Ultrabeam of Italy no longer manufacture and supply this range of antennae. They are now made by WIMo of Germany who are also the sole supplier. Ultrabeam of Italy were renowned for high quality antennae (see all the pre-2019 reviews on eHam). However, as you will read below, WIMo struggle to match them.
My reason for purchasing was that a trusty Hexbeam succumbed to a vicious storm in February 2019, necessitating in a re-think of antenna selection. Given that I have only a light-weight telescopic mast, albeit well guyed, I was limited by size and weight. Eventually I settled on a choice between an Ultrabeam and the Steppir equivalent. Steppir antennas have a more complex construction (the manual is three times the size of the Ultrabeam manual), and the controller appears not to be as good. So Ultrabeam was my choice. Steppir are slightly less expensive but the control cable and transceiver interface are extra costs whilst both these items are included with the Ultrabeam.
My purchase was not without several critical issues. There is no warranty document. Of course, there is a warranty but WIMo do not overtly stand behind their products. There is no contents list, this omission making any difficulty with construction difficult to resolve because it is impossible to know if you are dealing with correct parts. As it was, I had a wrong mast/boom plate supplied but I thought it was not the plate that was wrong but the U-bolts, blocks and other mounting hardware. In the box was the manual, consisting of loose A4 paper, not even in a wrapper or folder. For nearly 2000 euro this is poor and does not instil a sense of quality. The manual boasts of its simplicity to complement the “simplicity of construction”. But this taken too far. Take an A4 sheet consisting of copious text and 7 photos and you can imagine that these photos are not going to be very large and with poor definition. I had to email WIMo several times regarding the wrong part and how to correctly mount the EHUs to the boom. They sent me a much more detailed picture that instantly solved the EHU problem and which should be an extra page in the manual. For the sake of just one sheet of paper, this omission is an unnecessary oversight.
Notwithstanding the above construction issues, which caused a two-week delay while waiting for the proper part to be sent and arrive, construction was easy enough once the detailed picture was provided. The metal materials are claimed to be all stainless steel but after 3 weeks in the air, rust appeared on the EHU case washers. The fiberglass elements, that house the moving tapes, are strong but do flex in even moderate wind which creates a fluctuating SWR. Probably this is nothing to be concerned with in practice but I wonder if the Steppir does the same.
The controller is a nice looking, color, touch-screen unit that has a well-appointed menu and many features. Supplying CAT to it was simple so that the antenna could follow the radio VFO. It will allow ‘daisy-chaining’ if you only have an option for one CAT cable but also have another CAT dependent device like an amplifier. The supplied controller was marred by a badly finished case, it being covered by blotches caused by fingerprints put on it during manufacturing or packing. These should have been cleaned off at the time but were now etched into the case, preventing their complete removal even with a proprietary cleaner. The controller manual makes only a single reference to a 'PC Program' without explanation. There is in fact a downloadable MS Windows applet, much like the SPE amplifier software, with which you can see a graphical representation of the controller panel and operate the antenna from a PC via a USB connection. It uses Omnirig to get CAT information and works very well. The controller also comes on when power resumes from a wall socket, making remote operation very straightforward. Beware though that the unit powers up after a power outage and therefore needs unplugging if being left unused and unattended for any length of time.
But now the worst problem and nightmare: The antenna would lose all resonance when using the controller to fine-tune each band’s SWR adjustment, necessitating in ‘calibration’. Even if this corrected the problem, which it did most times but not all, it would be necessary to calibrate again when fine-tuning another band. Other actions also resulted in the total loss of resonance on all bands.
WIMo staff are good at general customer support but seem inept when it comes to supporting this product. Taking over construction and supply has not been accompanied by acquiring knowledge and expertise in working with customers and problem-solving faults in this dynamic antenna. This is alarming. There began a long, protracted episode in trying to get satisfaction for my 2000 Euro outlay. One email from a WIMo staffer asserted "no one would call the antenna not working" in response to my list of complaints. Even more bizarrely, Ultrabeam owners are directed to a 'Troubleshooting' document which details several complex and onerous tests that are expected to be made. I made one of the tests and forwarded the result to WIMo who made no comment. I am now sure that none of the staff there understand the tests let alone the results.
From my initial complaint, it took 3 weeks of numerous emails (and believe me, it was far too many culminating in a threat to escalate the matter) before finally WIMo collected the EHUs, controller and cable for examination. Only the action of Managing Director, Volkmar Junge, got things moving. They found that the controller had been wrongly programmed (for a 40m-6m model instead of my 20m-6m model) and that the internal CI-V board was defective. They made all this good, changed the EHUs’ corroded washers and element tapes, and replaced the controller case. But the new case was scratched on the top, symptomatic of the careless attention by WIMo staff. I considered sending them a picture but since I had suffered for 10 weeks in total, from making payment to having a working product, I thought better of re-opening a very sore wound. On re-constructing and mounting the antenna again, I used an anti-rust compound on all the EHU case screws and washers.
Performance: I am not able to make AB comparisons with another HF antenna in real-time. But it is possible to get a feel for antenna performance. I had my Hexbeam for 7 years and it was an acceptable performer in terms of pile-up breaking. It’s front-to-back ratio was excellent. Although of the ‘broadband’ type, I had to run it through a tuner on wide bands and undoubtedly the forward gain was not uniform across the whole of these bands. The Ultrabeam is optimised for maximum forward gain at the expense of front-to back. It exhibits only 12dB to 15dB rather than the 20dB of the Hexbeam. But, being dynamic, forward gain is uniform across the whole of the bands and it became readily apparent that its performance was superior. Bear in mind though that the Ultrabeam is four times the cost of a Hexbeam.
In summary: the negatives to this antenna are some substandard materials; poor presentation; and WIMo, whose staff are in serious need of training. The understanding of the product by their customer service staff is not good enough. Note though that Volkmar Junge is committed to straightening out all issues and actually his attention to the problems was what separated satisfaction of a sort from seeking a full refund. The positives are that providing WIMo have learnt something from this episode, or you get a working one, you can expect good performance for a 2 element together with ease of construction and wiring, and an attractive and well featured controller. Should you choose Ultrabeam and have issues, I recommend not bothering with the Troubleshooting Guide, or starting dialogue with WIMo staff, but to go direct to WIMo's MD.
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Update after nearly 5 years' ownership: I still have the beam and I still use it everyday. It remains a 3 star product but more than likely it would rate higher for new purchasers. Let me explain.
The original antenna continued to give me problems. The resonance would get out of sync and I had to recalibrate roughly every 4 weeks. The control cable was of poor manufacture and the outer insulation was short of the cable length and, at the both ends, the plug wires were exposed. I did heat-shrink these ends but after 4 years in the air, suddenly I could not change bands. I found that there was water ingress to the cable that had by capillary action flowed to the RCU-06 controller and that in turn had suffered a corroded socket and internals. Basically the cable and the controller were a write-off.
What to do now? Time will tell how stupid or otherwise I have been but I decided to buy another one. There are some notable improvements since 5 years ago. The control cable is different and of far better quality. I did still heat-shrink the ends but it looked watertight to me. The firmware is now upgraded from V4 to V5 and the controller works perfectly. In six months usage I have not had to recalibrate the antenna.
The on-air performance has always been outstanding. I am DXer, always chasing DXpeditions, and rarely do I not work something and neither do I ever feel I am using a 2 element and not a 3 element.
Had this been my first purchase I would rate it 4 stars. I would stop short of 5 stars because not all the hardware is stainless steel and greasing is necessary on the EHU case bolts and protection of the cable from water is, I feel, a needed safeguard. Even though a SteppIR is more expensive, for this price there should not be the need for owner interventions for weather protection.
Notwithstanding periodic checking of the rear of the RCU-06 for dampness, I am optimistic for the longevity of the replacement antenna. Also this time, I did not need to interact with WiMO staff - what a relief. |
