Chameleon Antenna poor results and Alpha Antenna great results

Purchased this Alpha Antenna to replace a Chameleon Antenna that I had poor results with. Got some stateside contacts with the Chameleon antenna, as it was noisy & did not receive good signal reports. The day the Alpha Antenna FMJ Portable arrived it took me less than 5 min. to set up. It definitely was the easiest setup I have seen!

The Stateside Results

Using my portable setup Icom IC_7000 w LDG IT-100 tuner on 20m I made contacts in MO., CA., & WA. All signal reports were 59! Very pleased! Wanted to use this on a Boy Scout Camporee on Oct. 19-20 as I teach the radio merit badge. Prior to the event I attached 4 35′ NVIS elements as radials and it really increased the ability for the system to “hear” (as we would expect). At the camporee we had many state side contacts on 20m & 40m.

The DX Results

The highlight was a contact on 40m with Mario (I2VRN) in Italy. We got in through a pileup & his signal was 59 with his 1500W & beam. He rated our signal 57 with our little portable 100W setup out in the desert. Over 100 scouts were quiet & focused trying to follow his good English and heavy Italian accent. We were able to tune 80m & heard a station in Australia using the Chameleon antenna. We were able to break through the pileup and make contact after we hooked up to the Alpha. It was amazing that the SWR was low on 20 & 40 and only needed a tuner for 80/160. A good high quality portable antenna by itself – a GREAT high-quality portable from Alpha antenna with 4 35′ radials!