If you watch my YouTube channel you may have seen my review of the DX Commander antenna, this has been a great antenna for the HF bands and I have worked all over Europe with it, I was looking at the possibility of using my existing DX Commander pole without having to put up a whole new antenna, this is where the Hang Tenna works perfectly for me as can just use my existing DX Commander pole and this not only saves me a lot of money but is easy to put up and down.
Paul (26 AT 016) has just started his new venture and asked me to review this antenna for him to see what I thought, the antenna comes pre-tuned straight out of the box, all you need to do is hang it up and away you go! He does several variations of the antenna depending on how you want to use it, my antenna is the serial 002 version and is tuned perfectly for both the 10 and 11 meter bands so was ideal for me!
Straight out of the box I was impressed, very well packaged and came quickly, this antenna is perfect for people who want to go out portable as its not heavy and is really easy to store within itself although I use this as my main base station antenna! The results have been absolutely fantastic having just made a contact to Stoke on Trent! A whopping 72 miles from my location!4141
Included in the box was a nice QSL card from Paul and a really nice information sheet showing how the antenna was constructed and welcoming you to Hang Tenna, the beauty with this antenna is that you do not need to tune it or even construct it, Paul has done all the hard work all you need to do it either hang it up or attach to a non metallic pole, the DX Commander in my case.
I found it super easy to get up and running making contacts in no time at all! Initially I had the antenna in the middle of my garden whilst testing and took me a few minutes to get setup, I was talking to my father in no time whatsoever, he lives about 10 miles away from me and this was the very first time we have managed a contact on 10 or 11m so I was blown away as shown in the video! I even made a quarter wave ground plane antenna, again using the DX Commander pole and spare DX10 wire and I still could not make contact with Wayne!
Once I had filmed the video I put the antenna in the tree at the bottom of the garden and works perfectly and looks really clean and tidy, this antenna is really easy to put up and down and stores away nicely, this would be ideal for working portable and would be amazing for SOTA!
The SWR is fantastic too! This is a huge benefit of this antenna as you do not have to tune it whatsoever just take it out of the box, hang it up and your done! That’s it! I am getting fantastic SWR reading right across the two bands with a maximum SWR of 1.3 The power handling of this antenna is rated for 100w continuous and up to 400w CW.
Paul is a fantastic bloke and his knowledge on antennas is fantastic, he was super helpful and knows his subject very well! He’s also a radio amateur and has been using the radio for over 40 years! He doesn’t have a research department or a factory, he does this in his spare time and is more interested in sharing his antenna with the community and getting stories and feedback from others on how they have found his antenna and the distances achieved!
My conclusion
This has been a fantastic experience for me from start to finish, Paul has become a good friend and I can’t wait to see his new business grow from strength to strength! Oh I almost forgot! Did I mention that this antenna is only £40! Yes, without a shadow of doubt I can highly recommend this antenna, the huge benefit is that its pre tuned straight out of the box and can get you on air in a matter of minutes! It’s completely waterproof and it’s clear right from the start that a great amount of time and care has been put into this beautiful, well made and effective antenna! Thank you Paul!
Thanks very much for reading this short review of the Hang Tenna 10m & 11m Portable antenna, I hope you enjoyed reading it and if you are interested in purchasing this antenna you can contact paul by clicking the Hang Tenna logo below.
Here is my YouTube video of the Hang Tenna
Till the next time!
73
Matt
M6CEB & 2E0FNM
Here are some photos of the antenna..