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Reviews For: ULTIMAX 100 End Fed HF Antenna

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : ULTIMAX 100 End Fed HF Antenna
Reviews: 78MSRP: 85.00
Description:
SPECS:
Configuration - End Fed
Power - 1500 Watts PEP rating
Length - 24 feet
Weight - 3.5 pounds
Polarization – Vertical, Horizontal, Sloped
Connector – SO-239-50 ohm
SWR < 2.5:1 – (3:1 tuner required all radio tuners work)
Bands – from 3.0 MHz to 54 MHz (80 to 6 meters)
Radials - none required
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ultimax-antennas.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
35784.5
KG5UN Rating: 2011-09-22
Perfect for my RV Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the Ultimax100 to take along in my RV for some portable HF. 50 feet of coax and a short piece of rope and off I went. Wound 8 turns in the coax connected it to the box, tossed it on the roof of my slide-out, tied the other end to a tree about 8 feet above the ground and fired up the TS-2000. Auto tuner matched all bands 6 thru 80 with no trouble. 6 was dead so no contacts there. 10 meters was open to Central and South America and I worked many stations, same on 12. Made many contacts in the Salmon Run on 15 and 20 meters, along with some decent DX. On 40 I only heard a few weak stations and didnt bother trying, 75 meters I never heard a sound. Nextr time I will try adding some wire to try out the lower bands. The antenna deploys in 5 minutes or less and gives adequate results for a casual operator. With a minor mod (more wire) I believe it could be even better.
KB2OXR Rating: 2011-06-18
Stop Bashing Time Owned: N.A.
I will never understand why people buy something knowing full well what is is and what it isnt,and then come on here and bash the product . I plan on buying one of these things because I need to be very very very stealth and this will do the trick from my 2nd floor apartment .
Its just like some hams go out and buy a low end radio , and then complain because it doesnt cook the meals and do the wash . If you have the space for a full sized antenna , why would you even bother with something else .
I gave this a 3 because I have not bought it yet , just giving my 2 cents
KU6Z Rating: 2011-06-12
Nice multibander Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've been a ham for 3 months, and the Utimax 100 was one of my 1st antenna's. I currently have it connected to a vertical 31 foot Jacklite fiberglass pole i got off of ebay for $59, and have it connected to my chimney with a $20 chimney mount.

I recently found out that the S9 31foot vertical antenna uses the same fiberglass pole. There is a video on youtube that shows how to run the wire up the center of the fiberglass pole (look for "s9v antenna kit" on youtube.) S9 sells a 4:1 unun for multiband use, but I'm using the Ultimax100 instead. I'm not sure how they compare.

I also soldered a ground plan wire and added 4 20m tuned radials and 2 40m radials, and it seems to be working pretty good. I live in a RF noisy city, with a contant S6 level on 20m and 40m, but I'm able to talk to anyone I hear. I've made it to Spain, Argentina, Japan and Australia from Los Angeles.

I've done a comparison on 20m between a tuned 20m dipole and a G5RV Jr. and Ultimax100 in the horizontal position, and it gets close to the same amount of RX, but on TX the dipole is usually 1-2 S levels above the ultimax.

However, when using the Ultimax with a 33' wire fed up the 31' vertical pole, reception is at least 1 S level above a 20m vertical dipole. Probably because the dipole goes up only 16.5' vs the 31' of the ultimax100.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the Ultimax100 and would give it a 4 out of 5. If i did it again though, I'd probably would have just have gotten a S9 18' or 31' with a 4:1 unun.
KD8IGK Rating: 2011-06-06
Great Antenna ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
We used this ULTIMAX 100 antenna for the museum ships weekend on June 4th and June 5th, 2011. We used this for our 20M antenna on SSB Phone. It worked very well and we logged over 400 contacts during the special event for the USS Alabama station. While we had a random wire in place prior to this, the random wire was a great antenna, it unfortunately received everything on any frequency. So we could not operate two stations together with the random wire because transmission from our second station would overload the receiver on the 20M radio. Our 40M station was run with a 80-10M Radio Wavz. Our Rig Expert 230AA analyzer indicated this ULTIMAX 100 antenna was very good at 80M and 20M, but not resonant at 40M. This allowed us to operate two stations in close proximity to each other (about 75Ft apart) We did not do a detailed analysis of this antenna for other bands, so I cannot comment on anything other than it's performance 20M.
K9CDX Rating: 2011-06-05
Perfect for me Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Living in an apartment on the 7th floor, this antenna is the perfect stealth solution. Construction quality is excellent as is his customer service. I am using a Yeasu FT-450at with 100 watts, and the antenna box mounted just outside my window at 86ft sloping to around a height of 60ft. with "SpiderWire" fishing line extending another 150 ft to a anchor point. It is difficult to see except on a bright sunny day. First QSO was with France at a 59, happen to be a good propagation day.. Have only used it with Voice, but I am truly impressed. What I did instead of making the suggested air choke was to install a line isolator and low pass filter to head of neighbor complaints. I have had no RF back issues on the coax. I find that if I can hear it ,I can work it as my logbook shows.
Because of my stealth needs I will be going to #26 Poly Shield wire and extending to 66ft using a sky colored insulator. After speaking to the owner of the company (fast e-mail response) the antenna can be lengthened from the stock 24ft to 33ft, 43ft 66ft and so on with even better results.I highly recommend this antenna and this company. My first antenna was a Windom and frankly the off center feed with the coax having to hang down didn't make it stealth. I feel this antenna outperformed that antenna. Will report more after even further use.
WP3HW Rating: 2011-05-30
Excellent for what it is Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is a short wire matched with a UNUN capable of handling high power and its only fair to compare it with other similar antennas. I used to have a vertical with a low powered UNUN. It eventually failed because it just couldn't handle high power. That one was replaced with a Zero Five vertical with radials which by the way, also has a UNUN as an impedance matching device.

I finally installed the ULTIMAX horizontally outside my QTH window at about 25 feet where a highly regarded Windom previously stood.

It receives well and transmits well. Very little "tuning" required. And I have loaded it with about 500 Watts. No problem.

Fits well in my small lot where there are antenna restrictions. I got away with the vertical. Hard to see against a blue or gray overcast sky.
N0FPE Rating: 2011-05-28
yuk yuk Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
My new Alpha Delta DX-CC strung up at the same elevation out preforms this POS 100 fold. It is now in the junk box as one more peice of BS sold as the best thing since sliced bread. A POS ..my money would have been better spent on beer and brats!!!
N7FGF Rating: 2011-05-18
Purchased 2nd one.... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Great antenna. Loved the antenna so well.. That I'll use one on base for home and await the other one for camping. They do work with the length of wire that comes with them.. But we added some other and longer length of wire.. In fact.. Since my lot is so short... 2/3 to 3/4 of the wire is in the air.. And the rest down the middle of a tree.

I did check into some HF nets last night on 80 meters... Compared to a all band dipole... Full length... Everyone said this antenna and the other one.. About the same for signal strength.. One person said they thought the Ultimax was just a little better. Rather than fool with taking the base one down for camping, just decided to order another one. I think the noise level on the Ultimax might just be a little less. Again, well constructed antenna... And they are good about answering questions via email too. Thanks, Johnnie N7FGF
KD6OZF Rating: 2011-05-13
Fantastic Antenna! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have been playing around with this antenna for a few weeks now. I have the antenna mounted inside of my attic, with a line isolator at the feedpoint of the antenna. I have made many international contacts into Europe, etc with 5/9 signal reports. I recently installed an mfj magnetic loop in the attic as well, and let me tell you this antenna blows the loop out of the water. Its quiet on the noise level, works great on 40 meters and also 75/80 meters as well. For restricted hams that have HOA's this is definately an amazing antenna. The support is fantastic, it is well made, and like I said it is blowing the magnetic loop out of the water. I only run about 70 watts max to try and cut down on any RFI, and it has given me fantastic results. I will try repositioning my loop antenna, but this antenna for about 85 bucks is awesome! Must have for HOA restricted hams!
KG9EQ Rating: 2011-04-25
Works-So Far So Good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this antenna for several reasons, mainly due to the fact the trees in my yard are so poorly configured as to make them nearly unusable for antenna supports. I've only had this up for a few days. It's strung through one of the trees until I can get a support mast up. Made a couple of contacts with it on PSK31. Tunes fine on all the bands I tried it on (40, 30, 20, 15, 10). Will see how it performs when I get it configured properly. Overall construction is of very high quality, it should last for quite awhile.

My main gripe was how slow the shipping was. It took over two weeks before it was shipped. If they are custom building each one per individual order, then they should note that on their sales page.

Jim, KG9EQ