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Reviews For: Hexbeam: by K4KIO

Category: Antennas: HF: Yagi, Quad, Rotary dipole, LPDA

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Review Summary For : Hexbeam: by K4KIO
Reviews: 191MSRP: 669
Description:
A six band, broadband, G3TXQ- designed, hexagonal beam with performance on par with a two element Yagi but a much smaller physical footprint is fully tuned and ready to go. This is a plug and play antenna, not a kit. It can be assembled in an evening with no measurements or tuning needed. No traps or coils are required and a single coax feeds all bands. Available for Bands 20 – 6 meters in various combinations. All steel components are stainless and non metallic components are UV resistant. Mount on a push up mast or rooftop. The sturdy aircraft aluminum base plate has never been reported to fail by hundreds of users. A “no questions asked” 30 day refund offer comes with each beam.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.k4kio.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
24.51914.9
WQ5O Rating: 2016-04-01
Great Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Bought the K4KIO hex beam back in December 2014. Put it up at about 30 feet on a pushup mast in my back yard. Fortunately I have an acre so space isn't an issue. It worked great! Was working DX right away. I live in SE Wisconsin so ice and snow are common in the winter. It survived the winter of 2014-15. We had a windstorm associated with a thunderstorm in July and that took the antenna down. The mast failed (bent the mast like a pretzel) but luckily the antenna never hit the ground. I considered this a temporary installation until I could set my tower back up. I have since re-installed my 50 ft Universal Standalone Tower with the Hex up at around 55 ft. Still working great. We had an ice storm along with a lot of snow/wind a couple weeks ago and the hex did fine. I have the ice supports installed. I have installed all the bands on the antenna; 6-20 meters. I had previously had a Cushcraft A4S with the 40 meter add on kit on that tower and the Hex performs as well or better than the A4S. While I don't have 40 meters the other bands are great. The Hex is light weight,easy to install and a very good investment. I run a Flex 6500 with an AL-811 amp (use it only to break pile ups). I would recommend this antenna to anyone looking for a compact, light weight, low maintenance antenna.
KB6G Rating: 2016-03-26
Still works great after 3 years Time Owned: more than 12 months.
So I have been happily using my K4KIO Hexbeam for about 3 years and it continues to work flawlessly. I recently had a friend with a drone take a video of it. You can see it on my QRZ site. To summarize, here are the best features:

1. Small footprint I have a 50 X 100 foot city lot
2. Only up 20 feet. This actually helps provide a higher takeoff angle which clears a 15 degree hill on the North. (See Video)
3. No issues with wind, rain, etc. But I am in Southern California. No snow.
4. Has amazing front to back ratio. Have gone from barely copyable to S9 by rotating.
5. Uses a TV rotator. I'm using a Hy Gain AR500 rotator; about $100. May no longer be available but you don't need anything stronger.
6. Only use a telescoping mast from DX Engineering. I used the 5 section 34 foot mast but only have it up 20 feet, so I space the sections to strengthen the mast and no guy wires; just patio cover post for support. This mast ships UPS since it is less than 10 feet collapsed.
7. Although is only specified at 5 dB gain, this means very little. Even an expensive Steppir at best is only 1 S unit stronger. Even if space were not a problem, I'd still go for a Hexbeam! It's trouble free and as you've read, the support is fantastic! Also the design is brilliant. All the bands (I have everything except 12 meters) don't interfere. I started putting up just 20 meters to try it out, and then as I added additional bands, there was NO interaction between elements. Each element is matched only on it's band, and off resonance looks like an open in parallel with the resonant element. Most of my bands are matched below 1.5:1. I could trim the elements but why bother? I use a tuner because it's in the station, but it's not necessary!
8. No Maintenance! (Can Steppir say that?)

9. That's all I can think of but I'm sure there is more.

I run an Elecraft K3 barefoot and get out all over the world without using my AL 811 amp. I prefer not to use the amp re neighbors close by.

BTW I had a little more space I'd put my $$ into a 40 and 80 meter 4 square vertical array. My buddy works the world on 40 and 80 with separate 4 squares and gets great reports on 80 all over the world!

73

KB6G
W4PR Rating: 2016-03-25
Excellent with stunning results Time Owned: more than 12 months.
1. Support: Leo was great. I was not convinced this antenna would work for me. I called him several times and he was very patient. He did not try to "sell" me but explained what the antenna was and what options were appropriate for me. He even talked me out of getting the set of "ice cords" because of where I lived.

2. Assembly: Everything is pre-cut and the instructions are straightforward. Other than a couple of optical illusions on my part, two of us followed the instructions and tested it on a ground tripod.... in 2 hours! Flat SWR across the bands it covered. I have it on a pole on the side of my house at about 34 feet. I turn it with a Yaesu 450 rotator and the windloading is almost non-existent.

3. This replaced an 11 element yagi I had taken down five years before. (I had been posted outside the US). It is directional with good nulls off the sides. The gain on receive and transmit is far beyond my expectations. It is not the 11 element beam I had, but it isn't too much off. I can work anything I hear, and I hear almost anything that is posted on the DX spotting sites. I have had it up for 18 months and have worked over 100 countries. I do have a linear but I seldom need it.

4. Wear and tear: I got on my roof this past weekend to inspect the antenna. Other than some tape seal that I had installed, the antenna showed no wear at all. The SWR is consistent.

Great antenna. Thanks Leo!
KG7HZT Rating: 2016-03-19
Love it! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I haven't had this antenna up long (1.5 months), but it is quite a performer. Very easy set up. I was transmitting with the antenna on a couple of sawhorses in the backyard in about 1.5 hours. The instructions were very clear. It is now mounted about 15 feet AGL on the garage with a Yaesu rotator. Working the world!
WW5TT Rating: 2016-02-28
Exceeded My Expectations Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I wasn't real sure about spending this kind of money on a 2 element "wire" beam and I only bought 2 bands (20M and 15M) to keep the cost low in case the antenna did not perform well. Arrived in two days from day of order. Assembly was easy and only took one and a half hours. Antenna is light and can be picked up in one hand, but pick it up by the center post only. I have it mounted on a 30 foot push up pole. Measure SWR with my RigExpert AA-30 and it was less than 1.5 across the 20M band and less than 1.2 across most of the 15M band. Couldn't ask for better than that! In the past two days I have worked 15 European, 8 South American, and 3XY1T Guinea on 100 watts. Very happy with the antenna and will be ordering other bands soon.
KD5BLZ Rating: 2016-02-16
Excellent Antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the KIO antenna on January 6,2016
Waited until January 29 to install due to low wind conditions..
The 17 meter wire broke when the pushup pole slipped and antenna dropped about 6 feet. The Hexbeam did not touched the ground.

Email KIO after hours. Leo responded about 70 minutes later.
Below is his response.

Hi Nathan:
Thank you for the report. I am very sorry for the failure. It appears to be a defect in manufacture of the wire in that the wire was not fully seated in the sleeve before crimping. Normally, the crimped wire/cord junctions are extremely strong. We shall ship you a replacement wire set tomorrow by priority shipping with our apologies.
73, Leo

Talk about great service.
Have not had a lot of time work DX since I got it up.
but one comment I get is my signal is solid.
I will be putting it to more use later. Just got to get past this week.
KD9BWP Rating: 2016-02-15
Love it! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I’m very pleased with my hexbeam, which has been up for a little more than 3 months on a crank-up tubular tower that I usually keep at about 35-40 feet. During that time, I have worked 70 countries. I can’t bust through every pile-up with 100 watts, but I get through a lot of them, including the recent South Georgia and Lesotho DXpeditions. The antenna seems fairly impervious to wind, and the ice cords performed very well during a freak, mid-November storm that dropped extremely heavy, wet snow. I recommend painting the spreader bars with Krylon Fusion spray paint for plastic, as regular outdoor latex paint will not stick to the fiberglass. Many thanks to Leo for producing such a fine product!
K4NUC Rating: 2016-02-05
Great Beam Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is a great lightweight beam. I have it on a pushup pole about 9 meters up. I am running only 100 watts and have been able to actually crack quite of few pileups. Performs amazing well, has noticeable side nulling and front/back gain. The only thing I had an issue with was after a storm when the hex-nuts where it mounted to my pole worked loose and the beam was wobbling atop the pole. I'm glad I drilled through the pole as they recommended or the beam would have come down. I have it on a lightweight Yaesu rotator and it turns easily. I wish it would tune down to 40 meters. Great investment, I'm very happy with it. 73
W5NRF Rating: 2016-01-01
Update Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Update to my review of June 6, 2014.

Nothing but praise for the KIO. Recently had 50+ MPH winds, no problem. I have yet to find a pile-up I could not enter with 1-3 tries.

Note that if you have the 6 mtr add-on, the antenna will also do 2 meters. Even running a KW, antenna tuners are not necessary on any band.

This KIO is a great investment. The company and their service, before, during, and after the sale, could not be better.
W7PV Rating: 2015-12-28
Well built - great antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I won't duplicate the raves on performance, but I can attest to the durability. I mounted mine in a forest clearing (for stealth reasons), knowing that falling branches from the fir tress might be a problem. Yup, several big ones hit the antenna this past fall in windstorms, several lodging in the wires, and bending the mast over about 45 degrees. However, the ice cords seemed to save the day, as nothing was broken or damaged.