| WA8ALQ |
Rating:  |
2024-12-15 | |
| ULTIMAX 100 66ft |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| The Ultimax 100 66' end fed wire antenna works very well with my Yaesu FTDX10's internal tuner. It matches the antenna on all bands. I operate mostly 40 & 75 meters ssb. I just put the antenna up a couple of days ago. So far, I'm very pleased with it... Also, it seems to be well made... It does not need a ground wire or radials. It's a very friendly antenna to install... |
|
| W4FID |
Rating: |
2022-12-05 | |
| Ultimax products |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have a couple Ultimax end fed antennas and they are very good. Well made. Durable. Preform as advertised. NOT a beam at 66 feet or a diploe at 50 feet. But VERY good as a simple easier to deal with HOA solution. One is in my attic about 14 feet high. One is raised and lowered and used as needed outside. The outside on is great. The attic one is surprisingly good and I work lots of DX -- some even of the "juicier" category with is running low power. |
|
| K2WO |
Rating: |
2022-12-04 | |
| Great Solution for HOA Issues |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| OK, does the Ultimax 100 perform like a Yagi or an EFHW Dipole antenna? No, but it's a great antenna for those with HOA limitations. I've got the 24' version wrapped around a 23' fiberglass telescopic mast and set up as a vertical. It tunes with an external ATU on 80-10 Meters and works well, especially on 20-10M. It is built like a tank and I am pleased with its performance. |
|
| KJ7LYB |
Rating: |
2022-10-30 | |
| Fantastic antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This is a great antenna, it allows you to work the world from a wire. Hung this in a tree in my yard and have made QSOs in:
Australia
Japan
Finland
And more.
This has allowed me to work the world from my property which has very limited antenna space. Can't recommend enough. |
|
| AA3SP |
Rating: |
2022-06-26 | |
| Better than Expected! 20 Countries in First Night |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Hang with me. I have a story to tell about the Ultimax 100 66' model.
I live near Harrisburg PA and I have a temporary shack in my basement workroom at the QTH that I only fire up a few times a year, usually during contests. I have an IC-7100, an LDG Z11Pro tuner, and 75' of the highest quality feedline as I can afford to run from my shack, across the basement, out the back window, and up a 23' painter's pole that I strap to the deck. (I usually don't extend it to the full 23'. It tends to bow badly from the weight and tension of wire antennas, so i rarely raise it higher than 15 to 18 feet.
75' away from our back deck we have a 40' tall Ginko tree. My son-in-law strapped a pully about 25' up the tree that I threaded with paracord and use to string long wires. Between the southeast corner of our deck and the tree I can string an antenna that runs Northwest/Southeast (ie: the radiation pattern tends to run Northeast/Southwest).
Why am I telling you all this? Because it tells you that I'm not a pro, I don't have a beam and a rotor, and I don't have towers to get a long wire flying high.
As I write this, it's about three days since I broke out the Ultimax to test out my gear for Field Day 2022. I strung up the antenna, mounted the matching network box to the top of the painters pole, tied back the pole to take some of the bowing tension off when I raised the antenna, I fired up the rig, set power to 75watts, Fired up WSJT-X, turned on autotuning on the LDG11Pro, sent out an FT8 CQ on 14.074, and...
I got a 1.1:1 match on first key-up. (Yes, with the tuner in the chain.)
I picked up Germany.
Then I picked up Russia.
Then Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, Belarus, Argentina, Brazil, UK,Greece, Oman, and Hawaii.
I picked up all those countries (and Hawaii) on 14.074 with 75watts on an end-fed halfwave at about 18' through a tuner.
I flipped down to 7.074. Another 1.1:1 match.
I picked up Ireland, Ohio, and the Virgin Islands.
Look, I'm not going to delude myself. I'm sure I'd get better performance and longer distance contacts with a tri-band beam and a rotor posted up at 30' above ground level.
But for $110 (what I paid when I bought the Ultimax 100) and for being mounted only 18' above the ground, stretched between a tree and a painter's pole strapped to our deck, the performance has been better than I expected.
Oh yeah, and I'm writing this during Field Day weekend. I took a break after 101 contacts on 40 and 20m. I've racked up contacts everywhere in every US zone except California. (I always have trouble making it over the Rockies!)
Am I happy? You bet. This antenna performs far better than I expected and it's relaunched my love of DX after more than 20 years off the air. Highly recommended! |
|
| KT0DD |
Rating: |
2021-11-03 | |
| Good for what it's intended for. |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Any ham worth his salt should know you cannot compare this antenna to a tuned dipole, loop, 4-square, beam or any regular full size antenna. That is not what this antenna was intended to fulfill. I needed a portable, field deployable camping / field day / emergency deployment antenna and the Ultimax 100 fits this catagory well. I use the 66 and 36 ft. lengths of wire and it gets me heard and readable out in the field. It can be used as a home QTH antenna, but don't expect full size antenna performance. It is a compromise antenna for those in compromise situations. After all, if someone has the room and no HOA issues, I seriously doubt they would be looking at the DX 100 for a primary antenna. It fills the bill for what it was intended.
|
|
| KE7MU |
Rating:  |
2021-11-03 | |
| poor compromise antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
1st, I would like to comment on several of the reviews here that claim the antenna is great just because you can load it with your antenna tuner. You can load up a step ladder, but that doesn't mean it is a good antenna.
I bought one as I thought it was an end feed dipole as indicated in the advertisements.
It was not!
What it is, is a random wire antenna with a matching device. The people selling this antenna verified this fact by email.
What this means is you can add more wire to the antenna to improve it's performance, 33 feet was recommended by the manufacturer.
This is a good compromise antenna for those who need an all band, single wire antenna. Performance is not too good if your comparing it with a tuned dipole or full wave horizontal loop ( these are my other antennas that I compared it to ) but you can't expect it to be a great antenna. It is what it is, a random wire that you can load with your internal antenna tuner. It's only a great antenna, if you have no other. So add some wire to it and hope for the best.
Over time I have given this antenna many chances with various elevations and wire links. My last decision was to throw it in the trash.
As a novice, many years ago someone told me I could feed a light bulb to tune up my DX 20, this was obviously mis information! But I made a contact, with a light bulb! Does this mean a light bulb is the antenna you want to use, NO!!! IF you think this is a great antenna then you will get a great surprise when you use a real antenna. Back in the early 80s a company used a bunch of 50ohm resistors and encased them in epoxy so you couldn't tell what was in the box. It gave you low swr no matter the wire plenty of frequency. It was a massive fail. Not on the market, just like the antenna being reviewed. The company did tell you use more wire, but people are still fooled by the hype. GET A REAL ANTENNA AND YOU WILL BE HAPPY! |
|
| N4ECW |
Rating: |
2021-04-15 | |
| It Works Great! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought one and it worked so well that I bought a second one! It's about one S unit more noise than my 20 meter double bazooka but I expected that.
I used one for my ICOM IC-7700 and a PW-1 amplifier. The internal tuner on the rig took the SWR from a 3.0:1 to a flat 1:1 effortlessly. The PW-1 tuner at a full KW took the SWR from 3.0 or less to 1:1 with no problem.
I bought a second ULTIMAX 100 End Fed 10-80 for my backup backup rig, a Yaesu FT-847, and my Ameritron ATR-20 even tunes it to 160 meters!
I strung them on my Florida lanai and they're almost invisible with no stray RF or RFI. I am amazed.
I recommend this product without hesitation. |
|
| K2JF |
Rating: |
2020-09-27 | |
| amazing! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I wrote a nice review back in 2014 when I had the antenna in an impossible location but was able to work some DX. I bought another one from Albert last week which replaced my 20-40 dipole 80 feet up on the roof of my NYC apartment building. When I first put it up I couldn't tune it even with an outboard tuner. Then I replaced the mess of coax I had snaking all around the roof with a clean run of 100'. Then it started working and my first few cw contacts were Czech Republic, Tenerife and Bulgaria. But today with an A index of 26 I contacted into the Balearic islands. Well, I had to Google that to see where it was. Pretty far. I can't do an A-B test with the dipole but I do get the sense that this antenna is working just as well as the dipole. With only 33 feet of wire. |
|
| KC6KIM |
Rating: |
2019-12-27 | |
| Ultimate Service great Antenna!! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Hello Anybody,
I received the antenna as a gift over five years ago & it has worked great beyond expectations.
Recently I discovered the antenna would not tune and subsequent testing determined that the balun appeared to have been damage somehow.
I called Albert at Ultimax and discussed with him the possibilities of why the antenna had failed & during the conversation we came to the conclusion that it had been damaged by a nearby lightning (EMP) strike. Subsequent testing indicated that the balun properties had somehow changed & it no longer worked.
During my second call to inform him of my test results, he asked me to return the balun to him and that he would replace it at no charge, this in spite of the fact that the antenna core was over five years old!!!!!
I received the antenna 3 days later & put it back up. Testing showed that it works GREAT AGAIN!!!!!
I would have to say that this is not only a quality built antenna, but comes with service beyond expectations. Albert Mercado, YOU ARE A *ROCKSTAR* thank you so much
*****FIVE STARS FROM KC6KIM******
Anthony A Andrianos
AKA "Anthonator"
|
|
