Performance and SWR issues with the EZ Military whip from Alpha Antenna!!

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SGO

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Since a long time, I was having a lot of performance issues and unstable SWR with the EZ Military whip from Alpha Antenna. I tried just about everything possible until I found the real problem: extremely poor manufacturing!!!

The truth came to light when a friend of mine (who tried to help me to fix the antenna) forwarded me the following two youtube videos that explain everything you’ve to know about the EZ Military:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKKOkCSzEBg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r49Wy3j_CME

It’s shocking!

- SGO
 

prcguy

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Wow, yet another shill advertisement from our friends at Chameleon antennas and now they are trashing their brothers in ultra low performance, Alpha Antenna.

Its a coincidence that just a few days ago I met a new local general class ham visiting a friend and they were trying to figure out why he was not making contacts and especially on a 40m net where a friend and I check in with no problems and the new ham just can't get into the net.

Turns out the new ham has a Chameleon antenna about 60ft long stretched out across his back yard and it doesn't put out a very good signal.I loaned the new ham a simple half wave end fed, similar to the 40/20/15/10m PAR end fed and in the exact same spot this antenna is loud and clear, where the Chameleon is not so good. Its a night and day difference and the Chameleon is one step above a dummy load.

Its unfortunate that new hams see some of the questionable advertising from these two companies, spend their good money and get something that just doesn't work very well. And there are plenty of antennas that work much better and for less $$.
prcguy
 
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Watching those ads on youtube and noticed they turned off comments on videos about EZ Mil.. Seems just one person whos enjoying the antenna and thats the one making the video..


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NDRADIONUT

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One can usually make a damn good 40m dipole from stuff in their basement that will put most of that commercial crap to shame....
 

dsalomon

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Further to NDRADIONUTs comment, it's also very easy and inexpensive to make a multiband antenna out of simple wire and a balun. An off-center fed dipole covers multiple bands without a tuner. The only cost is the balun. Google it and you'll find LOTS of good information.
 

prcguy

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Yes and yes. If the makers of some of the worlds worst working antennas for the price, Alpha Antenna and Chameleon, would put the same amount of effort into an antenna design that actually works, they would have people raving about them instead of laughing at them.

They both seem to make and sell end fed whip and wire antennas using a 9:1 or 6:1 type balun or un-un that simply puts out a weak signal compared to other antennas of similar size that cost less. Then their advertising is questionable and misleading to boot.

I think most people know how horrible the 23ft long Comet CHA250B HF vertical works. Well shorten that up to 8 or 10ft long and that's how bad the Alpha and Chameleon whips work. Add 60 or even 100ft of wire to their transformer and you have a lousy HF end fed dummy load that doesn't hold a candle to a kw rated resonant half wave end fed that you can make for under $20.

On the off center fed, I'm on travel this week and using a very light weight and portable 80m offset center fed and its working really well. The 4:1 balun is good for about 150w and costs about $5 to make. I copied the Elecraft 4:1 BL1 balun using an Amidon BN-43-7051 binocular core and placed a good common mode choke 22ft down the coax making part of the feed line a vertical radiator on the higher bands like the Radio Works 80m Carolina Windom. This is an excellent antenna that covers all bands 80 through 10m and will completely blow the pants off anything that Alpha or Chameleon makes for just a few $$ in parts.
prcguy


Further to NDRADIONUTs comment, it's also very easy and inexpensive to make a multiband antenna out of simple wire and a balun. An off-center fed dipole covers multiple bands without a tuner. The only cost is the balun. Google it and you'll find LOTS of good information.
 

SCPD

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Terrible antenna

... I think most people know how horrible the 23ft long Comet CHA250B HF vertical works ...

Terrible antenna. I know two hams who got DXCC with that antenna. One has his at ground level next his house, the other lives in a trailer park. That's the antenna we used for our GOTA station at the last field day. Got over 100 contacts in 24 hours. Terrible antenna.
 

prcguy

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Its important to mention what bands you had success with on that terrible antenna. When 10m is open you can make contacts with virtually nothing, which is about what the Comet CHA250B is.

Here is one of many examples of people who made DXCC using 100w into a light bulb as an antenna. Your not going to make DXCC on 80m or 40m with the Comet.

"The July, 2000 issue of QST Magazine contained an article by N6BT titled “Everything Works.” The author laid out his ideas on the relative performance and enjoyment factor of different antennas, from a light bulb on a 4-foot post to stacked Yagis on a tall tower. He related his own experience as a newby ham, thinking his first antenna was pretty good until he put up his second one, and so on. He also described his light bulb antenna, mounted on the wooden post, with a ferrite bead choke balun to minimize feedline radiation. With that light bulb and a 100-Watt transceiver he actually completed contacts to every continent on 10 Meters. “Everything Works” indeed!"
prcguy


Terrible antenna. I know two hams who got DXCC with that antenna. One has his at ground level next his house, the other lives in a trailer park. That's the antenna we used for our GOTA station at the last field day. Got over 100 contacts in 24 hours. Terrible antenna.
 

nanZor

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Let's not get off track here by ignoring the initial post.

To me, those initial video links set a new low, and are so obviously biased with pseudo-specifications that really put me off and raise the red-flags. And I actually own a well-built Chameleon hybrid / unun or two, (both mini and normal) BUT understand the compromise. They are not my only antennas to be sure!

Like prcguy points out, both of those competing systems are based around what is essentially a random-wire with a transformer / bal / unun. In Chameleon's case, that "hybrid" is actually a specially wound unun that differs a bit from the more common toroidal type.

I opened mine up, and it is the very same technique used by the Comet antenna. G8JNJ covers the pros and cons of this balun/unun type well:

http://www.g8jnj.net/cometcha250b.htm

In the case of a non-resonant wire (or whip if you will), it REQUIRES a decent ground for any sort of efficiency. And, the lower you go in frequency with the balun of the Chameleon / Comet type of arrangement, the losses in the balun itself add up. At 80m or so, that "half winding" is what provides a low dip, but at what cost especially when attached to a short whip? In this case it is far better to utilize a feedpoint tuner.

A new user would do well to *strip away the marketing hype*, and read up on what it takes to make a non-resonant random wire work well as that is what these systems are. Are you just using the common mode of a single feedline as your ground?

One thing not conveniently mentioned is that balun / unun's don't maintain their specifications when the reactance is high! That is, they may test well with a resistive element, but when high reactance is present, that balun specification might go right through the window. Hence the need for high quality units like Balun Designs LLC and others which recognize this fact.

Yes, anything can work. Ironically, the best thing for a new user to do is build a canonical simple amateur antenna FIRST, and then if you use a non-resonant system like these later, you'll either understand what it takes to make it work well, or be a better judge of how much loss you can stand for your own working environment.

Personally, I run non-resonant systems by choice, but in order to get any efficiency out of it, you have to put in some work especially in your ground system, and do some calculating on transmission line / balun / tuner loss to see if it goes beyond the norm. And toss in radiation angles too! Unfortunately, this can all just be too much for the newcomer, especially when every forum thread goes on a tangent. :)
 
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AC2OY

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Terrible antenna. I know two hams who got DXCC with that antenna. One has his at ground level next his house, the other lives in a trailer park. That's the antenna we used for our GOTA station at the last field day. Got over 100 contacts in 24 hours. Terrible antenna.

I read this and said wow. I got 4 more Q's earlier...243 so far 76 countries and I worked 5 or 6 different bands?
 

AC2OY

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Its important to mention what bands you had success with on that terrible antenna. When 10m is open you can make contacts with virtually nothing, which is about what the Comet CHA250B is.

Here is one of many examples of people who made DXCC using 100w into a light bulb as an antenna. Your not going to make DXCC on 80m or 40m with the Comet.

"The July, 2000 issue of QST Magazine contained an article by N6BT titled “Everything Works.” The author laid out his ideas on the relative performance and enjoyment factor of different antennas, from a light bulb on a 4-foot post to stacked Yagis on a tall tower. He related his own experience as a newby ham, thinking his first antenna was pretty good until he put up his second one, and so on. He also described his light bulb antenna, mounted on the wooden post, with a ferrite bead choke balun to minimize feedline radiation. With that light bulb and a 100-Watt transceiver he actually completed contacts to every continent on 10 Meters. “Everything Works” indeed!"
prcguy

I have
 

prcguy

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Waite a minute, I recall a bunch posts where others in your area were making DX contacts and you either could not hear anyone or heard them and called but no one answered and you questioned your antenna. Then you mentioned what antenna you have and nearly everyone chimed in and said yes, that antenna is known to be a dog. Do you remember these posts?

You can make contacts with just about anything including a light bulb in the air (dummy load), so some contacts does not equate to a good antenna . The Comet CHA250B is still one of the lowest performing, most expensive antennas on the marked and a few contacts doesn't change that.

I understand you might have space limitations and the Comet works for your space, but if you compared it to just about any other vertical on the market you might be shocked at how well another antenna works and then you will understand. At least for now your horrible antenna is probably making you a better operator in digging out signals and making contacts as though you were a QRP station.

I originally chimed in on this thread because the OP and most anyone affiliated with Chameleon Antennas is known for posting sales ads masquerading as questions or comments on other antennas. Chameleon and their direct competition Alpha Antennas are quite good at making very low performing antennas and that's fine, there seems to be a marked for that. But when they advertise these low performing antennas with misleading advertising, causing people to spend their money thinking they are getting a high performance antenna, that's a problem.

Same with the Comet CHA250B, if you know its a dog and buy it then who can complain? But don't try and pass it off as a great antenna and cause others to waste money and have a bad experience. In my opinion an antenna recommendation without a direct comparison to another antenna is not worth the BW it takes up. If its the only antenna you have ever used how do you know another antenna that is similar in size and half the cost doesn't run circles around it?
prcguy






I read this and said wow. I got 4 more Q's earlier...243 so far 76 countries and I worked 5 or 6 different bands?
 

AC2OY

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I would imagine the people who can't hear me is because of other reasons. Yes it is the only antenna I have ever had. It was recommend to me by several people including a guy in my club who has one. He worked a lot of people all around the world. But PCguy if you think it's a dog I suppose your entitled to your opinion and I listen to everybody with more experience than I have. Your correct about space being my issue. I now have to cut another tree down. So far for me the thing works but down the road maybe I'll be able to do something else?
 

nanZor

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I originally chimed in on this thread because the OP and most anyone affiliated with Chameleon Antennas is known for posting sales ads masquerading as questions or comments on other antennas.

THIS is the issue and it makes me sick. I've dealt with it before on other boards with other products.

You'll note that this op has posted a copy of this same message over on eham, allowing us to go off on technical issues, while the main response from the op really has to do with sales and marketing. Well, other than making links to suspect continuity checks with a pos voltmeter where you can't see both ends of the connection, and never any REAL technical input into follow-up forum responses - just more bagging on the competition.

Hip to that, another effect is to put an element of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) into any web search hits for those doing research, be they valid or not, and unfortunately radio board forums seem to be made the unwilling springboards for this type of thread-title, search-hit marketing tactic.

What makes it look like a shill is that there is a plea to spread this information as far and wide as possible from the video viewers. At least from the description prior to this post. I feel sad that my own viewing to confirm my suspicions added to the hit count.

Quite frankly, I'm sick of this tactic using boards as a link-service to unsubstantiated review videos, and can no longer use any product like this with honor. Both of my Chameleon hybrids will be dismantled, and buried with shame.

SGO, or is it ROB1955, your posts are not doing Chameleon any favors. The reverse actually for many of us.
 
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AK9R

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Interesting. The OP hasn't logged back into the RR forums since his post. Also, the guy's post history is noteworthy. His most recent post was the first post he's made in about 11 months. And, many of his posts are in threads about portable antennas.
 

kj3n

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Its important to mention what bands you had success with on that terrible antenna. When 10m is open you can make contacts with virtually nothing, which is about what the Comet CHA250B is.

Here is one of many examples of people who made DXCC using 100w into a light bulb as an antenna. Your not going to make DXCC on 80m or 40m with the Comet.

"The July, 2000 issue of QST Magazine contained an article by N6BT titled “Everything Works.” The author laid out his ideas on the relative performance and enjoyment factor of different antennas, from a light bulb on a 4-foot post to stacked Yagis on a tall tower. He related his own experience as a newby ham, thinking his first antenna was pretty good until he put up his second one, and so on. He also described his light bulb antenna, mounted on the wooden post, with a ferrite bead choke balun to minimize feedline radiation. With that light bulb and a 100-Watt transceiver he actually completed contacts to every continent on 10 Meters. “Everything Works” indeed!"
prcguy

To be fair, he conducted that experiment at the peak of the last cycle and on 10m. Cycle 23's peak was substantial enough for me to work into EU almost daily on 6m. I doubt he would have similar results now.

"Everything Works" at the top of a good cycle. It's when things are in the toilet that you discover just how bad of an antenna you have.
 

nanZor

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Well first, I apologize to all the RR members for my recent outburst. Nobody needs that.

Note that I am not specifically endorsing either of these two competing systems. Quite frankly, one can diy it, which I have done, from un-un to the element themselves and get nearly the same results. Performance is a different matter and subject to interpretation, which includes how much loss one is willing to accept from the start.

All I'm saying for newcomers is to always vet information from 3rd-party links with some other reference. Including those *I* provide!

My only objection is to sensationalist thread titles, drive-by linking with no real content, except for the occasional buzzword.
 
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