I bought the MA5B in December 2000. I mounted it on a 24' pole (fence pole)
on top of my house. It is guyed. It is approximately 40" in the air. I
think it is a great beam! I also have an R-7000+ - on receive, there is 5 S
units difference between the beam and vertical. I have done on the air
tests for transmit, and people who know much more than I have said that the
directivity on transmit is quite good (I would transmit and turn the beam,
giving the readings). It also works quite good on 17 meters (Haven't tried
12 yet).
One issue - I am a bit skeptical of the TV rotor idea. For one, there is no
brake in most TV rotors. For another, the ability of a rotor to support a
beam, while mounted to a pole (as opposed to a tower) is degraded
considerably. I ended up buying a Yaesu G-800SA. And even with that rotor,
according to the instructions, it would not take a beam much larger than the
MA5B. Admittedly, I am a bit over cautious, but I don't want to loose any
sleep.
I set the beam for the CW portion of the band. On 20, it goes from 14.00 to
just below the extra portion of the band. On the others, I have full
coverage. I didn't want to jumb in with both feet until I was sure that
there was a great improvement - there is. I am now going to put up a 55
foot tower. Use my rotor, and perhaps later, purchase something like a
KT-36XA. Anyway, it is a surprisingly good antenna. Tom W6EIJ
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