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Reviews For: Hexbeam: G3TXQ by MW0JZE

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

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Review Summary For : Hexbeam: G3TXQ by MW0JZE
Reviews: 94MSRP: £475.00 + Shipping
Description:
Description: A six band broadband Hexagonal Beam Antenna designed by Steve G3TXQ and manufactured in the UK by Anthony MW0JZE. Comparable performance to a full size two element yagi on bands 20M – 6M with no tuner needed! Antenna is made in a pre-assembled form meaning a quite assembly time with no tuning involved, just assemble and mount to your mast. Full spec can be found on Anthony’s web site wwwg3txq-hexbeam.com Price £475 GBP plus shipping
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.g3txq-hexbeam.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
25945
ON4ADN Rating: 2013-12-24
Super antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
After having great beams all kinds I was thinking about dismantling the great beams and going for a small version. I saw a lot of beams but the Hexbeam was for me : small and with a good compromise. I bought 2 of those antennas and the result was amazing, I could hear all the DX stations just as before !!! We had only 1 problem because in ON we may use legal 1500 watts power but 1 insulator cord was melting down. Togeter we made a solution and Ant made some insulators for high power and now there is no problem anymore even test with 1500 RTTY --> problem fixed !! This antenna is one of the best I ever used, simple to build and the power using is anymore a problem. But the best thing is if you have a problem, just send a mail to Ant and within a short time you will get a answer. This a 5/5 !!!
1 is standing on + 40 meter and with a storm off + 125 km/hour --> NO problem !!!

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Earlier 5-star review posted by ON4ADN on 2012-12-18

was looking for a smaller antenna and saw the Hexbeam. I needed a strong antenna so I can use the antenna for years. The fiberglas is very strong and also the new center post is great without coax and made by alluminium pipe. One problem was that we may use high power and on CW/DATA 1 rope melted down. Thats not a big problem because Ant is working on it and my Hex will be repaired with teflon insulators when the weather permits.
Its excellent and I worked all station I could here.
Its a 5 !!!
G6TUH Rating: 2013-09-25
Worth it.. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Hi, I installed MW0JZE Ant's hexbeam earlier this month. It took awhile to arrive but the communication was good. The antenna is well made and took an hour to put together. Its works very well indeed, small footprint in the yard and switching between my SteppIR vertical and the hex gives and edge of 2-3 S points sometimes. Ant forgot one thing in my order - the ice support cords and fixings. When I reminded him he sent the fitting free of charge but I paid anyway as I am so pleased with the antenna. Good production, good antenna, good service hence 5/5! Mike G6TUH
MM0OVV Rating: 2013-09-15
Hexbeams Are No-Brainers Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Single element for each band and no traps is a very efficient way of putting RF into the air and low maintenance.

Low profile is relative I feel but to my eyes the Hex is quite pleasing on the eye on my roof compared to other two element beams. Also I would say that if you decide to buy one and your building it in your back garden, the antenna looks smaller in the the air, I have mine around 10 meters up on the roof.

From my research before I decided to purchase a Hex so far I would suggest that most gain statements for Hex's are conservative. When I'm speaking to folks in far away lands, America for example, they can't believe I'm pushing 50 watts into an antenna and I'm going back to them on S9s and 9+s

I shall put this one down to coincidence, as I wouldn't want you to think that the Hex comes with Rose Tinted Glasses. Since I have started using the antenna i'v had more "good audio" reports "BBC quality audio" than I have ever had. I used long wire antennas, Carolina Windom antennas in the past.

I'm of the train of thought that there's a decent bit more to antenna design than just a low SWR, after all you'll get an excellent 1.1 right over the whole HF spectrum with a 50 ohm resister. For what it's worth it's a 1.1 on the 6 bands rising sharply on the very end of the 6 meter & 10 meter bands going to 2.

I go around these days with a large smile on my face when it come to my Amateur Radio its even made me appreciate my old radio even more (TS 2000).

However it would be fair to admit that I have never been spoiled with big radios and bigger antennas and that I'm not one for contests on the bands. I can't compare this antenna to a multi band 4 element yagi, but my gut feeling is it would represent its self very well.

The MW0JZE Hexbeam.

I am taken in my personality to things that concentrate on detail. To the moment the Hex arrives at your address you can tell that the person behind this is a perfectionist. The way it's neatly packed. The quality of the materials, the quality of the build. When you have it finally built in your back garden, I took four nights to build after work, I like to take my time over things, could be done quicker and is very easy to build. You can tell that this thing is going to work and work well before you have put a single watt near it. I would like to think that it will sustain Scottish whether but time will tell on that one.

MW0JZE
Good at keeping in contact and answering questions you may have.

Best £500 pounds I have ever spent on the hobby.

On the cost I would recommend using the aluminium masts suggested, a cage, a good solid rotor , I used a yaesu G650, you'd probably get away with a lighter rotor and 2 TK brackets to take into the equation.
I0QGR Rating: 2013-09-11
a good choice ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The antenna arrived at the right time expected, packed with great care. Excellent construction cured in every detail. easy to assemble with accurate instructions and videos available. Fully functional at first run with quite flat SWR (AA54 tested). Ant is very responsive to any question.
I really think it is a good choice to install an useful antenna in a minimum space with a good performance. A full 5/5 to the project, builder, service and support ! Enjoy with the hexbeam !
MM6AVE Rating: 2013-08-14
WOW!!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I ordered my new 6 band hexbeam from Ant after many months of looking at what was on the market for a small typical uk mid terrace council house garden around 45ft X 30ft and side by side with other tenants. Originally I was looking for a small 2 element beam and there were several around me which I looked at carefully and researched how they performed until I finally decided to go for the hexbeam coz of recomendations from those that owned them. It finally arrived and I can only say WOW. I had been using a very tired and aged XY minibeam for 10-15-20 with what I considered to be good results until Ant's hexbeam was hoisted atop my 21ft scaffolding pole which I use as a mast. Plugged it in and bang my rig sprang to life immediately, all of a sudden I was hearing countries I had never heard before with amazing signals. I jumped straight in and started calling and I was getting 59 reports back, and these were stations I struggled even to hear before. I was gobsmacked quite honestly. Everyone says they are easy to put together and it truly is childsplay as easy as lego, built in no time at all. He advertises "plug & play" and it is just that. Build it put it up and away you go, no cutting or tuning, pruning or faffing about. SWR flat on every band and over the whole band or as near as makes no odds. I am thoroughly delighted with this amazing antenna and I would highly recommend anyone regardless of space to get one of these marvels. Well done Ant superb quality on a superb design, excellent customer service and real value for money thank you.
VK2DMH Rating: 2013-07-20
Perfect, Lightweight HF Beam Antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have been a licensed ham since the late 70s, but never until now have I had the opportunity to own and erect any kind of HF beam antenna for DX contacts. My main band of interest is 20m, but a dedicated yagi, tribander or quad required a tower of some kind -- that's something it is now almost impossible to get council approval for here in Sydney, AU. The solution has been this multi-band HF hexbeam antenna built by "Ant" (that's really Anthony), MW0JZE, who lives in Wales in the UK.

I ordered the antenna from him about a year ago, but it took me months to get things organized so I could install it. As a separate tower wasn't likely to be approved. However, a modest roof tower was possible, since it had less height than many TV masts on most houses in my neighborhood.

I brought one from overseas and enlisted some help from other hams to install the tower and hexbeam safely and securely on my tiled roof.

It is now working FB and I can hear and talk to distant stations I could never hear before. It would have cost me much more in materials alone to try and build the antenna myself, so buying the hexbeam from Ant, MW0JZE, was a no-brainer. What is more, the kit was so well put together that assembling it was a breeze, and all the wire elements were pre-tuned and needed no adjustments.

I would give this antenna a TEN if I could.

If you want to read the full details of hexbeam antenna installation, you will find on my personal ham radio web site: http://www.walkietalkietwowayradios.com/
9U4U Rating: 2013-03-19
Very well built! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
For the 9U4U DXpedition we used 3 Hexbeams, 2 professional made by MW0JZE and one homebrew. At the third day of operation we all of sudden were hit by a tropical storm with gusts up to 60mph. While the first two had no or minor damage the homebrew Hexbeam was completely destroyed. Several team-members were so impressed with the mechanical and electrical performance that they ordered a Hexbeam for personal use right after the DXpedition.
One damaged spreader was replaced for free with the extra order, great customer service!
M0HDX Rating: 2013-02-23
Impressive Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I can only reilliterate what so many others have said about the fantastic G3TXQ hex beam antenna made by MW0JZE.

Flat swr across all 6 bands
light weight
quality parts and fantastic build quality
superb comms (regular updates on progress)
simple to construct out the box
good instruction manual
works superb

I took a 2 element 5 band lightning bolt cubical quad down that had been on the tower for 2 years and replaced it with the hex beam,The quad was superb on all bands apart from 10m where i found performance down compared to the other bands,The hex beam works superb on 10m and far better than the lightning bolt quad.The quad is slightly better than the hex on the other bands but only by a small margin.I had a nice suprise when i started using my new hex beam @ 75ft on the tower, plenty of 5/9+ reports and i managed to get through some of the big pileups.

I highly recommend the hex beam.

jim M0HDX
TF2MSN Rating: 2013-01-31
Fantastic Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Fantastic antenna, so simple as it is.
M0TMC Rating: 2012-12-13
SUPERB Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I told ant MW0JZE i would leave a review after I had a chance to really test this antenna. Without reservation I can honestly say this is the best antenna I have ever had up on my roof. This antenna has opened a whole new world of ham radio for me. I have made more DX contacts in the last 3 months than I have in the last 5 years. I am not always the first station to bust a pileup, but I always get the contact made within 15 or 20 call's. I am so impressed with this antenna I ordered my first Amplifier this morning!! If you like DX, or just really solid 59 contacts, you just can't go wrong with this antenna, totally plug and play,no lossy traps,no tuner required.
And all assembled and in the air in less than 1.5 hours!!!! P.S If i could give it a 6 out of 5 i would.