Tram Amateur Dual Band Base Antenna

The seller was fine, let me say that right up front. It's the poor quality Tram antenna that is an issue. Less than one year up, VHF side SWR went high. Pulled the antenna apart, no water or any sign of it, everything looked okay, put it back together, tested, same, high VHF SWR. Tried contacting Tram, no luck, no support. Further tear down found several issues. Small ceramic cap in the base loading was bad, and the solder joints , replaced and repaired, SWR was still high, so more looking, each solder joint going up the inside was full of hair line cracks, so I re-flowed all the joints with new solder and cleaned all the junctions, still high SWR on VHF, finally I pulled the entire loading section apart and removed the connector, inside connection had very little solder on it and was totally broke out. Once that was repaired, the antenna worked again.That is an awful lot of work to get something to work again that could have been avoided if Tram would do some quality control. Who knows how long it will work, the swaying in the wind puts a lot of stress on the solder connections inside. If it quits again, its going in the recycle bin.

It was cheap for the specs, but mostly it has unclear instructions. (admittedly that may be my fault). I missed making the internal connections of the sections. worked well anyway until Winter and it filled with water. Opening it to dry out and connecting the inside pieces, I also glued in the bottom to aluminum, and repaired a bad solder joint in the ground. then pot it together and waterproofed the seals. Now after 6 months it is stellar. Three stars because of waterproofing and missing clear assembly instructions. If I have to take it down again in the next year it will NOT be going back up.

So far, so good. I read all the negative reviews, and learned that you have to start connecting the antenna from the top down, sliding the internal antenna element up, then down so you can tighten it under the hex nut on each side. The the next thing is about tuning, it is only tuned bynskiding the ground plane ring up and down to change the resonant range of the antenna. I got it to be a very low SWR on the APRS frequency. The last thing is to make sure the sections are screwed together with tools, not just by hand, then wrap each connection is self sealing water proofing tape.

Great antenna, very well made. I bought this antenna despite the negative reviews regarding moisture problems. Just make sure EVERY joint is well wrapped with flex electrical tape (except the very bottom as per instructions). Antenna performed very well across the 2 meter band, I have not used it for 440 yet.

Great antenna. Easy to assemble. Just add some seal tape to the joints as insurance(good ham practice). Great performance on 2m/70cm. I used LMR-600 to mitigate losses in the long run out to this antenna. VHF/UHF antennas require high quality coax with high velocity factors to maximize the antennas performance specifications. This antenna will only be as good a your coax. Do not use RG-8x for this antenna. Not even for short runs. RG-8x works fine below these frequencies, but it's not suitable for VHF and above. You can't gauge this antennas performance accurately if you are using coax rated below LMR-400 specs Overall I am pleased with this purchase and have recommended it to my friends. I can hit repeaters that I never thought I would be able to reach in this hilly area of CA.I painted it flat grey to minimize visual impact for non Ham neighbors. Antenna is actually white. This antenna is nearly 17ft tall so having a plan is a must! It's quite a sight! 73's

I just received my new antenna, and it looks great. The only problem I have is the connections inside the antenna are bent and pushed deep inside the fiberglass pole. I'm going to try and fish them out and hook up my swr meter. Once I have done that I'll finish with my review. In the one picture my thumb is indicating where the internal connection is located at....Update...I was able to fish the connections out of the pole, which wasn't easy. So now I'm waiting for my LMR 400 coaxial cable to get here so I can test it. When putting this together make sure you use lock tight on all the threaded screws and bolts.KI7JFZ

I was pleasantly surprised by both the price and quality of the product. There was only a minor problem with the mounting brackets and the base support pipe. A small amount of metal had to be filed off the brackets to insure proper bite of the locking screws into the base support pipe. Other than this minor problem the antenna was easily put together. I am very pleased with the quality and performance of the antenna, which has given me access to many repeaters in the area (even more impressive seeing I was using on a 5W HT and live in a valley. I great buy for the price and quality.P.Connolly, KC1FLY

Antenna was at a great price. After proper install and using lock tight on the internal allen screws on the radials it went together nicely. When using VHF/UHF Analyzer it was resonate at 146 and 446 at 52 ohms stretching the band 50 to 75 ohms 6 mhz on VHF and 10 mhz on UHF with a 1:1 to 1:4 VSWR in the Amateur Band. I used LMR 400 Coax cable I also used clear silicone at the joints middle and top and wrapping with 3M Wide electrical seal tape. Antenna was mounted on top mast, 20 feet no obstructions at my Beach home. I use Diamond X500 at home and it performs the same.