I noticed this aerial today on the W&S February email newsletter.
A search of the reflector for magitenna gave me no hits.
Not heard of one before, wonder if anyone is already using one and how they get on with it?
In reply to G1RVK:
There is a write up in the January Radcom
Dave/G4ASA
In reply to G1RVK:
Antennas whose name includes the word magic are usually anything but! 
Andy
MM0FMF/m
You omitted the first word from your statement Andy, which should have been “Commercial…”.
The MM20 is magic.
Then again, it isn’t. It is a quarter-wave groundplane vertical designed to optimise DX work from places with distant horizons - like summits, and beaches. So it isn’t magic at all, it just does what it is designed to do, and is effective for very simple to understand reasons. It still feels like magic working all the DX on QRP with such a simple antenna though!
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
You are 100% correct Tom.
In this case the magic part would appear to be getting people to give you £60 for 25ft of wire, a dogbone and a simple matching unit.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
No, not a simple matching unit, a 4:1 balun, beefy enough to run at the full UK power limit. Although the site says no earth is needed, I would suggest that it is using the outer of the coax as a counterpoise and there is provision for a seperate earth. You are also a little harsh, Andy, as a similar unit sold as the Diamond BB6W is sold for £199.99! A friend testifies that the Diamond unit works well, and this reincarnation of the Rybakov 806 should be just as good at a cheaper price. It looks to me as if careful optimising of the wire length will make it a perfect match on any one band, including the 18 MHz band which as supplied it is not usable on.
The January review in Radcom is for the M0CVO off-centre fed dipole, the HW-20HP, I have one of these and it works well. I have it for camping, it could be used for SOTA but I am a little worried by the weight and windage of the balun box at the top of the mast.
73
Brian G8ADD
PS for details google M0CVO.
In reply to G8ADD:
I’d have thought an unun not balun but, yes, I can visualise the matching unit.
The question that springs to mind is why would you have 400W+ capability and use an antenna like this. I wouldn’t buy/build/acquire a 400W capability until I had beams and a tower. Spend money getting the biggest antenna in the sky before you spend money on a PA.
If he can liberate money out of a radio amateur’s wallet for simple wire antennas anyone can make at home in their kitchen then good on him. I wonder if he can supply me with a list of their names and addresses as I have some golden investment opportunities they may be interested in, including a Brooklyn Bridge I have for sale.
EDIT: forgot the
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
You could just buy his 9:1 400W unun for £33 and supply your own 7.6M wire and dogbone. He seems to be charging a lot for the wire and dogbone !
Andrew
G4AFI
In reply to G8ADD:
You are also a little
harsh, Andy, as a similar unit sold as the Diamond BB6W is sold for
£199.99!
Indeed. Surely he’s providing a service for those Amateurs who wish to spend their own dosh as they see fit. He’s hardly going to become a milionaire overnight.
Mike
2E0YYY
In reply to MM0FMF:
In reply to G8ADD:
I’d have thought an unun not balun but, yes, I can visualise the
matching unit.The question that springs to mind is why would you have 400W+
capability and use an antenna like this. I wouldn’t buy/build/acquire
a 400W capability until I had beams and a tower. Spend money getting
the biggest antenna in the sky before you spend money on a PA.
Perfectly correct, its a 9:1 unun in the Magitenna as in the original Rybakov, the 4:1 balun is in his OCF dipole range.
As for your question, Andy, perhaps they are more lenient in Scotland, but it is by no means an easy task to get a mast past the planning authorities in England, and dam’ near impossible if you want it higher than 9 metres! On the other hand, of course, Council Jobsworths have little control over the amount of power that you run. In an ideal world I would agree with you.
You don’t say it, but you imply criticism of me for buying a wire antenna which yes, I could have knocked up myself - though Pauline would have something to say if I invaded the kitchen! Actually, though, once I had sourced the toroid (there isn’t anything suitable in my junk boxes) and bought the other bits, I would have had to pay £22 for 18 metres of flexweave wire and £7.50 for delivery plus a few quid for a suitable project box, and amazingly it is no more expensive to buy the unit ready made - I guess he makes his profit from the cheaper bulk buying rates. Furthermore, his unit probably looks a lot nicer than one I made with my two left thumbs!
73
Brian G8ADD
PS I already bought that bridge!
In reply to G8ADD:
The difference Brian is that you built your own 70cms AM RX/TX system in 1965. You have been there, read the book, seen the film and have the director’s cut special edition DVD. You’ve shown you can roll your own
Far too many people fail to have a go and just put hand in pocket and buy something. If they don’t try and play with these things how will they learn? If they don’t learn they’ll never know whether the claims made for an aerial’s performance are realistic. Or if it’s value for money.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
Actually I can’t use that OCF dipole at this QTH. It works as advertised all right, but the noise level from the neighbours plasma TV was 3 S-points stronger than it is on my 102-foot doublet, probably because the feedpoint is so much closer to the house. Good job I only flung it up temporarily to see how it performs, if I’d spent that money to get on the air I would be a very unhappy bunny! I shall be trying a horizontal loop come the spring as they are said to be quiet.
73
Brian G8ADD