If this antenna is an indication of the quality of all Zero-5 antennas then they are certainly a two thumbs-up winner. Don't hesitate to buy from them. Dennis W0NTS
AE7UT Rating: 2012-06-11
Excellent antenna and fantastic service Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've been using this antenna for over a year now on 10-80 meters with fantastic results. I have the antenna up at about 12 feet with a 175 foot run of LMR-400. I'm using a Palstar AT2K and have used three rigs: Ten-Tec Orion II, Ten-Tec Eagle, Yeasu FT-950. On 75/80/40 at night I often use a Ameritron AL-811H running about 500 watts.

I'm a relatively new ham (2 yrs) so take that into consideration when reading this. I'm comparing my experience with this antenna to a G5RV Jr., G5RV, 135' OCFD and simple dipoles I've built. I know this antenna was not built for 80 meters but I've often used it there with no better or worse results than the other bands.

The first thing I would have to say is putting the antenna together is a fun, easy 30 minute job. I put a ZeroFive fold-over mount 4 feet into the ground to hold it in place. That was not a fun, easy job! I also put 3 guy wires up after about 6 months of use. I don't really know if it needed it. I was just seeing if it performed any better. It didn't but with them it was as steady as a rock so I left them. This antenna looks as good today as it did a year ago. A shiny, inconspicuous, little needle in the sky.

This antenna performs very well. It has exceeded all my expectations. I've used it on 10-80 meters without a problem. It tunes easily on all of these bands with the Palstar and Orion II internal tuner. The FT-950 and Eagle internal tuners would not tune it on 80 meters.

I could list the number of 59, 599 contacts with this antenna but this review would be pages long. My QTH is in central Utah. Some of the countries easily worked are Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico. I've worked many Northern and Eastern European stations, the Caribbean islands, Hawaii and Alaska. This antenna has a conduit of sorts to the East Coast. From Florida to Main no problem. As expected it's worse performance is in the local states where the OCFD is much nicer.

I would not hesitate to buy another and would recommend it to friends. I know some may questions my use on 80 meters but I still get 59 reports. I won't argue with success. I'm intrigued by Tom's new 10-80 GP Vertical. Maybe I'd let this one go if I replaced it with that!

I just put a video on YouTube of this so check it out if you want a look.