Yaesu 857D vs. ICOM 706mkIIG

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mkfour said:
Seems kind of expensive. It would be interesting to see how it compares to the 102" whip or a hamstick.
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well, to be fair you'd have to compare it to 10 Hamsticks and a dual band VHF/UHF antenna. That's going to add up, plus you have to change your sticks every time you want to change bands.
I don't think the 102" whip does much on 80M - only what I've heard, no personal experience.

Drew's messed with hamsticks and Hustlers, so he could give you a comparison.
 
Worked way better then the 102" whip by it's self. My antenna tunner has a hard time getting a good match on anything between 40 and 160 and vary little power makes it to the antenna even if the radio lets you output full power.

As for the Hamsticks it is vary comparable, I have both 20m and 80m hamsticks but you have to change the antenna to get the performance. When operating on the frequency that the antennas where tuned to they did out preform the V1

The Hustler antennas preform about the same as the Hamsticks but are quite a bit more fragile.

If you take a 20m Hamstick and connect an additional 20m base to it, it will tune up 80m and out preformed the V1 but only on 80m.

I put a temporary mount on my roof rack and ran a grounding strap down to a good ground. All antennas except for my screwdriver where tested from this location
 
bj70_guy said:
well, to be fair you'd have to compare it to 10 Hamsticks and a dual band VHF/UHF antenna. That's going to add up, plus you have to change your sticks every time you want to change bands.
I don't think the 102" whip does much on 80M - only what I've heard, no personal experience.

Drew's messed with hamsticks and Hustlers, so he could give you a comparison.
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I meant hamstick/whip with a tuner.

My 40m hamstick (with tuner) tunes up 80-6m, pretty good on 80-20m. I'm still working on it.
 
mkfour said:
I meant hamstick/whip with a tuner.

My 40m hamstick (with tuner) tunes up 80-6m, pretty good on 80-20m. I'm still working on it.
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What I found with both my 20m and 80m hamsticks is that they out preformed the V1 on there tuned freq. But once the antenna tuner was needed that things leveled out pretty quickly with in the matching band for the antenna. If I had my 20m hamstick up and was tunning 40m the V1 out preformed the hamstick.

I don't know if I will have time this week to run throw the test again but this time put a RF power meter inline just before the antenna to confirm my findings
 
BC_FJC said:
What I found with both my 20m and 80m hamsticks is that they out preformed the V1 on there tuned freq. But once the antenna tuner was needed that things leveled out pretty quickly with in the matching band for the antenna.
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My tuner seemed to match my hamstick better than the hamstick alone. But I've got a different radio/tuner. I use an Icom AH-4 which acts more like a coupler. It's supposed to be mounted right next to the feedpoint and so I guess my antennas all look like base loaded ones. The feedline is just wire and not coax.

I should receive my 102" whip in the mail in a day or two and will give that a try.
 
Drew,

Any new reports on that Chameleon antenna?
 
Grounding and location

The trick with the chameleon v1 is having a good ground on your vehicle and a good location! Better the ground = better the SWR. Is that simple!

I own 3 chameleon v1 (home - truck - portable for travel) and I'm VERY pleased with them. They're so easy to setup and use! You can't go wrong with them.

73
 
Hey Rob, got any pics of your install?

I bought a Chameleon to mess around with, haven't had enough time with it to make any kind of report yet.
 
I run a Icom 706mkiig and I love it. Been in my truck for several years and all of the washboard had not affected it. I use a20m Hamstick mounted on a diamond mount. The cruiser generates allot of noise even though I have bonded the panels and the antenna. I usually only use 20m in the truck and it works for me. I will take a pic of my mount to post. I have not gone with a screwdriver because I was afraid of killing it off road. Good luck!
 
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It seems that chameleon antenna have a bunch of new antennas. Their new hybrid antenna (or base not sure) seems to work very well (http://chameleonantenna.com/Chameleon HYBRID/Chameleon HYBRID.html)

I was reading their yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChameleonAntenna/) and everyone like them.

I also found some youtube videos about their antennas here http://www.youtube.com/user/ChameleonWalker

My cousin told me that they're selling them on ebay too http://www.ebay.com/itm/160997859623?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649 Last year someone stole the antenna that I had on my truck :mad:

So I might get a new one soon. I'll probably going to get that ebay combo. But it seems that they've some deals on their yahoo group time to time. They even have few members who replaced their screwdrivers for the same combo hybrid and v1L.
 
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