Ampro Mobile Antenna - 12m Variant

The higher HF bands have been wide open during the past couple of months, and activity is very high there.

As regular readers may recall, I sold my G-Whip Pro Mobile antenna during last spring, as it was just a little too much fuss to change bands with it.  Much better, in my view, to have a handful of monoband whips tuned-up and quickly screw in and out as bands dictate.

Mobile whips are much of a muchness, really - there's not an awful lot of latitude for one to be better than the other, being simply helically-wound verticals, the lower HF ones with loading coils, the upper ones without.

The Ampro-12 atop the radio car(!)

 
I love 12 metres, so opted for an Ampro 12 from Nevada, for £19.95.  Nevada charge a very reasonable standard delivery rate, and their service is very good, fair play.  The antenna arrived essentially next-day.

The Ampro, a very slimline design, has a standard 3/8" male screw fitting, which will see it attach to the vast majority of magmounts without any fuss.  The whip has a stiff lower section, and then a very lively stainless steel top section which is the part you raise up and down to get the right match to the transceiver.

The top whip is held in place very securely by two small set screws.  The only problem is that the supplied Allen wrench is made to a very poor quality, such that it is more round in profile than hexagonal! Accordingly, it doesn't work.  But Allen keys are so common that this is not a problem worth worrying about.

The top whip is kept firmly in place by two set screws.

Matching is very easy, and remains stable with changing environments.  Nearby metal sheds and power lines do affect mobile whips quite a lot, so if you do encounter any difficulty, it's best to take the car somewhere clear of development to match the antenna.

Performance-wise, the Ampro is, in essence, just a piece of wire on a stick, so it works as well as any other wire on a stick would!  My first QSO was with a 7U station in Algeria, who was hearing me well enough.  A TO station (Guadeloupe) was coming in extremely strongly at well over 59, but I didn't get a chance to have a QSO.

So, yes, this Ampro whip works as you would expect, is a really good price, and robust enough to last many years.  I was impressed by the way it shirked-off an encounter with a height limiting barrier at my local supermarket.  The springy upper section came into its own, merely whipping back into verticality on clearing the barrier!

Just remember that, whilst your car looks a bit silly with a huge antenna on top, it will typically give you 3dB - that's twice the input and output - over one installed on a tow hitch or eye.  It's also easier to match, due to the lack of complicating matters such as heating elements in the rear screen.

Blog's rating 

on price: 10/10
design: 9.5/10
performance: 10/10