AERIAL-51 MODEL 404-UL

There’s no such thing as a perfect lightweight multiband antenna for outdoor use. I’ve tried lots of them over the last few years and the one which has brought me the most success is the SOTABEAMS 20/40 Bandhopper II Linked Dipole. But that covers just two bands.

I have another Sotabeams antenna called the BandSpringer Mini - an End-Fed which covers 7 bands, but for some reason it’s not been a raging success for me, so I seem to be on this never ending search for the holy grail.

Anyway, I decided to try something different - something which I’ve never tried before - an Off Centre Fed Dipole in the form of the MODEL 404UL from Aerial-51.

This Kevlar-strengthened antenna can handle up to 200W and yet it’s extremely light and compact, weighing just 400g including 40ft of coax! Having something which can handle so much power gives you a satisfying reassurance that your FT8 transmissions are not going to overheat the Balun even at 25W. 

The antenna is just as simple to erect as the Bandhopper and although they recommend using something taller, I used my 7M Mast to great effect. You can see in the photo below how it looks. The 40ft coax allows you a great degree of flexibility in choosing where to operate from (a heated garage in this test-case, lol).

 

You can see that the profile of my Inverted-V is quite shallow compared to the 404UL diagram, but nevertheless, it really pulled in the signals. 

 

QUICK SAMPLE OF THE 404/705

 

I’m keeping the antenna in this “test location” for another week and will update this page after that. I bought the 404 as a secondhand item and so luckily got it at a bargain price. The value for money was further enhanced by the WindCamp case it came in and a great pair of mini-reels for winding in the elements (with their string supports) for quick storage and deployment.

 

73, Tom, M7MCQ.