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R8 Vertical Review Cushcraft R8 at 23ft above ground

The R8 which I have was purchased from fellow near by. It had never been completely put together and had sat in his garage for two years.  It is a Pre-MFJ model when they were still produced by the Cushcraft factory. I had never been a fan of verticals due to the noise they seem to bring with them. I paid $150.00 for it with an original thought of turning it around and making a few bucks. After a few days I decided to at least finish putting it together and giving it a try before I did let it go.

I had read up on this antenna at eham.net product reviews and the problems others have experienced prior to starting assembly. Don't ever try to raise this 28' vertical by yourself. It is a two man job no matter what you think !
 Photo in upper right is of my antenna with the base of it at 22 ft up. That is a total of 50 feet of vertical tubing in the air. Nothing new to my neighbors who have seen some stranger things than this in the sky above the house.

I  finished the assembly of the antenna on my patio with it laying between two chairs a week ahead of scheduled raising. Daily I checked my measurements against the manual. Twice I found errors and that was on two separate days ! I also purchased a duplicate size set of stainless steel clamps at the local Ace Hardware and doubled up on each joint as a means to stop any loose connections which others had mentioned. After we had put the antenna up into position on a push up mast secured against  the corner of my patio cover, I anxiously headed to the shack to test the antenna.
The initial test was not good. My SWR was "Infinity". Right away I knew it had to be the matching network.  I let the push up mast down to where I could remove it from the antenna and took it inside.  It was several days before I had the time to get a closer look at it. I remove the cover and looked over the circuit board several times and found nothing apparent.  The next evening I took the circuit board completely out of the box. I used a magnifying glass to carefully examine each component but saw nothing obvious. On a fluke I took a small screw driver and lifted up the toriod matching transformer and noticed a wire hanging loose and the obvious spot on the circuit board where it went. I would have never saw this without lifting it up just enough to see under it. It had been stretched very tight at the factory and may have even pulled loose right when soldered into the board. After a quick solder job and reinstall of the circuit board it was back to the antenna and reinstalled the matching network to the antenna. I raised it up about ten ft just to test my repair. This time success. SWR was excellent on all bands. Better than factory spec's and I was very pleased with the bandwidth.

I only use this antenna on the digital modes and all bands. The noise of it does not get to me as I don't have the volume on the rig up.  I worked a ZS in S. Africa with 5 watts on 40 meters with it and the digital mode JT65A.

I am pleased with the antenna and glad I kept it. It is nice to be able to band hop with just one antenna.

 

 

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