Review on 📻 Optimized Falcon 2 Meter Dipole Ham Radio Antenna for Amateur Radio Enthusiasts by Bill Pool

Travel time I bought this antenna here at Revain from CB discounters. Please note that it will take approximately 12-14 days to receive your antenna (USPS). High SWR When I received the antenna I tried it on the whole 2m band. When I refer to range I mean from 144.200MHz SSB to 147.375MHz FM. Unfortunately, it has an SWR of 3.0 across the range. And usually near any frequency within 2 meters an antenna will have higher SWR at one end of the band and lower SWR at the other end. Now I don't know if the antenna is too long or too short. I'm wondering if these things are tested for SWR before they are packaged by whoever actually makes the antenna? Why are the more complex Arrow and Comet antennas tuned but this simple wire antenna is not tuned to 2m? Don't worry, I'll experiment with lengthening and shortening it (electronically, not physically) and getting it to show low SWR. I will win! 70cm - I tried a 70cm (440MHz) antenna and it had an SWR of 1.2 over most of the band! Maybe it's a 70 cm stealth antenna? Construction The antenna is well built, solid and expected to last a long time. The middle section is made of hard plastic and appears to be waterproof. The middle part alone makes the antenna worth buying. Hey, I can always cut the wire a few inches from the center piece at each end and swap out if needed. Heck, you can add lots of wires and make a 20m antenna! Tip: Use power poles to replace wires of different lengths and therefore different reach. I give this antenna a 4, although not tuned to 2 meters, because I can solve this problem and because of its strong composition. Update: The end of this dipole is wrapped around an insulator, has heat shrink tubing, and the wire itself is soldered on! There is no easy way to unroll this antenna to make it electrically shorter, or add wire to make it longer. I had to cut the shrink tubing and then tried to solder the antenna but to no avail. I had to cut the wire, and then I spent the next 2 hours adding one, two, three, four, five, and six inches of wire on each side of this dipole. SWR was 5 and then 6! No matter what I did, the SWR was always the lowest at 147MHz. I will keep trying. Update 2: After adding a wire to replace the part I had to cut off, I decided to add my HF Ugly Balun to see if that would lower the high SWR. It happened! So it looks like you'll have to build your own (ugly) choke balun to make this antenna work at 2 meters. I will buy a second one and try it with a balun to see if it also lowers the SWR.