I rarely find anything to disagree with on OH8STN's blog. But today, I was really quite irritated by his brief review of the 'Packtenna', a multi-band end-fed wire attached to a 9:1 unun.
Now, an endfed antenna like this is, if you'll excuse me for my French, piss-easy to make yourself. There are countless YouTube videos and book articles that tell you how to wind the unun, whether it be a 9:1 or 49:1. Presumably, you don't need a video on how to connect a wire and coax connector to the unun.
How much is this end-fed wire? The Packtenna website, accessed 12/11/2019, gives the wonderful price of $89.99
Now, that's quite a high price for a shrink-wrapped ferrite core on a plastic winder with wire attached to it. A much more substantial, robust end-fed by UKAntennas is only £59 - nearly a third cheaper - with the added advantage for UK buyers of not having to import and potentially pay duty on the product when the customs men get hold of it.
My money, for what it's worth, is on the Hawaii Emergency Ham Radio Club's simple, quite well-made and effective EF antenna - for just $56 (plus the risk of any duty). If you want to make your own, EARCH are noble enough to provide free instructions. I've had two of these antennas for about 7 years, and they've taken the worst weather and 50-100W output without any problem whatsoever.
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| My recommendation for a multiband EF antenna - made by EARCH (see link above). |
What really got me going was when OH8STN said he has only had the antenna for "a few weeks", and sings its praises, despite the fact that it has "burned up" with some modest-power digimode use. I think his assertion that the "near perfect SWR" of "1:2" is supposed to read 1.2:1. We can forgive his wrong-way round ratio, where SWR is always properly given as 'something-to-1'.
I fail to see why a $89.99 antenna that fails after "a few weeks" under modest power use is in any way worth recommending, except where the user may have been unduly rough in its use and its failure was his own fault. Even then, an antenna intended to be 'packed' should be built sufficiently robustly to last a few years, not a few weeks. The 'burning up' presumably means an inappropriate ferrite selection by the maker; Julian's review doesn't say where the failure occurred.
If something isn't very good, it's either best not to write about it at all (which is what many magazines will do if confronted with a negative review), or else report on it candidly.
Oh, and the title for this blogpost? It was inspired by the fabulous 'Derry Girls':
I was quite surprised buy Julian's post as well. Since the product failed but still he tells it is excellent. And no photos from the burned up product after the test....The problem with his blog is that you can't comment either (although there is a comments link but not working). I was also disappointed by the post that was about GPS time sync software for Windows. I wrote about that a few years ago but probabely he doesn't remember. The endfed you have there looks excellent. However I think you can build it yourself for half the price. But isn't that true for all antennas? 73, Bas
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