Michael, you always make us look good lol! I'm glad you were able to make all the contacts on such a potential bad day. We have found that this antenna also works great for FT8, it is now Ape's favorite antenna. Thank you for the great video and can't wait to see you use it again .
I have been using a switchable 9:1/4:1 UNUN using the same core for about 6 months now, I've had great luck with 58' inverted V and 29.5' wire in vert/sloper and a pair of 17ft counterpoises. I find that the 29.5' works well from 2m (surprisingly easily tunable and good simplex performance) to 40m, 80m is tunable but haven't tested. the 58' wire worked great 80-10. I'm using a small qrp manual tuner with ic705. testing this core in 9:1 with 11 20ga trifillar windings gave me about -0.7db on 20-10m, -0.9db at 40m and -1db at 60-80m and -1.5db on 6m and 160m. (tested in the series s11-s21 with 2 cores)
Thanks for an excellent review, Michael. Your detailed evaluation on its excellent performance at the end of the video sold me, and I ordered one ! 73, W3WJ.
Michael, outstanding video as usual! I've been using mine mostly on FT8 for the past couple of weeks, hundreds of DX stations (including Antartica) with it. Ape and I also smoke tested it a bit, ran up the power on my amp to around 250 and did ft8 for an hour or so. Not super scientific, I ran out with a thermal imager every so often to check temps, we had it up to 160C, and it was still rocking.
very good video. love the park ! nice video of the park . very nice antenna build . easy to deploy and take down. great POTA and SOTA antenna . love the tune on the bands . we need to take better care of out planet . that why I like POTA so much. so many great parts around the world. keep showing video of the parks like you do. even the history ! love the birds as well. all wild live I love. 73's
Great review Michael…. I’ve finally broke down and got the Heil BM-17 headset that you have been using in your videos. Heil has a 10% off code that expires on March 28th.
I’m a rather new ham, licensed for about 4 weeks and just got my general yesterday. I have my new radio, the FT-710, and looking for a multi band antenna. Will the built-in tuner in the FT-710 ‘handle” this antenna without the need of an external antenna tuner? If I understood the video correctly it tested out at 3 to 1. I will be predominantly on 10, 20 and 40 meters. Thanks for your content!
25ft is a good trade off.. still a 3/16 wave on 40 but not much more than a 3/4 wave on 10. So you avoid too much inefficiency on 40m and avoid creating higher lobes for take off on 10m. It’s a good all bands in one radiator antenna. It’s a compromise but 99.999% of antennas are to some degree. On 17 and 15 it acts very much like an efhw so is less ground radial dependent. It’s like a 5/8 on 12m so produces a good low angle pattern. It has nice gain on 10m. On 20m it’s a 3/8 wave vertical so should give a good match to 50 ohms with a 4:1 unun as feedpoint impedance here is around 200 ohms. On 40m as it’s 75% the length of a quarter wave you should expect it to be around 6dB down but not a massive deal breaker. Thanks for the video Michael 73.
In reading about the Rybakov, the antenna really interested me. I had it on my list of projects as the weather got warmer. CaHR beat me to the punch by sending me a kit, saving me the work of sourcing the parts.
I just built their Apollo EFHW -- my first time building an antenna, first time soldering anything -- but what with one thing and another, I haven't had a chance to USE it yet. I'm looking forward to seeing what I might get with a wire a bit higher in the air than my usual 17' whips. I just don't get anything like the DX you seem to get routinely, and we're not that far away (I'm in the Twin Cities!), so geography is probably not the difference!
We're at similar latitudes, so you should experience similar results. The bulk of the DX that I get is with a wire antenna like the EFHW, or the end-fed random wire. I think you will do well getting one on the air.
Nice review of an interesting antenna. I fully support CAHR and it looks like they've put together a fantastic kit but I can't help but wonder if a budget minded ham might DIY with a LDG RU-4:1Unun for about $30 and wire they already have? I see the core material may differ but how much difference would that make?
Some people like the comfort of sourcing the parts from all one place, along with illustrated step by step instructions. But there's no reason why you can't assemble an antenna from parts on hand. You don't even need the LDG transformer, a suitable toroid is about $12-15 (with shipping). I've got a video where I built a random wire antenna with mostly parts on hand: ua-cam.com/video/wqKuttdHV8o/v-deo.html
In a vertical configuration, an end fed half wave is going to be longer as the antenna will be a half wave long on its fundamental band. You could deploy the EHFW in an L configuration and get similar results, but you have all that wire to contend with. An EFRW with say 19 or 29 feet of wire vertically should also give very similar results. The advantage of this antenna is that with a 25 foot radiator, it is close to 3/8 wave on the 20 meter band and about a 3/4 wave on 10 meters. It develops some really good RF takeoff lobes on those bands that favor DX.
Glad you liked it Michael, thanks for the review 👍
You're welcome, thanks for putting together a great product.
Michael, you always make us look good lol! I'm glad you were able to make all the contacts on such a potential bad day. We have found that this antenna also works great for FT8, it is now Ape's favorite antenna. Thank you for the great video and can't wait to see you use it again .
I'm glad you enjoyed the video, I'll do some digital with it next, I'm curious what the signal reports will be
I have been using a switchable 9:1/4:1 UNUN using the same core for about 6 months now, I've had great luck with 58' inverted V and 29.5' wire in vert/sloper and a pair of 17ft counterpoises. I find that the 29.5' works well from 2m (surprisingly easily tunable and good simplex performance) to 40m, 80m is tunable but haven't tested. the 58' wire worked great 80-10. I'm using a small qrp manual tuner with ic705.
testing this core in 9:1 with 11 20ga trifillar windings gave me about -0.7db on 20-10m, -0.9db at 40m and -1db at 60-80m and -1.5db on 6m and 160m. (tested in the series s11-s21 with 2 cores)
Wow. That SWR chart was NOT predictive of actual performance. Great video!
Yeah, non resonant antennas can be like that. They may look like a mess on the analyzer, but with a tuner they work great.
Thanks for an excellent review, Michael. Your detailed evaluation on its excellent performance at the end of the video sold me, and I ordered one ! 73, W3WJ.
Michael, outstanding video as usual! I've been using mine mostly on FT8 for the past couple of weeks, hundreds of DX stations (including Antartica) with it. Ape and I also smoke tested it a bit, ran up the power on my amp to around 250 and did ft8 for an hour or so. Not super scientific, I ran out with a thermal imager every so often to check temps, we had it up to 160C, and it was still rocking.
It's great to hear the transformer handles the power really well. I can't wait to get this antenna back on the air for some digital operation.
very good video. love the park ! nice video of the park . very nice antenna build . easy to deploy and take down. great POTA and SOTA antenna . love the tune on the bands . we need to take better care of out planet . that why I like POTA so much. so many great parts around the world. keep showing video of the parks like you do. even the history ! love the birds as well. all wild live I love. 73's
Great review Michael…. I’ve finally broke down and got the Heil BM-17 headset that you have been using in your videos. Heil has a 10% off code that expires on March 28th.
I’m a rather new ham, licensed for about 4 weeks and just got my general yesterday. I have my new radio, the FT-710, and looking for a multi band antenna. Will the built-in tuner in the FT-710 ‘handle” this antenna without the need of an external antenna tuner? If I understood the video correctly it tested out at 3 to 1. I will be predominantly on 10, 20 and 40 meters.
Thanks for your content!
Thanks again KB9VBR!
25ft is a good trade off.. still a 3/16 wave on 40 but not much more than a 3/4 wave on 10. So you avoid too much inefficiency on 40m and avoid creating higher lobes for take off on 10m. It’s a good all bands in one radiator antenna. It’s a compromise but 99.999% of antennas are to some degree. On 17 and 15 it acts very much like an efhw so is less ground radial dependent. It’s like a 5/8 on 12m so produces a good low angle pattern. It has nice gain on 10m. On 20m it’s a 3/8 wave vertical so should give a good match to 50 ohms with a 4:1 unun as feedpoint impedance here is around 200 ohms. On 40m as it’s 75% the length of a quarter wave you should expect it to be around 6dB down but not a massive deal breaker. Thanks for the video Michael 73.
In reading about the Rybakov, the antenna really interested me. I had it on my list of projects as the weather got warmer. CaHR beat me to the punch by sending me a kit, saving me the work of sourcing the parts.
Sweet! I made it on your video! Always great watching and learning from your content. Thanks for all you do in the hobby!
K4PWI
73
It's a pleasure to get you in the log.
Great job. Keep up the great work
Source for the coax with 1:1 choke you mentioned?
This is the coax that I used: chameleonantenna.com/shop-here/ols/products/cha-50-coax-with-integrated-rfi-choke/v/CHA-COAX-RFI-CHOKE-12
I have mine on the bench. Plan on putting it together in the near future! 73
Like how you spooled the wire with the bowl and pencil. Thanks for another great video. 73, KF0NNQ.
Sometimes inspiration strikes me.
I would recommend a good set of flush cutters. I use mine so much I buy them in a 5 pack.
I had a pair sitting on the desk, and wouldn't you know it, I grabbed the needle nose instead.
I just built their Apollo EFHW -- my first time building an antenna, first time soldering anything -- but what with one thing and another, I haven't had a chance to USE it yet. I'm looking forward to seeing what I might get with a wire a bit higher in the air than my usual 17' whips. I just don't get anything like the DX you seem to get routinely, and we're not that far away (I'm in the Twin Cities!), so geography is probably not the difference!
We're at similar latitudes, so you should experience similar results. The bulk of the DX that I get is with a wire antenna like the EFHW, or the end-fed random wire. I think you will do well getting one on the air.
Nice review of an interesting antenna. I fully support CAHR and it looks like they've put together a fantastic kit but I can't help but wonder if a budget minded ham might DIY with a LDG RU-4:1Unun for about $30 and wire they already have? I see the core material may differ but how much difference would that make?
Some people like the comfort of sourcing the parts from all one place, along with illustrated step by step instructions. But there's no reason why you can't assemble an antenna from parts on hand. You don't even need the LDG transformer, a suitable toroid is about $12-15 (with shipping). I've got a video where I built a random wire antenna with mostly parts on hand: ua-cam.com/video/wqKuttdHV8o/v-deo.html
Good DX indeed! The boys cant shut up about this antenna, even im getting a little FOMO!
I think I've worked more DX with CaHRTennas in the last 6 months than I have with anything else in the last six years.
How is this antenna different from just stringing an EFHW or EFRW vertically?
For 20m and 40m it’s a lot smaller.
In a vertical configuration, an end fed half wave is going to be longer as the antenna will be a half wave long on its fundamental band. You could deploy the EHFW in an L configuration and get similar results, but you have all that wire to contend with.
An EFRW with say 19 or 29 feet of wire vertically should also give very similar results.
The advantage of this antenna is that with a 25 foot radiator, it is close to 3/8 wave on the 20 meter band and about a 3/4 wave on 10 meters. It develops some really good RF takeoff lobes on those bands that favor DX.
What feed wire did you use that already had a chock built in?
Chameleon
Chameleon Antennas has coax with integrated chokes. I used a piece of their coax.
How long were the radials Michael??
The antenna uses four radials of 17 feet each.
@@KB9VBRAntennas thanks michael
Just an fyi, they. changed to link address for the antenna. 73 kf8aot😊
Great video, just wish you would have spent more time on the build.
I know others are going to go heavy on the construction, I chose a more balanced video to keep interest up and the time to a manageable length.
73, w3rrm