Cushcraft R8 vertical for qth use

Equipment Antennas
1

Greetings, looking for any information about the cushcraft R8 vertical antennas. Hints in its use etc. Any advice is welcome
Thanks in advance.

Geoff vk3sq

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Mine was good for 112,000 chaser points and just now three bands with Clipperton over a period of 20 minutes effort, all with 90 watts, mostly CW. Strongly recommend guying it at the second level. Anti-oxidant everywhere.

Elliott, K6EL

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I remember not being happy with the Cushcraft R8.

I couldn’t tune them on all bands and the bandwidths with a good SWR were very narrow.

It was very moody with changing environmental conditions and behaved differently when it rained than when it was dry.

I didn’t think it was that great mechanically either. I installed it on the roof ridge at a height of 8m.

But my experience is about 30 years old and maybe it’s better now.

73 - Armin

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I have been using an R8 for 20 years now. I have worked 320 DXCC entities with 100W CW. The band with the highest WSR is 1.3:1.
I also recommend guying it at the second level.

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Hi Geoff,

I looked at buying one but opted to put stuff on my tower instead. A friend did buy one and used it until he went SK. I got my experience of it from visits to his QTH.

This antenna has a modest visual impact. It is very small compared to a trapped hf beam and 40/30 dipole yet covers all the bands. Ideal for the unit dweller.

Having all bands on one coax is very convenient.

While it isn’t as good as a dipole for the 0 - 600 km skip and is inferior to a beam on DX it does a more than adequate job on DX and is OK for most local contacts

Being vertically polarised it does really well on picking up local RFI especially from domestic wall warts. Some culling will be required.

You don’t have to worry if your antenna is pointed at the DX or not.

It has a limited bandwidth, but this can be centred on your frequencies most used.

Some aspects of inadequate build quality have been raised by other users. Plated screws can corrode. Water drain holes may be absent on traps. Un-guyed antennas can fail due to flexing in the wind.

Pretty much all of this applies to all vertical antennas.

73
Ron
VK3AFW

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R8 is a very good performance antenna, I have a friend who had one and very happy with it.

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Hello,

I had an R8 antenna some years ago in my CU2 QTH.

Performance was good, I remember working many QSO in CW with 2,5W to Europe, Africa, America. Also 6m was good, worked quite a few in south America, also with 2,5W.
With more power 50-100W, JA and VK was in reach.
The only downside IHO was the size and fragility, it was damaged severely with winds usually severe in this location.
Never had an beam antenna for comparation, so my view is somewhat incomplete.

I wish you good luck
Luis
CU2IJ

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Hi every Body :information_source: 4 this multiband hf antena dear friend Is excelent transmisión in 7-50mhz maybe also to Fortune in 3mhz (+tunner couple) my big bro EA2BV Have R8 abaut 15 years big GuM and sorprise Dx on all Mode etc etc only 1 Problem os very Long is posivility Nice proyect antena sisten up :up: 4 Strong Windays … you wellcome to the radio worlD and en hoy :four_leaf_clover: do you more Info :information_source: please send me e_mail (EA2WS) Op ivan IN92eb adios.

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