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Review: B squared Engineering 66 ft T2FD ANTENNA
This a living and updated version of my original T2FD antenna review that I wrote in eHam stating my impressions of the equipment.
Last updated: Feb 14, 2022
Initially, I was considering between Yaesu YA-30 and Icom AH-710, which shares the same design: both HF multi-band antennas, folded dipole with a central resistor element – A T2FD. I was immediately interested by it.
After further research, reading eham.net I found Terry’s T2FD remix – I liked what I saw: Same Yaesu and Icom # ballpark. However, made with stainless steel, a sturdy Palomar Engineering Balun, a single wire spacer for each side, withstand 600 Watt SSB (while Yaesu and Icom can only handle 150W SSB – meaning, can only handle a fraction of it in CW / FT8 / RTTY). I gave B² T2FD a try.
Due to space limitations, I bought the 66 ft version. Terry was kind enough to pick up my phone call and ship it expedite to the hotel where I was staying in Boston.
- My antenna sports a Palomar Engineering 2 kW 16:1 Balun model CB-16-2000, as well a industrial grade resistor. Good and sturdy stuff.
- Made with stainless steel wiring, not the el cheapo thin wire – proper to withstand strong wind gusts – and I have had a few good ones here in tropical t-storms.
- Very low visual footprint – almost invisible at the rooftop
- By using a barefoot 100W Yaesu FT-991A I was able to close FT-8 contacts (check my QRZ logbook, callsign PY2RAF) in every continent – SSB Phone in Japan, Indonesia, Keelings Island, etc.
- I was able to DX and work every HF frequency that the radio supports.
- While the antenna borrows from a dipole design and theoretically my antenna points toward US, I do also get a lot of Europe contacts as well! So round-the-world coverage, yay
- While the antenna is not rated for 160m, I was able to score both phone and FT8 in this band - with the catch that they were < 500 mi stations.
- 80m does not goes out nicely.
- VSWR < 1:1.6 in entire HF band – make no use of my built-in antenna tuner.
I compared this antenna performance with my homebrew 40m half-wave Dipole Antenna. I compared the TX strength by monitoring my signal in a remote SDR; the RX checking the noise floor and received signal strength. Results:
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The TX level was pretty much the same: I did not found any difference. Check.
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The RX level provided two less S-units in noise floor. WTH, is the antenna deaf? By no means! The signals come stronger. Allow me to explain:
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Dipole: Noise Floor: S7. A QSO net coordinator signal strenght: S9. 2 S-units SNR.
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T2FD: Noise Floor: S5. The coordinator signal strenght: S8. 3 S-Units SNR.
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WIN.
If storing and moving somewhere else, SPARE YOU THE HASSLE and do yourself a favor: WIND and TIE PROPERLY each side. You will NOT want to spend an hour trying to untangle the antenna wire and then giving up and resorting to the wire cutter. Yes, I had to do it – and that broke my heart. ;-/
If you radio has a built-in tuner, you will want to check the SWR figure in the selected frequency and make good use of it, for your transceiver comfort sake – Matter of fact, I don’t use the antenna tuner in any frequency.
Some may say that the antenna gives good SWR because the resistor burns the mismatch.
Yes, that is true. So, what? A better than dipole in 40m plus being able with some compromise in all HF bands or a single-band 40m dipole? No-brainer. If I wanted a good antenna to perform very nicely in every advertised band, I would need to erect a tower, deploy some Yagi antennas and a rotor etc etc etc – I live in a building and I don’t want to create trouble with dwellers because of the visual impact – now you get off my lawn.
Happy and recommend. Good stuff. Tips my (Red) Hat to Terry.
73s de PY2RAF.