Bencher Skyhawk from Vine Antenna Products
Bencher Inc have produced a new tribander, with no traps, and optimised for best gain on 20-15-10m. It willl also work on 17 & 12m with a tuner.
This antenna is different from other currently-available trapless antennas as it includes a balun, and ALL hardware is stainless steel.
Attention to detail is strong in this antenna
Pictured above is the end of the boom, with element to boom fixings, and the boom compensator plate in position. As the antenna is built, a plastic element compensator (dummy element) will also be fitted. These compensators, together, ensure that there is balanced torque at the mast clamp. This saves your tower, and more importantly, your rotator, from un-necessary strain. We have yet to see an antenna where both boom and elements are compensated with such care. We have built a Bencher Skyhawk for use here. More pictures, and our assessment of the antenna will follow soon Construction was extremely easy. Nothing was missing, and the instructions were first-rate. This antenna is going to be a winner, and we will keep you informed.
Points we have noted when building the Skyhawk
A comprehensive, step-by-step assembly manual, with drawings, is included and is excellent.
Element-to-boom fixtures are formed aluminium saddles, held to the boom with stainless-steel screws.
The boom is triple-thickness at its center. We have calculated boom wind-survival at 210 mph!
Each element bundle is separately packaged in a plastic bag with a sub parts-list for the element.
Elements sections are fixed together with stainless-steel rivets. No drilling or de-burring was necessary
On-air testing
Currently we only have one antenna to compare the Skyhawk with. That antenna is a full-size 5 ele 10m yagi on a 24ft boom @ 95ft. It is a known good performer. The Skyhawk at 50ft (4 active elements) is consistently as loud as the monobander on 10m except when the band is virtually closed.
The Skyhawk (OK - this doesn't mean much) consistently breaks pile-ups first or second call with 50W (it would mean something if it didnt do that!).
Front-to-back ratio is about as claimed (20 dB on 20m, about 18 dB on 15 and 10).
VSWR is below 15 and 10 (up to 28750), and very low on 20m (below 1.3 across the band)
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Price for this excellent antenna is £1,199