| KE0MC |
Rating:  |
2023-02-05 | |
| Great looking flagpole and great antenna! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I moved into a new house in an HOA neighborhood. The HOA prohibits visible outdoor antennas but has no rules re: flagpoles. I’ve been impressed with how this flagpole antenna performs. I’ve made contacts on 10, 20, 40, and 80 meters with a barefoot ICOM7300 radio and Palstar AT2KD manual tuner.
At my previous home, I had a home-made fan dipole antenna on a 30 foot fiberglass mast tuned for 20M and 40M and a random wire antenna thrown up in a tree that I used for 80M.
I’m pleasantly surprised how well the ZeroFive flagpole antenna works for 80M. I participate on an 80M regional net and am getting good signal reports.
Tom at ZeroFive has been a pleasure to work with. He answered all of my questions and gave me recommendations on an antenna tuner and installation. I highly recommend ZeroFive antennas. |
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| WY4J |
Rating: |
2021-03-31 | |
| Best HOA Solution |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
After 40+ years enjoying the used of quite a few yagi antennas, a couple of SteppIR and a Hex beam time for retirement came too soon. Isn’t always too soon? As most of us, retirement meant a move out of state and a new home in an HOA community. Luckily the home that the XYL selected allowed the placement of a 25 foot flagpole with no questions asked.
Now, this was a new challenge for an old ham. Looked around and settled on a 30 foot Zero-Five vertical flagpole. Yes, you ask. The HOA mentions 25 feet as the max. Think about it. Who is going to notice the additional 5 feet and who is going to go into my backyard and measure a vertical flagpole. From a distance they all look the same.
Since they were in the process of building the house. The sod had not been laid down yet. I spoke to the construction supervisor and told him what my plans were. I purchase 1,500+ feet of #18 bare copper wire and laid down 32 radials 32 feet long and added a couple of 70 footers for good measure. I also laid down 100 of LMR-400 comparable direct burial coax as recommended by Tom from Zero-five. Fabricated a radial ring from copper tubing and was ready to roll. I paid a couple of workers to dig a 6 foot hole for a form for the antenna base. I realized that it too 800 pounds of concrete to fill that base. Hauled home 10 eighty pound bags. They mixed them and poured the concrete down the form. A week later the antenna went up. I purchased the massive tilt over base that Tom fabricates. Now, let me tell you that this antenna and base is the equivalent of a tank. Nothing will ever damage this thing.
There are no instructions as even a caveman can put this antenna together. Nevertheless, Zero-Five provides instruction in the form of Tom, the owner. He will tell you that he is the instruction manual and you can access this manual 7 days a week as Tom will usually answer the phone or will call you back withing a couple of minutes. Once up, everyone loves my flagpole and compliments me on flying the flag. I purposed it placed it in my yard rather than the front of the house for 2 reasons. In the back it attracts less attention and is also closer to the shack. I have had a couple of neighbors ask about he unun and the coax. Standard response is; is the ground for lighting protections. All I get back is, oh.
I do plan on adding a remote tuner and no one will notice the box since is in the back of the house by the woods.
No, you need a tuner and c I use a Dentron MT-3000A and this will tune a mattress. The antenna is resonant on 10, 12 20 and 30 meters with very minimal SWR. As I have become more acclimated to my environment, I decided to put up a 10-80 Carolina Windom at about 40 feet. Testing both antennas back and forth my observations are as follows:
The Zero-Five as is with all vertical is a bit noisier. Now, the antenna sits in the middle of nowhere with no outside power lines so is just the nature of all verticals. The Windom is at least 2-3 dB’s quieter. The Windom is also able to receive a few dB’s better. I would say with a low signal it would be the difference between a having a QSO or not. Now, transmit wise. I tested both on FT8 and the Zero-Five hands down will outperform the Windom on all bands. It would also be to a point the position of the Windom radiation pattern and height. On most occasions the Zero-Five will register on the FT8 reception map as being monitored in Europe and the Pacific as far as Australia while the Windom will show many reports within the USA and as far south as Argentina. Again, this might just be a representation of the patterns for each individual antenna. Not scientific but I opine that possibly the low angle of radiation of the vertical might be more susceptible to longer contacts.
In my humble opinion I am very satisfied with the Zero-Five flagpole and it has certainly made losing my tower and directional antennas a bit less painful.
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| K3GM |
Rating: |
2020-05-16 | |
| First class, heavy duty construction makes it a winner! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
The ZeroFive 30' Flagpole antenna is something else. If you're looking for "the best" in this type of antenna, this is the one. The six foot shipping box arrived in good condition. There are five sections of tubing, and these were well packed with bubble wrap and cardboard spacers. The flagpole is shipped with all the hardware, base, and galvanized threaded 'L' studs; everything you need to get Old Glory flying. The tubing used has a satin finish and is ridiculously thick; it's in every way a flagpole! Each successively smaller diameter tube is turned down on a lathe so it fits perfectly in the i.d. of the tube below it. Assembly of the antenna can be accomplished in minutes. I used Jet Lube at each of the joints to ensure a corrosion free life. The antenna is supplied with a 4:1 UNUN, a jewel fabricated by Balun Designs. You see, everything about this antenna is first class. I will be using a remote tuner at the base of the antenna, and this changes things up a little bit. A good low inductance connection is required between the tuner and radial plate, so a 2"wide piece of copper foil was used.
The most difficult process in the construction was digging the 48" deep hole. I debated renting a gas powered auger, but in the end hand dug the hole using a post hole digger and a digging bar. Both are an absolute requirement. Constructing the rebar cage was easy with the pieces held together with wire. This antenna requires radials, and will only perform as good as the radial field you lay down. I had two five gallon buckets at my disposal filled with 32' radials from a SteppIR BigIR at my former QTH, so I naturally utilized a bunch of them, forty-two of them for starters. Probably half that quantity would suffice. The antenna site is my side yard on a 3/4 acre corner lot in a suburban community, and is very visible. This is the reason I chose this antenna instead of a tower and yagi(s). Those days are behind me. I laid the radials directly on top of the dormant late winter lawn. I fashioned 5" J hooks from baling wire, making hundreds of them in the evening while watching TV. I spaced the hooks out in the lawn about every two feet or so, and more where the terrain demanded it. From prior experience, when the radials are held in contact with the earth, the grass and thatch will quickly cover them and they literally will disappear. I used a large steel nail at the end of each wire to anchor it. I then used an old linoleum knife to lift the thatch along the wire and ahead of each J hook. This is not a laborious task, but takes time, and is way easier than burying them. I used a DX Engineering radial plate to attach the radials to. The plate fits perfectly over the gussets of the base. I traced the holes of the base onto the radial plate, centered punched each one, and after drilling a pilot hole, used a step bit to enlarged each hole to 0.750". Note that the radial plate will not work with the tilt-over base plate option. The antenna plays like any 30' wire vertical would; expect nothing more. But it sure is beautiful! My neighbors have been complimenting me on how nice the flagpole looks. The ordering process and the delivery were a breeze, and the owner, Tom A9KW is there every step of the way with help and suggestions. This is a beautiful, first class product, and you will be happy buying from ZeroFive.
Tom Hybiske, K3GM
Cinnaminson, NJ |
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| N4GBL |
Rating: |
2019-11-24 | |
| Simply Incredible |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I recently got back into ham radio again after getting out of it a few years ago. I've had two Steppir BigIR verticals in the past and wanted something different this time. We moved into a subdivision, so I wanted to stay with a vertical just to keep the peace in the hood even though we don't have HOA to worry about. After much research and many reviews, I decided to go with the 30' Zerofive 10-80 meter flagpole antenna with the tilt over base. I don't think I've ever had support of this level with any product. This antenna arrived promptly, was packaged perfectly, and after taking it all out of the boxes this thing is built with nothing but quality. Absolutely top-notch construction of the base and very high quality material throughout. I had to call Tom with a few questions regarding the setup and I can't say enough good about his support. Very fast responses even at night and weekends! If you have a question, he's there with support anytime and that was simply impressive! I set it up with new MAX400 coax from DXE, ran 30 30 ft long radials, and am using a Palstar AT2K tuner. I can tune any band 10 through 80 at 1:1 flat. I've made just a few contacts so far but am getting very good signal reports each time. I am beyond pleased with this antenna and highly recommend it if a flagpole vertical is what you are interested in. |
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| K9FN |
Rating: |
2018-08-04 | |
| Absolutely AWESOME! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| This is my third review of the ZERO FIVE 30' Flag Pole antenna. Two years ago I moved to a small home and brought the Flag Pole with me. It had performed perfectly for 5 years, so there was never a doubt that I would install it at the new QTH. I had the base dug and poured, and then laid down 3000' of radials right on top of the sod. That took a couple of days and within a month they could no longer be seen. I have a 125 foot run of LMR400 cable and a remote tuner at the base of the Flag Pole. The performance continues to amaze me. With this antenna, I have now made 11,000 QSOs, confirmed 303 countries, DXCC on 8 bands, over 1600 toward DXCC Challenge, and even confirmed 53 countries on 160. But the best part is that I have had many nice rag chews with friends all over the world, and there have been absolutely NO maintenance issues. I am extremely happy. |
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| K9KGM |
Rating: |
2018-05-30 | |
| Excellent Stealth Antenna |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| This thing does not disappoint! Communication with Tom while ordering was superb. It will come packaged to withstand a catastrophe. Assembly was a breeze. I ordered the optional tilt base with it and highly recommend that as well. The base is built like a battleship. As a flagpole alone my neighbors are jealous! I've got 42 radials of various length in a 360* pattern around the antenna, the longest being about 40', the shortest less than 10". I'm using a Palstar AT2K tuner. If I can hear them, I've worked them with just 100 watts or less thus far. I picked up an amp, but I'm not exactly sure why at this point, because I've yet to need it. If you're in an HOA situation like myself, you cannot go wrong with this antenna! |
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| K9BPS |
Rating: |
2017-08-28 | |
| Excellent Antenna! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I purchased one so it would be more aesthetically pleasing to my wife than the Gap Titan DX that I had. The only drawback is having to use a tuner. I plan to eventually add a remote auto tuner. I can confirm that it will easily handle 950w. (I haven't tried higher since my amp maxes out at 950w). My MFJ tuner does not like the antenna on 80m, but the internal tuner on my Kenwood TS-690S has no problem with it. I don't feel that it's the antenna, just the Mississippi's Finest Junk (MFJ) tuner. I have worked all over the US and into Europe, Japan, Australia and have heard Saudi Arabia on SSB. I have seen China and Thailand on JT65 with this antenna. Would buy it again. Currently, it's set in a couple feet of concrete and guyed down. I plan this fall to have a helical pier placed and mount to that |
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| K9YM |
Rating: |
2017-01-04 | |
| Still a great antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Just checking back. It's been 4 years since my last review. No problems, what so ever, with the flagpole vertical. I have now logged 227 countries using the antenna on 80-10. I love using the antenna in the winter, in the 80 meter DX window. I have worked many countries on 80 and get good reports, which I find amazing for a 30 foot antenna, on 80 meters.
Dave
K9YM
Rockton, Illinois
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| NM6E |
Rating: |
2016-05-21 | |
| Excellent Stealth Antenna for HOA's |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I did my homework BEFORE buying the new home from the builder and requesting a copy of the CC&R’s, Deeds/Restrictions, HOA Rules etc.
After all, anything new comes with strings attached and this one obviously was an HOA Zoned neighborhood,
I completely read through the many files and found that no where, did any of the documents, mention a “Flag Pole” restriction/limitation.
Knowing that, we made an offer and moved into the house/neighborhood and after a couple of months settled with the move, I ventured off into what can I put up that will give me multi-band operation in as much a Stealth Mode as possible.
Since we were putting in a pool in the back yard, there was not much space in the back so it would have to be the front.
I reviewed the Zero-Five options (as well as other vendors) and exchanged many emails with the previous reviewers on how they went about the HOA’s, installation and overall “tips” they gave me proved very beneficial.
I got my letter to the HOA Architectural committee ready and worded properly as to my intentions to put up a flag pole in the front yard. It took them almost 3 weeks to come back with a “Yes, go ahead” answer of which in my email I mentioned there were other flag poles in the neighborhood but off to the sides of the house and another being put up down a block.
Having procured the approval, I quickly called in my order to Zero-Five and chose the 30’ Flag Pole with the hinging base plate option. This makes it easy for one person to do the little/minimal maintenance of the antenna.. At least for me, i can do it all by myself.
Delivery was about 2 weeks from order date. For me, the hardest part of the installation was digging the hole here in the North Texas soil which isn’t much. At 3 feet, just like in the back yard when we broke ground on the pool a week earlier, I hit “shale” rock, horizontal layers of rock mixed in with general construction leftover rock that was smoothed out and top soil laid over to lay the sod.
I used a bar/pick I bought from Lowes (6 ft, weighs about 20-30lbs) and started going at breaking the rock and forming my hole. It was tiring and hot in the July heat of North Dallas. I pulled out my shop vac and sucked up the rocks and walked over to the empty lot next door and emptied it out. It took me almost 6 days of on-and-off hole digging and just managed to reach shy of 4 feet deep and a 12”diameter hole that gets wider at the base of the hole as I was digging out as much as I could, like 20-24".
Knowing the neighborhood was still being built out, I had plenty of resources around the neighborhood. I had the guys who were doing the rebar work for my pool , build me a Re-bar cage for a couple of beers and sandwiches that the wife made. I did buy a quickcrete 12”x48” Concrete Tube Mold cardboard circular tube and just cut about 8 inches off and had an 12” W x 8" L circle to have the top part “look” professional as it protruded out of the ground. My front lawn is sloped downward, away from the house so the “cement stump” was going to be obvious from the street and a problem the HOA would have me address.
With the rebar-cage made, the anchor bolts tied to the rebar cage etc and a mold to hold everything in place, everything went off without a problem. The “visible” circle came out perfect while using about 2 (80lbs) bags of Sakrete from Lowes.
Laying out the radials also took time in the weather (usually late afternoon/early evening) due to the heat. As for the coax, I was lucky in that the neighborhood was still being built out that I was able to have my Bury-Flex coax trenched in minutes from the front lawn to the entry point in my front bedroom/office with the help of the local CATV guys installing service at other houses. Another few beers and some cash and that task was done in 15 minutes by the guys.
Now, for lightning protection, another use of the available labor force was had by the house next door getting its permanent service run. More beers and some cash had me two 6 foot copper ground rods installed in minutes, one at the antenna and another at the entry point to the home office.
I added the lightening arrestors, connectors etc and the overall coax run is about 40 feet. I also had the “help” trench a 120vc heavy duty cord for the AC powered LED light (got it from Home Depot) along with an Auto Off/On Daylight sensor that powers the LED Spot light) that lights up the flag when we forget or the nights are calm that we leave the flags up non-stop all week.
The results with the Zero Five 30’ Flag Pole have been what I had expected for a compromised vertical that operates 6-80m with a wide range tuner. The more radials I added the better things got. The lengths are about 30’ in length with a few longer ones but I have had lots of contacts and it allows me to get on stateside contests with ease, being in the middle of the USA. I started with 40 and now am at about 50 radials overall.
I used an ELECRAFT KAT500 Auto-Tuner along with an ACOM1011 (600 watts) and a Kenwood 590 as the main station and all worked great with that setup and all worked well.
Overall, performance is good (for me) and having had an M2-KT36XA at 50’ and a Butternut Vertical HF-2V for 40/80/160 at my other places, I can’t complain knowing DX will be a challenge but I am realistic and this works for me. I’ve made thousands of contacts and worked 160 countries so far.
I really like the build quality of the Zero Five and the insulator is first rate quality. I’ve had to change the rope once and have gone through 5 USA flags and 3 Texas flags when the winds/storms whip up, it really tears them apart. That hinging base plate really pays for itself in the long run.
I’ve had winds in the 40-50 MPH (no flags, as I take them down or my kids do) when we know it’s going to be bad. We’ve had an EF-1 tornado touchdown about 5 miles away but nothing close by.
It does flex in the wind but is very Heavy Duty and sturdy. The best part is no one knows it’s an antenna. The base for the 4:1 UNUN is big, I did go ahead and remove the sticker off the UNUN box in case someone walks by and saw the word “antenna."
The HOA did complain that too much of the “top stump” of the cement was showing such that I initially piled on “mulch” to cover it up but the rains quickly made the lawn look like a wood pile..
I ended up “splurging” and had stonework with flower beds done as well as the tree’s encircled with bricks and stone and one tree near the antenna was also encircled in a peanut shape that the Flag pole and trees look very nice. The inside of the area did have dirt filled in but I am not much of a flower person that I filled it in with more mulch. It looks pretty good. This project of stonework was considerable but it put the HOA at ease and folks have actually complemented how nice the shiny pole is along wit the look of the Stars & Stripes and neighbors loved the appearance of the the facade with the stonework. I’ve had neighbors ask me if they could fly their flags on occasion during baseball season/football season.
We’ve had two different times when folks knocked on the door “thinking” it was the model home just because the “flag pole” was there.. Awkward….
I’ve upgraded the station and now I am using a Palstar HF-AUTO Tuner, along with an SPE EXPERT-2K-FA amp along with a Yaesu FTDX-5K. I did this knowing my antenna situation is not going to get any better so, I focused on the inside and improving my operating skills.
Overall, I extremely pleased with the results and would highly recommend the Zero-Five 30’ Flag Pole to anyone who’s trying to figure out how to get on the air from an HOA zoned area. The antenna is not cheap, but if you’ve seen other “vendors”, this antenna is first and foremost a Heavy Duty Flag Pole with the quality build you would expect. It serves my purpose and allows me to have fun on 6-80m and is a great looking flag pole…
Javier NM6E |
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| W8DTH |
Rating: |
2015-02-19 | |
| Still Impressed |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have owned this 30-foot flagpole antenna for over three years now. I purchased it with the fold-over base and have it installed with (36) 30 foot radials using an iCom AH-4 remote autotuner at the base of the flagpole - all being driver by a barefoot iCom IC-7410 (100w max).
Thinking back on the installation, the most difficult part of which was digging the hole for the base, pouring concrete and watching it dry. The fold-over base is very heavy duty and sturdy enough to support the antenna (and flag) without any worries about damage from wind, snow/ice of my northern Michigan location. I purchased the fold-over option so I could lower it in the case of bad weather, but have only done so once (not because of wind/ice, but predictions of a major thunderstorm coming into my area). It does sway a bit during high winds, but not much (I have watched it in 70mph gusts with no worries).
It is well made with top-notch heavy-duty components. This is not just my observation, but also the comments I get from my ham buddies as well.
I wanted to use a DX Engineering Radial Plate for connecting ground radials, but it was too small to fit under the fold-over base, so my neighbor formed a circle of copper pipe that fit nicely around the base - to which I soldered one end of the (36) - 30 foot ground radials. I installed two ground rods - one at base of antenna and another where the coax comes into my QTH. After connecting everything and installing lightning protection it's time to get on the air.
Performance wise, I would like to tell you that this antenna performs as good as an array of mono band yagi's on a 100+ foot tower, but that is not true, but it does perform very well on 80 thru 10m bands. What is really slick is to change bands and press the "Tune" button on the 7410 - within a couple of seconds I am ready for the next QSO.
In the back yard I have 5 different wire antennas strung up through the trees from 25 to 50 feet in the air. Comparison A/B switching between the flagpole and wire antenna's, there are times that the straight dipole, inverted-V, or OCF (all thru a Plaster AT-2k tuner) performs better on a given day, frequency or destination, but there are also times that this flagpole is the better communicator. My Zero Five 30-foot flagpole antenna has become my standard by which other antennas are judged.
My neighbors love it. Flying old glory, it makes a great looking flagpole. A lot of interest was expressed by my neighbors when they saw me installing the ground radials, wondering what the heck I was doing. When I explain what is going on and that I am a ham they think it is very cool and have expressed interest in my radio hobby. Maybe now they just might accept a tri-bander on a 100 foot tower in the neighborhood, but I have accepted that I will never be the big gun DX station... I am a happy camper. That does not mean I am not gonna play with antenna's. Because I have been so happy with my Zero-Five flagpole, my next antenna is gonna be a Zero-Five 5/8 wave vertical. BTW- I am also thinking about extending the flagpole to get it up to 43 feet, adding a UNUN and a linear to the mix, but that will be another adventure.
In a hobby full of compromises, thank you Tom at Zero-Five for your committment to designing, building and supporting excellent antenna products without comprimising quality.
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