Shark HF Hamsticks, American Made, Review And Testing, Ham Radio Antenna 

How well does a Shark, Ham Stick work as a permanent mounted HF antenna, for the home station?

To be honest, I have no idea if they are in the UK either? They might be. For those with very limited space joining two together will give you a reasonable dipole (done it in the past for CB) Vertical or Horizontal, or four give you both on the same mast. One on a mast with a few ground planes gives you a compact mast in a tiny garden. What I have found in the past (though this is over 20 years ago) American made stuff used to rust (Like K40 antennas and mounts along with others that came across when CB kicked off here) but that was 20 odd years ago. Things move on and the quality of the steel may have improved. I am stuck waiting to go through the test, but this virus has me stuck waiting. No equipment right now either, not even a cheap Chinese radio. I suspect I will try to make my own antennas as that is hat I did for CB (even built a CB on FM as FM was what we were allowed, it only had two channels) it was hard getting parts so the Grid Dip meter came in handy, moving house twice and all the parts went missing for the meter! Sure the wife had nothing to do with it, she wanted me away from radio!). I won't be able to build a radio that will be useful for Ham Radio though, even if I were allowed to. I like working lower power, but I need something that will work properly all the time. Does not need to be fancy but SSB is where I want to go. The Antenna will be a home built job but restricted in space and Landlord will not be happy, but the wife works for the Landlord, so I have got away with a few things others don't so far. I think getting some antennas like this will allow some operation rather than long wires that I have no room for. I did have plenty of room, then they built more houses around me :-(( so now just small garden. Anyway, I have to get through the test and this is no easy thing for me either as my memory was badly affected through Chemo' over 7 months. I just have to go over simple things hundred of times until it sinks in, but I am stubborn and will keep going. I hope to work you on the airwaves some day. I always used to throw away the Allan Hex bolts and put in a machined screw with copper grease, always came back out without any problems. Coper Grease will stop these grub screws from rusting in the threads. I was only going to make a short comment and it is already a book of things no one wants to know anyway.

If I get around to it. I have a lot of MFJ hamsticks and have made a lot of contacts on them... I'm sure these work just as good. I don't think I could do a suitable performance test, because I can make contacts on both of them just as easy. The difference is the quality..

You can look for a nice used older Hf rig or grab a Xiegu g90. It’s only a 20w rig but it’s a workhorse and has a great internal tuner. If you want 100w there’s always the Yaesu ft-891 which you might be able to get during the holidays for under 600.00 but it doesn’t have an internal tuner. Best of luck to you on building your shack! 73

@@RaiderDonnie Yo, great advice. Thx.

@@southjersey10 You’re very welcome!

Did some research on shark antennas, good stuff!

well, a lot of times you can pick up the SW stations on just about anything, but you might get better receive strength with an 80m antenna than a 10 meter... Maybe try it with someone elses 10m and see if its decent enough

It was up probably over 10 feet. Some of the contacts were from Florida to New England and Midwest.. If propagation is there, it doesnt matter what antenna you use.. The most important feature is the smaller footprint this will have while giving the ability of multiple bands... And can be set up in an HOA as a temp solution, or taken to field day without spending hours setting this up.

The old Hamsticks sold in the '80s used to come with a capacitor for use across the base, a different value for each band. If they're not including those now, it's probably because (a) cheap and/or (b) the capacitor will be the limiting factor in power-handling.

Sure it could work. What you should do instead is look at the shark antennas dual ham stick mounting bracket and run it horizontal.

@@HamRadioConcepts Yeah, I've got another 20m and another 40m hamstick on order, plus the dual mount bracket. Will be interesting to see if I can get my SOTAbeams Tactical Mini telescopic pole to support the weight of the two hamsticks, bracket and coax a few metres above the ground. I just watched a video where a guy had a single stick and used a counterpoise. He was able to get an acceptable SWR.

1/2 bw of one whip

Rick Merritt 10, 20, 30 and 40... 30 is AMAZING for digital modes like PSK, RTTY, FT8, CW etc. it’s ALWAYS open it seems NO MATTER when you check

@@HamRadioConcepts Thank you

Friend has signed up for an online test.

What kind of screwdriver? Need more info on the installation

HamRadioConcepts An MFJ 1668. Installation for a mobile. Specifically a 5th wheel RV. For use on 20 and 40 meters with 100 watts.

Which brand?

Um, it's not a "new made up word" these antennas have been around for years.

2SD251 Jim hey man hope to get you today on 20m while mobile

Let's try it...im home all day

2SD251 Jim I’m on 14.264ish

No - If you use two 20m hamsticks you'll have a 20m dipole. The Hamstick is a quarter-wave vertical. A dipole is a half-wave antenna. Two quarter-waves make a half-wave.