Now that the weather is getting a bit better here in the UK. I picked a nice day when I was at the Scout Hut preparing for us going back to quickly have a play with my Bantenna Sleeve Antenna. If you haven’t heard of one before it is a simple sleeve designed to slide over a telescopic fibreglass pole such as a Sota Pole.
The Bantenna Sleeve Antenna is expected to work all HF bands. It can also handle power up to 100W.
I quickly got the Bantenna over the pole and raised to 10m in the air. Turned on my 817nd and could hear plenty of activity on 40m. I had a search around the band and found I was able to hear a lot of European Stations as well as plenty of UK stations. I shouted a couple of stations on 40m calling CQ and was quickly replied to by a Ukrainian station. After a signal report of 59 I carried on searching around for more stations only to realise most of the activity was for a contest.
I changed band and noted that there was low noise on most bands. This is good to say most verticals pick up excess noise on the HF bands. Most bands seem to be low to no swr which is good if you don’t want to carry a tuner with you everywhere. I only spent around 15-20 minutes on the radio but can instantly tell this is going to be a good antenna for small Jota Stations and Amateur Radio Demonstrations. It will also work on SOTA/POTA activations.
I would recommend this antenna for small stations who are unable to put up a conventional HF long wire or Beam and a verticle is suitable for their needs. It is also a good antenna for Small JOTA stations or stations demonstrating Amateur Radio. It is also a suitable antenna for anyone going up a hill for Summits on the Air or even Parks on the Air.
