I needed an antenna that would operate on all bands. My first antenna, a fan dipole at 34 feet in the middle and about 20 to 25 feet on either end, provided me a system to compare the ProMaster Sr to. Problem with my first antenna is that it’d only perform on 15, 20, & 40 meters. The antenna is insulated from whatever a person decides to mount it to, so I simply dropped a 10-foot mast pipe into the ground about two feet deep beside an old wooden fence post that I braced it braced to.

Tuning? Well, it came pre-tuned! After verifying this with an MFJ analyzer and the SWR meter in my rig, I was satisfied it was time to take it for a test drive. Yes, it does need a tuner on 160 meters as well as 6 meters.

Performance…I placed an old AB switch to toggle between the two antennas and hopped onto 40 meters CW. First contact gave me an RST of 578 and was about 1200 miles ATCF (as the crow flies) on the antenna. Switched over to the fan dipole, and asked for a signal report and got a 466. Made sure to make another 20 or 30 contacts and each one gave similar reports. So… headed to 15 meters and sent CQ a few times from my ole trusty straight key and got Croatia on my first try. The signal report was just a 455 on the new antenna, but they could hardly hear me at all on the dipole, which faces east west.

Time has past; and enough time has past that this antenna has weathered two storms, one which packed gusts of about 80 mph. No signs of any damage from either wind, rain, sun, or anything else.

Conclusion-This is a sturdy antenna that performs very well.

KB9HHI

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