Gipsy 5-50MHz HF Horizontal Dipole Antenna Ant for Ham Radio Waterproof Balun

This antenna work extremely well on 20-40 meters.

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I'm new to the Amateur Radio world and originally limped my way into the realm of HF with an ATAS-25 tunable vertical antenna. That has served me well in VHF/UHF but has been an exercise in frustration in anything below that (and particularly difficult to tune for 6m). I decided to give this Gipsy a go and I'm simply wondering why I didn't do this any sooner! With 20m - 40m having been as active as they've been in the evenings lately, this is given me the oomph I needed to continue the never-ending quest of discovery that is being a ham. I've picked up stations from Australia, Romania, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Russia, and all over the US. I'm in the Pacific Northwest and picked up a station from Ocala, FL that sounded like he was on a local 70cm repeater. The best part is how easy it is to deploy, as well as put away in its included bag...which, by the way, almost fits in the palm of your hand! Perfect to throw in your go-bag/box. But make no mistake.... despite its compact size (the 1:1 Balun is surprisingly small), it has substantial heft to it and feels quality. I believe the balun tube is made of real carbon fiber and the ends are aluminum or steel, as are the wire spoolers.

I started off with this in my driveway and worked fairly good. I took this out to the park in NTX and put it up 20 ft in the center and with my radio set at 80 watts, I had 61 contacts from all four corners of the states and almost all contacts reported me with a strong 57 59 signal . It is small and compact and works very well, the second time i took it out115 contacts including Mexico and Canada. I am pleased with how easy it is to set up, the frequencies are marked, just unstring it to your desired frequency and I elevate to inverted V style.

The metal stamped crimping on the antenna elements is very convenient (no measurement required to get the right length for a certain band). No additional tuning is really needed to operate. The terminal posts that the elements connect to are a bit too close. Depending on which orientation the element connectors are screwed in, they may contact each other. A ring terminal would be a better choice for the termination on the elements, maybe I'll put some on myself soon.