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Reviews For: Moonraker SPX 300

Category: Antennas: HF Mobile & Accessories

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Review Summary For : Moonraker SPX 300
Reviews: 6MSRP: 100
Description:
HELICAL 9 BAND PLUG N GO HF 1/4 WAVE MOBILE :
FREQ: 6-10-12-15-17-20-30-40-80 METERS
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.moonrakerukltd.com/Amateur-Radio/Mobile-Whips/Multi-Band/SPX-300
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0062.3
LA5ZO Rating: 2011-12-06
OK antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
My first HF mobile antenna. Bought mine from Moonraker on ebay for 48 GBP's.
Rig has a good ground and the antenna is sufficiently grounded in its monting on the roof rail on my Peugeot 307SW.

The antenna works OK.
I even worked a ZS station on 10meters from south Norway while on the move on small country road.
We talked for almost 10 minutes with 5-7 reports both ways.

The lengths shown in the instruction sheet didn't match in my case, but I managed to tune to satisfactory SWR on all bands.
Like any mobile antenna it's not a DX antenna. In addition tuning is a hazle.
If I am going to be more on /M on HF I will purchase a different antenna that can be (auto) tuned from the inside of the car.

73's Geir/LA5ZO
G8WWD Rating: 2011-02-08
The worst £50 I've ever spent! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Don't waste your money!

I bought one of these at a rally hoping that in the loft it would perform better than the half size G5RV I have mounted against the house. My G5RV is litterally wrapped around the end of our house and no part of it is more than 4" away from brickwork! I was wrong to think the Moonraker SPX-300 antenna would be better!

All the SPX-300 proved is that it is almost impossible to get a decent SWR regardless of how long you spend tryng to tune it, and yes I did have a ground plane attached to it, it is in free space with nothing metallic/conductive anywhere near it.

The result was greatly increased noise (around 4-5 S points up on the G5RV) on bands where I could actually tune it with an ATU and the signal strength of all signals around 3-4 S points lower. Many stations that were S9+ on the G5RV, despite its awful positioning, were not even readable on the SPX-300 antenna.

The instructions from Moonraker on the length to start tuning the antenna from are given on several frequencies that are not even in the amateur bands. E.g. 7.30MHz, 15.0MHz, 22MHz, 25.3MHz. What on earth are these guys thinking of?
DL4UNY Rating: 2010-01-21
good antenna for space-restricted ham's Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I got the SPX-300 for getting on air from my new flat (where my old antennas are not allowed). I put it on balcony-railing, tuned the whip to about 27" (like it was given on the manual) and left out the connector - and hey, I got an 1:1,2 SWR on 80m! Alright, I made some QSOs around Europe, even got W2 on 80m. On 40m I can work most of Europe, but never got a DX there. And I do have problems to tune the antenna for 40m with an good SWR (best is 1:2)
On 20/17/15 I'm very satisfied, I worked a lot of south and north America, but also on these bands it's not possible to crack a pile-up.

Well, I'm lucky with this antenna, working from 7th-floor balcony (appr. 22m high) on student-house with acceptable results.

73 de DL4UNY
G8XDD Rating: 2009-11-24
Good 1st time hf mobile antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
After discovering that eathing the mounting was vital, indeed I added a seperate lead to earth the mount to my vehicle, the antenna set up fine. Ok, having to get out of the car to plug in to the correct tapping point is a bit of a pain but I only paid about £30 rally price for my antenna, and I haven't had to keep re-tuning the whip section as others have described. I have worked South America and Australia whilst driving along the M27 in Southern England with good reports on 20m and well into Europe on 40m with no problems
I also found Moonraker staff helpfull when I first had the antenna and needed advice on earthing it correctly
M0NYW Rating: 2009-07-23
OK - no quality control Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had been given the antenna to try (July 09)
bands are not in good shape anyway.

The antenna looked and felt robust but at closer inspection there was a rip on the heatstrinked outer case by one of the fly lead connectors (not a good start). No quality control? but didnt affect the working of it.

There are two whips which as I can workout one for 80/40m and one 20-6m. I fitted the fly lead for 20m and tuned the whip for best SWR, the best I could get was 1.7 but a better ground would of helped on my car. Tuned around heard and work RA3 5/7 report received using 100w.
Then change the fly lead for 17m had to retune the whip again 1.6swr band was dead, moved to 10m again retune the whip best swr was 1.3.

So as you can see alot of retuning, the antenna worked well for what it is "YES your mono band proAM or other monoband vertical will have better bandwidth and performance" but for the price and 9 bands it covers you aint going to get more for your money.

If you dont mind retuning every band every moment might be for you.

Check moonraker site for link to ebay page and you might get the SPX-200 ( 6 bands/120watss with 3/8 stud) for £20 - £30 which is a better deal in my mind.

Hope I helped with the decision if your think about it.

73's
Jason
GB001 Rating: 2009-01-30
Don't waste good money on this useless antenna! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
very difficult antenna to tune. You have to use a fly lead to plug into the various taps for the bands. This is ok, but trying to get a good swr is almost impossible.

The tuning with the adjustable whip is real sharp. Not much bandwidth. You really need an analyser to tune this antenna. Don't expect to move more than 20 kc's on 80m & 40m without a re-tune.

Quality is an issue. While changing the fly lead, it pulled the tapping point right out the antenna. I had to re-solder it on.

Compared with my 40m mono band Pro Am, reports were well down on the SPX 300 . I had a 5/9 on the pro am but 4/5 on the Moonraker. 80m was worse still. 20m seemed nothing special.

For the money this cost £60 I expected a lot more than I got. My advice would be to stick with monoband whips which are much better & will save you money. The monobanders are easier to tune & have much more bandwidth.

The Moonraker SPX 300 really is a compromise in every way including quality.