Versatile HF antenna, great customer service

Did some research on this antenna before buying it as I was skeptical that it would really perform. Steve at Alpha responded promptly to my inquiries about the antenna both before and after the sale and patiently discussed the technical aspects of the product with me. So, 5 stars for customer service from this company.

I erected it per the instructions with the balun and feed point at 25′ and the bitter end at 55′ giving the wire an angle of about 35 degrees. Feeding it with about 45′ of a good quality RG-8X coax. This is the Senior model and one observation is that the wire is heavy so there is more sag to the span as opposed to bare or stranded wire typically used in other wire antennas. However, it is a strong jacketed wire and should resist breakage and weathering.

Initially tested all bands, 6-160m, for ability to load and SWR without the use of a transmatch. On all bands except three, the SWR was 2:1 or less and on the other three bands it was 3:1 or less. The autotuner in my rig did little to improve the SWR on most bands; but, when I put my wide range manual tuner in line the antenna easily achieved 1.1:1 on all bands without much tweaking.

The antenna manual clearly indicates the power limitations and at 100 to 200 watts CW there is no problem. I decided to push the envelope to 300w CW and that caused the SWR to start climbing. I suspect the balun gets saturated at higher power so that lesson was learned without frying the coil.

Conditions are pretty poor right now with high noise levels and fast QSB so assessing performance at this time is difficult. Nevertheless I have been able to work CONUS and some DX on 30, 40, and 20m. Will have to wait until conditions improve before I will be able to tell.

A recent move somewhat forced me to explore antenna options to fit the new premises. This antenna seems to be a good alternative.

Bottom line, it is what it is advertised to be and is reasonably priced.

K4UX

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