I get so excited when I see Made in America ham radio products. I’ve seen some comments in QRZ about looking for the same. Here’s a review of a great light weight antenna that’s American made by Rolltech Manufacturing Chameleon Antennas. Josh KI6NAZ did a tour of the factory and it was pretty impressive! You can see that here: Check out this review and there’s a giveaway that ends April 8, 2021 5pm PST. Link in the video below’s description.
This is a fantastic antenna. Used it at home up to 500w on all bands and now it shines as my portable QRP go to. So great, and they really stand behind their quality made products.
Really interesting tour, where the magic happens. Josh was super excited that they make the Winders, lol.
I use one as my HF base antenna. Pleasantly surprised that I can tune up 160 on down with it with my internal ATU despite the note in the manual about potentially needing an external tuner. It even comes up on 70cm per the RigExpert Stick Pro.
That’s accurate. But I think we’re hard pressed to find anything made in the USA that does not use globally sourced materials.
Enjoyed the review, just bought the antenna to give me something else to play with in my yard . . . XYL says, "No Towers" and she means it! Personally, I'm VERY happy to buy from USA manufactured ham suppliers.
As a former manufacturing guy, it's nice to see products being produced in an American factory. To see the CNC machine tools and other capital equipment they have invested in, it's plain to see they are committed to this product line and building quality products.
We are also a no tower house! There's no space on our property but also, it's hard to disguise an antenna tower.
After a storm eliminated a pine tree at the back of my lot which served as the far support for my 80m OCF dipole, I deployed the EmComm II. The 5:1 unum is mounted on my chimney, and the 60ft wire goes up to near the top of my 50ft mast next to the back of the house. From there, it slopes toward the back of the lot--which being more than 100ft away leaves the end of the wire about 15ft above ground. I still intend to tweak this installation. Nothing is currently connected to the ground lug on the unum, but the coax is grounded where it enters the house. Even so, the EmComm has outperformed the 80m OCF dipole on all bands (80-20m) with less than half the amount of wire in the air. I am seriously considering making this my HF base antenna and purchasing a second one for portable use.
