HF Manpack Collapsible 7 Element Whip Antenna 285 CM Length

This antenna is almost indistinguishable from the original US military design. Solid, durable, and reliable this survived both pota and sota for a few years now, even in adverse weather conditions including hurricane season, at up to 100 watts HF when connected to both military and civilian radios. The thread is compatible with almost all current amateur radio coils and military antenna systems. For reenacters and historical radio users at this price you might as well buy 5 as they will cost you the same as one original.

First impressions: Seems to be fairly well made. Set up is easier than take down nice tight cords Like others have said the dab of glue was difficult to work through. Needed to clean up the threads to get it to sit flush. Not a big deal. Had plastic sleves and one piece of heat shrink tubing, maybe for permanent set up. I removed them. Set up in my back yard with a KB9VBR magic carpet style ground plain. 20 was below 1.5 across the entire band with 40 being below 2. 40 was more narrow but still no problem. I will update this review with other bands and field experience. Antenna is much heavier than previous whip from WRC. this may make the coil more likely to tip over. Due to the length 10m may not work with this set up. Unknown if collapsing a section and using attched velcro to secure will give 10m. Looks like they also make a 6 section version maybe more appropriate for higher bands Update - awesome antenna, 1st POTA activation with it and 60+ contacts in under 1hr. A bunch of DX stations as well. Only used on 20m will update with other bands in the future. Great replacment for WRC 102" whip 40 and 15 work very well, has held up well for about 10 activations so far. Will be purchasing the 6 element as well

Updated review: The shock cord in the antenna is not very strong. Mine broke. It is still functional as an antenna, but takes more time to setup/take down and the sections do not stay together in storage. Original review: Looks like a good antenna, *BUT* there is a glob of polymer on the threads that prevents it from mating with a mount or coil. I tried to remove it, but don't want to damage the threads. I'm returning this and hopefully the replacement will fix the problem. Update after receiving the replacement antenna: The polymer 'blob' is still there, but did not block the threads in the same way the first one did.

Works awesome on 10m band for sure. I was portable and made contact from my location in Hawaii into Texas the first time I used it. Guess that's about as good as you can ask for!

It got me contacts across the country on the 10m band. You’ll need this antenna and a balun- the CHA Hybrid Micro is good, or a knockoff. (This antenna is actually a knockoff of a CHA antenna. My whole setup is an eclectic combination of CHA products and obvious knockoffs of CHA products.) Of course you will need a feed line (male to male UHF connectors on RG-58 or better coax) and a counterpoise (long wire hugging the ground) to complete your setup. If you don’t need the collapsibility, consider a simple telescoping 18’ stainless steel antenna. Chinese examples are available all over the web at ~$20. One advantage this collapsible does have over the stainless steel antennae is that it’s threaded for 3/8-24. The stainless steel ones are threaded (as they specify) to a metric standard that needs an adapter to interface with your balun.

I really wanted to like this antenna. However, there were continuity issues between some of the sections which affected overall SWR. Also, as one other reviewer mentioned, there I had difficulty screwing the antenna into the mount due to some sort of polymer coating on the 3/8 by 24 stud.

It’s okay. Another antenna to play with. it has benefits Small footprint 10-20 Meters de WU1Q

Was hoping to use this for portable ham HF, and with small a coil it will do 40, 20, 17 and 15 meters well. I run a Wolf River Cools "SOTA Special" antenna setup which comes with a 77” telescoping element, and I prefer that one over this one. Thought I'd give this a shot because I was curious, and I know everyone’s setups vary, but for me there’s no advantage to a ~3' longer antenna. It's actually less versatile than what I already had. I can do a lot with this antenna, sure, but I can do MORE with the shorter one that came with the Wolf River package, like 6M if I collapse it a little, and the shorter antenna is easier to deal with, so it makes more sense to carry that. I don't know how people are able to get this to resonate on 20m on its own with no coil. I put the NanoVNA on it and it has a nice dip (but not even that close to 1:1) at about 27mhz, nowhere else. Durable antenna though - looks to be the same as what you get with the Chameleon MPAS, and it’ll at least work as a CB antenna with no coil.