6 thoughts on “Products”

1. I have had this antenna for the past 2 years. I recently had problems with my SWR and contacted COMPACtenna. Personally, Dr. Nilsson answered my questions and found the problem quickly. The magnetic base I was using had deteriorated causing the SWR to go up. Now again the antenna is at 1.01 SWR where I need it. I use this antenna to activate my DMR repeaters and my high powered Hotspots. The antenna gain is incredible compared to my old antennas. I highly recommend them.

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2. This is an outstanding low profile unity gain antenna and recommend it for that application. It is especially useful for mobile and space restricted — even indoor — environments. Real world indoor, urban, suburban, and rural testing shows that this antenna significantly reduces picket fencing and flutter in situations where other major manufacturers fall short. For indoor use: do not locate this antenna near ferrous objects, pipes, wiring, etc. due to coupling. I recommend a clearance of at least 3 feet, with the obvious exception of your ground plane and coax.

   For one specific case: there is a venerable major manufacturer whose antennas are used by first responders and amateur radio operators (me) for decades. The particular antenna by this manufacturer is used on 2/70 and gave me a benchmark to compare the CompacTenna side by side. In urban, NLOS environments, the CompacTenna beat the 2/70 antenna in every case.

   Now for the gritty detail. I’ve used the CompacTenna 2/220/440 antenna for over 6 months. This antenna, per the documentation, requires a steep ground plane angle. After a series of tests using a RigExpert AA-600 and my own analysis it appears the antenna requires a counterpoise to bring the resistance closer to 50 ohms and the SWR below 2:1. This is especially critical for the 2m and 220 frequencies. You can use this antenna on 440MHz with a large flat ground plane (e.g., middle of a vehicle roof) and see SWR’s between 1.43:1 at 444.000 to 1.8:1 at 448.000, but you will experience some heating.

   The antenna seems to function well on the corner of a vehicle or on the edge of a truck bed cover, just as long as it has some access to metal for a counterpoise. In one application, the antenna was mounted in the middle of a steel truck bed cover on the passenger side edge with the cover firmly bonded to the truck body at that location. In these two locations, the SWR ranged from 1.1:1 to 1.5:1 across all three amateur bands. While the antenna is primarily resonant at the 144/220/440MHz frequencies, it also demonstrated ample wide band receive-only capability on weather, air, and rail frequencies.

   With regards to the magnetic vs electric fields: a fast but inaccurate translation would be to say that this antenna functions as an omnidirectional circularly polarized antenna, and if you didn’t know any better, that’s what you would hear on the radio and see from your reception and transmission reports. It’s a lot more complicated than that and would recommend you review the various YouTube videos Dr. Jack put together to address this topic. Antenna analyzers and plots only give you part of the story, primarily based upon the E-field. It doesn’t show you, directly, what’s happening from the H-field side. Use a spectrum analyzer to compare received signals, though, and you’ll see the difference. The noise floor was reduced by approximately 3db and the signals were more evenly distributed. Signals that were close to the noise floor were observed to have increased by 3-6db, and stronger signals were slightly attenuated. The result is that there was minimal fading and the capability to hear signals that I could not using other manufacturer’s antennas.

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3. I have a diamond super gainer dual band mounted to my trailer hitch and wanted a scanner antenna to mount there also. The supergainer folds over so I can open the hatch. This short scanner antenna doesn’t have to. It’s not in the way. I did not want to mount an antenna anywhere on the body of the vehicle so the trailer hitch works well. I’m surprised how well this antenna receives being as small and mounted very low to the ground as it is. When the supergainer dies I’ll give the compactenna dual band a try mounted in the same location. Highly recommended!

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4. Me: I am a former employee of the US military as well as a Amateur Radio operator with a huge interest in LNA’s and wideband SWL and receiving. I have basic electronics training and an X-ray license with basic nuclear physics training. I also have a 85db hearing loss, so I have a huge passion for compensating for it- Im an enthusiast for building LNAs in RF tight enclosures. I have evaluated the 2m/220/440 Compactenna and have determined performance is excellent up to 1500mhz as well as the amateur bands. I highly recommend a pulse-larsen NMO mount dual high frequency/low frequency config. Use NMO mounts on your vehicle or outdoors as they are designed for lower loss at higher frequencies than UHF bulkheads, which is why this mount was chosen for this antenna. NMO is physically stronger in most respects..and brings the antenna very close to ground. I see a very uniform response across all frequencies – probably related to the magnetic M field sensitivity with this design- which helps compensate for E-field reflections. I recommend using an N connector with the NMO mount to your receiver if you have an N or at least a BNC so you can enjoy wideband reception as well as resonance on the Ham bands 2M 220 440. I wanted to write this review earlier, and I am not afilliated with compactenna, and I live in a High RF field environment – the George Washington Bridge area. The technology used in this design has the ability to resist and weather the outdoor elements without degradation due to the weatherproof enclosure..rubber gasket seals, and using low profile materials and the design itself. I am probably going to want to acquire the Scanner Version of this antenna for comparision as well as the SWL version of it because this is a winner of a design especially when you find yourself in high rf field environments – like a world of mirrors/illumination showing the shapes of everything – that is if you could see what RF really looks like.(something Ive been thinking about) KE2BP

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5. I just wanted to let all my Amateur Radio Brothers and Sisters that I have purchased (2) of the Tri-Band compactennas and they are working great! It has been over a month since I received them and they get excellent signal reports by my Ham friends. I used them on my trip to the Huntsville Hamfest last weekend with great results. They look great on my SUV and allow me to get into my garage without hitting the raised door. Also, they are great conversation starters with many people. I highly recommend these for anyone. They are quality antennas that will remain a fixture to my vehicle. To be honest, these will be the last antennas I will ever need for the 4Runner.

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6. Thank you for your support. Please share your enriching communication experience with your COMPACtenna. Thank you.
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