CUBEX CUSTOMER COMMENTS

THANOS, SW1LJZ Greece - Scorpion II

Subj: Scorpion II Quad Performance

Hi Roger,

My CUBEX Scorpion II is on the mast and its doing great.

Very clean and nice reception and I get excellent reports from other stations.

This antenna does the same job as my previous 14 element yagi and guess what ?

Scorpion has better reception of very low signals ! ! ! and half the length.

This is the best VHF antenna I ever had.

Thank you CUBEX.

73s from Greece
SW1LJZ

BLAIR - SKYMASTER II-PT5

Subj: Quad Performance and purchase request

Cubex:
-----------------------------

I told you I would eventually provide you with a performance evaluation. Here 'tis:
The CUBEX 2 el, 5 band Skymaster Quad is really a performer! I have had it up now for a couple of months now and it has been great! As a very casual DX-er, I have worked several of the Pacific islands on 10 meters even though the band has been really dead lately due to the sunspot cycle and summer doldrums. I have also used it to work Europe and many domestic 10 meter stations and FM repeaters. It works great! Although the tuner is not necessary, I get outstanding results with a tuner from the bottom of ten meters well up through the FM (29.6) portion.

I have also been using the CUBEX Skymaster on 20 meters for PSK-31. I usually run 5-10 watts and I am frequently told I am the "loudest signal" on that mode.

My installation is certainly not optimal. The quad is centered at about 45 feet, but is well below many nearby trees which extend up to around 90-100 feet. I even had to cut some limbs to make room for it. Additionally, there is a second (130 foot) guyed Rohn tower only about 15 feet away from the Quad's 45 foot tower. The guys are grounded on both ends (not broken up with insulators) and one of them runs within two feet of the 20 meter element at its closest as the Quad is turned. This should be an RF "nightmare," but it doesn't seem to affect the Quad's performance or bandwidth.

I also have a lot of electrical noise at my location due to aging power lines. The Quad is extremely quiet when compared to my (B&W-style) folded dipole.

Despite all of this, the Cubex Quad is a powerhouse! It tends to open up 10 meters and shut it down. I have had excellent results on 20 as well. Overall, it is an awesome antenna!

I am feeding it with a single (LMR-400) feed line and using an Ameritron RCS-10L switch.

Thanks for all of your patience and help during my drawn out (almost two years) installation process. Feel free to use me as a very positive reference.

Regards and see you in Huntsville (I hope).

Ernie Blair WA4BPS
Director, Huntsville-Madison County 911 Center

MAGNUM-6CB

Hello Cubex,

I am impressed with the excellent packing of the antennas, easiness of assembly and practical manual. The gain is fantastic. I am very satisfied.

I am sending some photos of the first antenna. This one is mounted in a 30m height tower with a yeasu g-1000dxa rotator.

The next one will be installed on the next week end.
Thank you my dear friend

73's
3FAT010 Eduardo
Sao Paulo - Brazil

ps: with this antenna I earned three contests

2M QUAD - W6AXM

I received my dual band VHF quad on Thursday and spend part of this evening assembling the two meter 8 element portion. In the instructions you mention forming a balun from the coax feed line but I could not find any indication of the diameter of said coil. Did you mean to wind it on the boom or was the omission of the diameter information simply an oversight.

I have to send my compliments regarding the preparation of the quad kit. It really could not be simpler to assemble, at least for the 2 meter portion. Frankly I expected the boom to be at least 12 feet because the 4 element Telrex yagi I used to have was that length. It was claimed to have been wide-spaced which may make a considerable difference. What I know about quads in general is only that which I read in Bill Orr's Quad book many years ago so I may have forgotten some salient points.

Since the quad is essentially a set of parasitic expanded folded dipoles, why would it not be better to feed it with balanced line, instead of coax. Yes, I realize that most folks do feed with coax because the typical feed point impedance is somewhere around 60 ohms. But wouldn't 72 ohm balanced line do just as well or better?
............................

Thanks for your attention and forbearance..

73 - Gar, W6AXM

Subject: 3 Element Mark Series

Just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know how pleased I am with the performance of the 3 element 20-15-10M Quad that I purchased from you. I have been licensed for 35 years and have spent the last 15 or so with either dipoles or verticals ... I recently purchased the quad and a 40 foot tubular stand up tower from US Tower ... The total installation was completed by myself, w/o any additional help (required some occasional ingenuity) and took about three weekends including digging the hole for the self supporting tower base, pouring the concrete and assembling the antenna including the installation on the tower. I built a scaffold out of 10' 2"x4"s to assemble the elements to the boom ... the tower was tilt over capable and once the quad was fully assembled on the scaffold the tower was simply tilted over and attached ... Sounds so easy in this e-mail but did require a bit of physical energy being expended.

The performance of this antenna, even at 40' is magnificent ... I have worked 17 new countries in 3 days ... usually punch through the pile up on the first or second call ... I think that the longest I have waited in any pile-up is 4 or 5 attempts ... and have almost always received 59+ reports throughout the world ... F/B appears to better than your specification and F/S ratio also appears to beat the spec you publish ... all of these observations are obviously non rigorous but the empirical results are GREAT ...

Best wishes ... Thanks and 73 - AA6EV

note- there were four Florida Hurricanes in 2004 - our worst year ever!
Well, while the trees were being snapped off like toothpicks, power poles and telephone lines laid over like some giant hand had swept through Pensacola with winds of 130 plus miles and hour, the 3 ele 5 band Cubex (MK-III) on my 65 foot self supporting tower stood up to hurricane IVAN.

Looking up next to the house the day after IVAN came through and winds still 50 + miles an hour it was a relief to see the antenna still blowing in the wind, unhurt. Winds were clocked at 180 mph in some gusts.

With my 40 kW diesel running the whole house, I was able to get on 20 the next day.

Thanks to Cubex for making one strong antenna.

Lou Goldstein
k4lan
Pensacola Fla.

Hello again Norm ;
Just a quick note to bring you up to speed on my Mantis II-40m........Rec'd the insert for the boom quickly and in good order.......which fitted perfectly inside my thin wall 3 inch boom..............this repair to my 15 foot boom has been up now (at 75 feet) for about 3 weeks and we just experienced some nice winds of about 40 knots in gusts which lasted for several hours..........the ole girl just took it in stride.
Stations from all over the world seem to be very impressed with the way this short boom model is performing compared to the full sized big gun yagis competing with me here stateside................apparently, this quad is doing signifigently better that the typical trapped or loaded yagis like the Mosley Pro 67 C-3 and about equal to the full sized Telrex 3 el (three 60 foot elements on a 46 foot boom).

A friend up in Detroit Michigan has the Telrex and we horserace regularly to stations in the south Pacific and South Africa. About half the time he's about 3 db ahead of me........and the the other half I'm about 3db ahead of him. So I am extremely impressed with the performance of this "little" quad .........and I always seem to have a better copy on distant stations than my competition as well. I am also well pleased with how easy it is to repair this quad also. Much easier and less expensive to maintain than the big aluminum yagis.......especially with the utility of my home brew hazer system.

Feel free to use this this letter as a testimonial in your advertising----------------
73's-----Jim-KM4CI

4L6MVQ- "QUEENBEE"
Dear Cubex

I ordered a 4 ele 6 meter quad (QUEEN BEE) Monday morning and was surprised to see to arrive today, Wed.

The antenna was very easy to assemble, and works great, tests with locals show excellent front to side and better than expected front to back. I was using a dipole before and thought I had success with it. However this evening, we had e-skip into 6 land (I am in NC) and I could not even hear some of them on the dipole and they were S 5-7 on the Cubex. The antenna is only around 40 feet off the ground.

All in all your product meets, if not exceeds, your claims, and your service is fantastic!

For anyone needing directivity on 6 and lacking a tall tower, CUBEX is the only way to go!

Thanks again.

Bill/W4VD

From JAPAN

Cubex,

I have just returned from customer's house after all finishing the assembling the Cubex quad. Pre-cut element helped me so much so that I assembled this quad by myself today. I started to assemble at 1:30P.M. and I could completed the all assembling at 5:30P.M.
I checked SWR by using antenna analyzer and I confirmed that SWR was near 1.1 at 27.200Mhz without any adjustment though height was only 3 feet above the ground. I have never seen such a easy assembling and good performance referring to the quad antennas!
Thank you for your visiting to my website and you could see the pictures of big quad antenna.

As I told you before, I am dealing in Japanese quad. This is the only quad kit maker in Japan and its company name is Perfect Quad. JA9FS,Mr.Kawaguchi is president.
Perfect quad is supplying mainly HF(14,18,21,24,&28Mhz) and optionally 50Mhz.

As I hope that you have not only big HF antenna such as 7Mhz but also 50,144 & 430Mhz quad antennas, there is so much chance to sell variable customers who want to try to use the quad antennas.

Thank you very much for your co-operation, Norman.

Best regards,

Kenji
JH4QBZ

EXPO-2L10N15 YC0IQ- Indonesia
Dear Cubex,

Thanks for the 2 Element 2 Band QUAD that I ordered from you a few months back. It works beautifully. I can contact most part of the world now. It�s a great improvement compare to my vertical antenna. I can now work DX in 10m and 15m. Enclosed is the picture of the antenna at my QTH. The other 4 element 6M antenna that I bought, still not install yet. Again thanks for the great antenna.

Sincerely Yours,
Matt Hardi
YC0IQ

From:k4nf
To: CubexCo
File: KillerBee 03-2002-

Well here it is in the sky working great. Maybe I should call this one the �White Knight.� The Mist Gray Marine Polyurethane sure looks white to me! My friend picked out a darker gray in the same type paint.

The first contact was a VP8 in the Falkland Islands. My friend near me who I bought the other antenna for has not put his up yet. He has a 5 element Cushcraft yagi as I had and could not hear the VP8 that was a very good signal to me.

Resonance is at 50 MHz and is 1.5:1 @50.275. How much do you think one should shorten the driven element to bring the resonance up to 50.1 MHz?

Dennis K4NF
Grove City, FL

Cubex:
It's been so long since you sold me this quad, you may not remember me. This was the first (I believe) Killer Bee you sold. Finally, after a couple of years of sitting in the box while we moved from town and got settled at the farm, the Killer Bee quad is up at 45' and on the air! (photo attached, antenna on top of mast above the quad is a Comet GP15)

The antenna assembled in good order with no problems. On the air reports have been fantastic, especially considering I'm only running 50 watts from my TS-690S.

Thanks for such a great antenna!

73, John Imeson N8JI (former N8JFB)

Hi Norm,
I thought you might enjoy seeing another one of your MK II, 5 band Quads in action. Everything went together without any problems. I used you matching transformer and had to move the 17M wires from the 20M taps to the 15M taps and everything came into play. Nice chatting with you on the phone and maybe you'll hear me in the pile-ups someday. Please fell free to use these pictures on your web site.

73 & DX de Ron Berry - WB3LHD Western PA DX Association:

Hi Norm,
Just wanted to give you more feedback... my MK-II 3-band Cubex is still romping! I RARELY have to call more than once in a non-spread-out pileup to get thru. This antenna performs better than I thought would be possible. I've read on the website that others have the same experience that I have! I see replacing this one with a 4el version sometime before too long, I think. This one is, obviously, great. But, I think the 4el is even more beautiful to look at AND the performance increase would certainly be there as well!
73dx J. Mark Foster K0EX

Hi Norm...I received the 4L10MVQ and assembled it just in time for the ARRL contest this weekend. The antenna is easily the best antenna that I have owned as a ham in my 40 years of operation.
One question....the antenna is resonate at 28.189 MHz as measured on my trusty Bird. I noticed that the specs call for it to be most resonate at 28.5. I imagine that there must be some amount of "coupling" going on with man made objects that are unavoidable and perhaps a bit too close to the antenna. Based upon your experience with this antenna, would it be productive to shorten the driven element to nudge the resonate point up to 28.5? At the same time, is it necessary to shorten the parasitic elements and the reflector? If so, how many inches would you recommend?
Once again, I am a convert. I plan to include other of your very fine Cubex products in my antenna farm up here is the boonies in NW Florida in the near future!
Jim Broaddus de nx4e

Subj: Quad Performance
Date: 6/1/99

Hi Norm,

This is Jim in PA (K3WU).

Well, just had my first real test of the quad in the WPX CW contest. Despite the fact that the high bands were great, the antenna performed like I have never seen (personally). I only operated for about 18 hours, but had over 730 contacts using only 100 watts. Some highlights:

1. Was able to hold a frequency low in the 20M band for over 4 hours without being pushed aside by the BIG SIGNALS.

2. With only one exception, in the search and pounce mode, I was the first station called by the DX. This included some fairly rare and very sought after stations.

3. Actually able to operate on two frequencies concurrently (with
filters of course). I was operating two rigs.

Norm, you make a great antenna. I wish I had discovered the power of a quad earlier in my ham radion career.

I did take some pictures and will send one when developed.

Thanks,
Jim

Subj: Happy Satisfaction
Date: 9/14/00
To: Cubex

From: Joseph AB5RE
A year ago I bought the Cubex Yellow Jacket 2-Meter 4-element Quad antenna. after using a high gain vertical antenna, I finally put the antenna up at 50 feet, just above my TV antenna, and found that the antenna also worked fine as a vertical, so I didn't need to twist it around for local contacts.

As distances increased to about 75 miles, I often accessed the Dallas 146.88 repeater at full quieting. Then, using my ICOM 2100, running 55 watts, a band opening into Jackson, Mississippi lasted for more than an hour, with good copy at both ends. This was in excess of 500 miles. What a thrill!
I am now working to accumulate the money to buy the Cubex Scorpion II. I am sure that I will be making contacts in the 125 mile range regularly, and with exceptional conditions reach into Florida, with my 55 watt rig.

By the way, I am an Old Timer, having been a ham since 1958, . . . . . . . Your design is so simple to match, it's almost like magic.
My calls were KN5UZC, WV2IHP, WA2IHP, N5JQD, and finally AB5RE.

MK II Quad
I'm sure people have wondered exactly how big a quad really is. Here's a picture of my 5 band 2 element kit fully assembled on the tilt-over 55 ft US Tower.
There are 6 hams and an 8ft step ladder in the picture. I'm on the ladder, Wade, KU4OJ, left to right are Robert KD4YDC, Larry WA4PRZ, Jim K4GVO, Dana KG4GIM, and Matt KF4ZDJ.
All of us are standing "inside" the antenna with room to spare. This is not the typical image you have on your web page and I thought you might enjoy it. And yes it works the world on 100 watts.
You should print up t-shirts that say "I don't need an amp, I have a Cubex Quad!"
Wade KU4OJ

BACK

| Home | FAQ? | Mark Series | Mantis Series | Skymaster Series | SPECS |VHF-2M | VHF-6M | EXPO | CB MODELS | Quad Story |
| Hardware & Parts | Customer Comments 2 | Convention Schedule | Product Photos | Ordering Info | Distributors |

� Copyright 2009 Cubex Quads All Rights Reserved.