Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Alpha Antenna 6-160 HF J-Pole

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Alpha Antenna 6-160 HF J-Pole
Reviews: 44MSRP: 199
Description:
The Alpha J-Pole Jr & Sr Antenna systems achieve resonance on nearly all of the HF bands and presents an SWR on the remaining bands that are low enough for external tuners to achieve a perfect match.
Product is in production
More Info: http://AlphaAntenna.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00444.9
G8WWD Rating: 2013-08-30
Didn't cut the mustard at my QTH Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My experience with the Alpha 200WATT 6-160 HF J-Pole was unfortunately not the same as other reviewers here who all gave it five stars. I am comparing it here to my HALF SIZE G5RV which at 51ft is only 2/3 of the length of the 6-160.

I bought the 6-160 JR J-Pole which was advertised as being great for an antenna that is "only 75ft long" thinking it would be better than the 1/2 G5RV that I have been using for a few years. The fact that EVERY previous review here also gave it 5 stars played a big part in my decision to buy. My garden is postage stamp size and the 5RV goes from the eaves (20ft high) at the front of the house, down between the houses (gap of about 30ft) and to a tree at the back of the garden.

I put the 6-160 JR in the same location in place of the 5RV, in an inverted L as suggested as one of the configurations in the Alpha documentation as I don't have space to have the full 75ft straight.

On rx testing, the bands seemed to have gone down significantly in the half hour or so that it took me to drop the 5RV and put up the 6-160 in its place. It is times like these that appreciate that you've had the forethought to put ropes and pulleys in! What I could hear was quite a way down compared to what I had heard before on the 5RV. The SWR was good on all bands from 80-10m. I don't currently have 6m so couldn't try it there. 10m and 15m were reasonably open on the evening of the tests as it was clear weather and the sunspot number was 98 - not brilliant, but not too bad either. What I heard was disappointing to say the least, although 40m still seemed reasonably lively.

After an hour or so, I put the 1/2 G5RV back up alongside the 6-160 JR feeding them both through an antenna switch. Changing between the two was quite dramatic. The 1/2 G5RV showed that the band conditions had not gone down. Only when I switched to the 6-160 did signals drop, and they dropped a lot! Neither antenna seemed to be too affected by them being within a few feet of one another.

I recorded some videos of what happened when I switched between antennas to show it was quite dramatic and I may well load them onto YouTube. Switching from the 1/2 G5RV to the 6-160 went on most bands from strong signals of S9+10 down to S7! Some went from S5 on the 5RV to right down in the noise on the 6-160. I checked all the connections with a meter and everything was fine. I was sure that I had the red and black wired the right way on the unun, but double checked them!!! The only place it was similar in performance was on 40m.

I did some comparative tests on air with stations both in the UK and further afield and generally got reports of around 2 S points lower on the 6-160 compared to the 5RV.

Overall, I was very disappointed.
W4AFA Rating: 2013-02-04
Great Antenna and Service Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I saw this antenna on sale right before Christmas and bought it a day before they closed down for the holidays. The owner expedited its shipping so it would get out before Christmas. Because of travel, I just got it installed the other and I was blown away! I hung it as an inverted L with the feedpoint at about 20' and the apex and far end between ~50'. My results have been great. To check it out, I got on 40m and within about 15 minutes, had contacts in Florida, Tennessee and Michigan from Virginia on 100w.
Moved it over to my KX-3 and its autotuner got it down so it showed 1:1 to 1.3:1 on most bands with 1.4:1 on 80m.
The service at the Amateur Radio is outstanding with very prompt responses (my issue was tracking package through a city that had its Post Office damaged by a tornado). The owner of Alpha Antenna is extraordinarily responsive. Great transaction and I will be doing more business with him.
AE5YY Rating: 2012-12-12
A perfect fit at home or at play. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have had my Alpha 6160 about a week now. I purchased it to replace my DX-DD 80/40 dipole. I have not found a frequency it will not resonate on with the help of my LDG AT100proII tuner. I was at first concerned when looking at the specs that I would not be able to bring the SWR to an acceptable limit on 80m. Well Alpha proved me wrong. I have my feed point at 30' the antenna slopes to the end @ 16'. I use telescopic masts to support it. Very easy to set up and take down. A.perfect addition to any hams go kit. Thank you for this great product.
KB5FLA Rating: 2012-11-05
Great! So easy to set up. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Order came quickly. Instructions were very clear. Have this as my main home antenna and have been very pleased with the signal reports I have been getting from the entire country as well as Canada and Central America using an Icom IC-7000 bare at 100 watts in few weeks I have been using it.
My house is on a bluff so the antenna is deployed as an end feed sloper from about 30-35 feet to almost ground level along the edge of a 300 feet drop off. It is about north-south along the length. Great signal even to the east where the hill rises several feet higher than the antenna and my house roof is also in the way.
No problem tuning to a SWR of 1.0 to 1.3 across all bands 160 to 6 with the LDG autotuner. Some noise has been the only thing I have some problems with but this rig was so easy to put up and start using right away. Can not be seen at all from the street and no problems with the effect on our view of the Arkansas river.
Not having to put down a mass of radials, dig to set a mount into the almost solid rock the house sets on, etc where major points for me. Just tied this off to near the top of a pine tree that grows next to our three level wood deck and then to a small hickory at the other end for some flexibility and give to the line. Wind coming up the bluff has been no issue with the rig withstanding it with ease so far.
Great to be able to buy such a good product made close to my home state. I have also purchased a vertical portable antenna from Alpha Antenna after being so pleased with this one. Can't wait to try it out.
Would recommend this companies products strongly and will continue to be a customer. Needed to make one call over a minor question on another antenna and call was quickly answered by a knowledgeable support member.

73's

Richard
KD0SGU Rating: 2012-08-29
Great USA Company Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Needed a HF antenna for limited space, less than 100'. Being new and mostly illeraitte-+ about such things and not wanting to hook my antenna to my neighbors dog house. I also needed to be wide band on HF.

I talked to serveral old hams (not in the frozen food section) about this antenna. All the reviews reviews on the web were good. So I purchased one. It is good quality, built well and appears to do what they advertise. Instructions are much better than most. I called them about the installation and they were extremely helpful. I think they are a small antenna manufacturer located in NW Missouri USA, not China! Probably explains the great customer service as I don't speak Chinese.

Hope this helps someone with the same problem I had.

Vance Myers
KD0SGU

Their web site:

https://amateurradiostore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_10_11&products_id=42&zenid=53eced74c37b00471c3c55bd26fa8ee0
K2ADC Rating: 2012-08-04
Quick and easy to use Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Used the hf-Jpole on field day this year with the W2LI club in NJ. The antenna was up at approximately 20-25 feet close to a building and concession stand. Not an ideal set up and the antenna performed well on 40 and 20 meters. This is a good antenna if you are in a high noise enviorment. It really did a good job suppressing external noise on HF. Only had one contact on 80 that evening. Hope to get it up higher at my qth and test all the bands. Im thinking about getting one of the verticals. Very good antenna for the price. Any questions i had on the antenna were returned promptly via email.
VE4DXR Rating: 2012-06-24
Excellent and versatile Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Last December I bought the Apha Antenna 6-160 HF J-Pole primarily for working from my sailboat. This past weekend was the first time I gave it a try. While anchored in a quiet bay I raised the coax end of the antenna to the masthead and ran the antenna first to the tack on the bow and then aft through the folded mainsail and into the cockpit. It took less than 2 minutes and it was ready to work. I do not yet own a small tuner but I thought I would give it a try. I then attached my antenna analyzer and saw that the 20m band SWR was 1.5. I glanced at the convienient manual that came with the antenna and noticed an swr chart that shows that 40, 20, 15, 10 and 6 meter bands do not need a tunner. I was pleased to say the least since I was in the middle of nowhere and wanted to play radio for the first time on the boat.

WOW. I made 25 contacts that evening and was very pleased with the 57, 58, 59, 59+10, 59+20 from stations in Canada, USA, New Zealand and French Polynesia. A coulple of stations were QRP with as little as .5watt and I was able to qso with them with my 100w.

This Antenna exceeded my expectations. It is so quiet, light, easy to raise, convenient to have and versatile as it can be deployed in any configuration that you can imagine. Next time I will connect the antenna from the masthead of the boat to the masthead of the dinghy which will be in a inverted L or sloper configuration. I can't wait to try it again and use it everytime I go sailing or on nature treks.

I am very pleased with the results thanks to this antenna and my Yaesu 857d. I like it so much I am considering becoming a repesentative for this antenna in the Winnipeg area. Thank you Steve and congratulations to you and your team for developing this gem of an antenna. It made my weekend on the boat very, very enjoyable because now I can combine two of my favourite hobies.

Get one, you won't be disappointed.
KD0LOT Rating: 2012-03-18
Amazing Antenna! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My son and I are both very "green" hams. We set up this antenna in a sloping configuration with one end 24 feet above ground and the other end 3 feet above ground.

We have made several contacts on several bands and my son has made 2 DX contacts on 10 meters. This antenna performs great!

The customer service is absolutely A++++! All of my "newbie" questions were answered by the owner of Alpha Antenna very quickly.
K0RU Rating: 2012-02-21
Excellent all around performer Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
For portabliity and flexibility while out in the bush and playing this antenna creates allot of flexibilty all in one antenna. I've used several G5RV's over the years, many EDZ-Extended Double Zepps and Carolina windom designs.

This antenna has some very interesting performance characteristic that has been used over the years on VHF/UHF as a J-pole antenna that we have never even given the design any consideration for HF until now with this design from Alpha Antenna.

During the ARRL DX CW Contest this weekend we decided it would be an excellent event to really put this antenna through some interesting RECIEVE conditions during the pileups.
Being a DX Contest, we would be hearing stations from all over the world and they would be sending us their POWER levels during the contest so we would have some idea as to what the signal was like and basic power levels the DX stations were using. During the contest, is was simply amazing to hear so many stations from EUROPE running 5W and 10W QRP during the contest and on 15m which was the money band conditions were simply amazing, more over the Alpha 6-160M HF J-Pole antenna was amazing at receiving those lower power stations. Although the antenna has power limitation simply due to the balun design, the manufacture has commented that they have made head way toward a much higher 2 kW balun for uses with this antenna in the future. During my Recieve comparisons I was using an existing Alpha DX antenna which is simply a multi-dipole for 80 thru 10 meters. Through the comparison I would switch between the two antennas for receive during the contest to see some of the signal results. Much to my surprise the antenna GAIN on 10-20 meters was just simply amazing in comparison. During the contest 15 meters was the money band during the entire weekend, and on 15 meters this antenna reception was simply fantastic in comparison to the dipole. During the reception test the S-Meter's improvements were easily recognized as well as a significant improvement in the S/N ratio.

During the contest we used the antenna for reception on 40 and 80 meters in comparison again to the Alpha DX dipole antenna. The reception was equal to the receive capabilities of the Alpha DX Dipole, but remember this antenna is much much easier to install. Another interesting factor was just how quiet the Alpha 6-160 HF J-pole was in comparison.

For Camping / Portable / Field Day / Exercises / Special Events this antenna would be the number 1 choice simply due to is great flexibility and simplicity in design and great performance in such a small compact package.

Excellent Job Alpha-Antenna, looking forward to more great product in the future.

73 Rob
K0RU, Vice President
Kansas City DX Club
KD6LSJ Rating: 2012-01-11
Bought for EMCOMM - Replaced all my random wires with the Alpha Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought this antenna originally just for EMCOMM. After the first excercise, in less than ideal conditions, I was logging DX with station on all of the bands as well as getting great NVIS coverage. What surprised me the most was that their analysis for the SWR at http://alphaantenna.com/images/Alpha6160SWRChart.JPG was conservative. I decided to buy one of the LDG Tuners also from ARS (Amateur Radio Store) because they seemed to have the best prices. After seeing the Far Field Analysis at http://www.produstry.com/pdf/6-160M%20Far%20Field%20Analysis.pdf as well as the Independent Testing at http://www.produstry.com/tech/Independent-Testing/index.htm I decided that more serious consideration for the antenna I had bought was overdue. I began experimenting between many different varieties of antennas I had acquired and installed and found that this thing performs as well as anything I have installed! So, I trotted right back over to ARS and bought another one online at http://AmateurRadioStore.com.