I have a H-800 `SkyMatch' that I bought for use as a `portable' antenna for those times I wanted to quickly put up an antenna someplace. Has worked quite well for me. Well... I decided that I'd pick up another antenna that was nice and small, and could almost be `invisible' when one runs into `covenants' or just doesn't want to go through the hassles of `stringing up' an antenna which might be coming down fairly soon, and went ahead and bought the H-900. I haven't yet figured out just where I want to put it but I've been playing around with it hanging off of a curtain rod looking out a window and it's been, performance wise, quite similar to the H-800 in the same situation. My *main beef* with the H-900 is that the power for the `system' depends upon either a little 100m 12VDC `Wall Wart' or a powercord that one has to make up themselves to hook up to a different 12VDC source unlike the H-800 which can use either a `Wall Wart', a home made power cord and 12VDC source, *or* {Drum Roll Please!} *a pair of 9V batteries* inside the box. Another `beef', though not quite as `bad' as the first one, is that the "on/off" switch on the H-900 *does not* shut of the antenna! It *only* shuts off an `extra' amp in the box. To *completely* shut off the H-900 one has to either unplug the `wall wart' or have it plugged into a switched outlet strip wither of which is a PITA when wants to turn off the antenna during long times of disuse. *If* one isn't trying to get every little bit of `range' and can do without the `extra' 10MHz at the `top end' that the H-900 has over the H-800 *and* is in a situation where a bunch of extra `Dynamic Range', though I really can't tell so far if it is really all that much over the H-800, is really necessary I'd go with the H-800 and save a few bucks.
Since I *am* getting to do a *drastic* remodeling, we are getting ready to sell our farm here in Colorado and move to a new place up in Wyoming around the end of this coming summer, of my `shack'/`listening post' I expect that I'll probably be able to put the H-900's `wall wart' on a switched outlet strip with some other things that *might* `follow' a similar off/on `pattern' and be able to `live' with not being able to shut it off via it's own switch. (I dimly remember that one *used* to be able to find outlet strips that provided for individually switched outlets at one time. I haven't seen any recently, though. I *also* remember that one *used* to be able to find outlet strips that one could plug something into a `master' outlet and then when whatever was plugged into said outlet was turned on things plugged into the other outlets would come on. Again, I haven't seen any of those for a while now. The last one I saw was the one I *used* to use on one of my old computers. Allowed me to have the monitor, printer, modem, and some other stuff turn on/off by just turning on the main `box'. *That* would be probably the best for what I'd like to be able to do.)
I am hoping that maybe in the next week I'll be able to get a bit of help climbing around on our roof to put up the H-900 and I'll be able to do a better comparison between it and my old H-800. Sorry that I really can't quite do that right now. I *can* say that if the old H-800 is any comparison, or vice-a-versa, the H-900 should be a pretty good way to have an almost invisible, covenant-wise, antenna for *most* HF listening.
