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| Reviews Summary for Bencher Skyhawk |
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Reviews: 14
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Average rating: 4.9/5
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MSRP: $1100.00
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Description: High-performance trapless triband yagi with redesigned feed system: to avoid patent litigation, the Skyhawk feed system was redesigned, which actually improved VSWR performance of the antenna. The redesigned antennas will begin shipping in early August, 2000.
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More info: http://www.bencher.com/sky_hawk.html
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write your own review of the Bencher Skyhawk.
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N7RC
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 10, 2008 09:06
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This antenna is what I needed
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Have experienced extreem winds twice in these past two months - gust to 70 mph. The driven element spacers were pushed a bit out of alignment - so brought it down to straighten them out and to do an over-all mechanical check. No problem putting the spacers right - and determined that all the rivets and connections had survived very well. Did need to clean the bird stuff off the boom.
The reason this antenna was chosen in the first place is that one had survived a hurricane in the Caribbean without damage while other antennas were trashed.
This antenna also allows my 100 watts to be heard - not loud - but am heard in the pile-ups.
Highly recommended.
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W5ZZT
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 20, 2007 19:41
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Quality Construction!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have had my Skyhawk up for about a week. I must say this is one fine antenna and easy to assemble. No measuring at all. It is big! I am still waiting on the neighbors comments but none so far.
I have worked more DX in the last week that I have in the last 20 years. It's almost too easy but then again I have had a Cushcraft A3 up for many years and while it's a good antenna it won't compete with a full size non-trapped antenna.
The SWR is below 1.3:1 on all of 20, 15 and 10. It does go up around 29 Mhz. I basically hit the bypass button on my tuner.
I don't think anyone would be disappointed with the performance of the skyhawk.
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KF4ZZY
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 14, 2007 17:14
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KF4ZZY Update
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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My Skyhawk Has Been Up Since 1998, Just Before I Got My License..I Was Fooling With My Antenna Tuners & Guess What?? You Can Load This Thing On Each & Every Band!! Ive Made Contacts On 2-6-10-12-15-17-20-40-80-And 160 Meters With This ONE Antenna!! I Talked With An Engineer At Bencher & He Said " If It Will Load Up, Work It, You Won't Hurt A Thing"! Yeah,It Loads 11M Too, Coarse I Just Listen,Right! Very Few Entities In The World I Havent Worked..Ive Moved The Rohn 25 From 47 Ft To 97 Ft. Best We Can Figure Were 900 Ft Above Sea Level, About 120 Ft To The Antenna..6 Ft Above The Sky Hawk Is The Cushcraft 17B2 & 6Ft Above That Is The Workman 2M-440m Ground Plane.>When I Bought Mine It Was $700 Plus Dollars..Now $1200 Plus.>Wow
Only Thing I Have In The Hobby That Has Increased In Value!! I Personally Would NOT Have ANY Other Antenna!!
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KB7UB
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 21, 2007 11:58
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Outstanding Antenna
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have probably assembled between 60 and 70 antennas in the past 30 years and the Bencher Skyhawk has to be Number One in ease of assembly. The antenna was by far the cleanest antenna I have ever put together, no wiping off cutting oil, no pulling of cleaning cloths thru the elements trying to remove the burrs. As for performance I cant say enough, The antenna lends a lot of credibility to the statement "if I can hear em, I can work em" I wont go over what has already been said about the antennas construction except to add, its bullet proof, It just plays and plays well. I have recommended it to everybody that has asked for my advice on what Tri-Bander to buy. I have used antennas dating back before the ATB-34 including the original Mini Quad, plus several of the Wilson Mono Banders, The A-3 & A-4 by Cushcraft, as well as the the X-7. Several of the Force 12 multi banders including a C4E-XL, and nothing compares to the SKYHAWK, The only thing I have to say, is before you buy your next Tri Band Beam, take all the data and lay it out side by side. You end up with one Option the Bencher Skyhawk
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NA4M
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 7, 2006 07:47
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Pleased
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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My Skyhawk replaced a stacked/phased pair of HyGain TH7s. I wanted to simplify my antenna installation and use a newer generation of antenna after many years of good service from the TH7s. One of the HyGain antennas began service in 1971 as a TH6 and only later converted to a TH7.
All currently available triband, quadband, and log-periodic directive antennas were studied and evaluated over the last few years before the decision was made to go with the Skyhawk.
The Skyhawk has a total of 10 monoband elements, and there are no traps or loading in any element. The antenna has 3 elements on 20M, 3 elements on 15M, and 4 elements on 10M. There are 3 separate driven elements and all are fed in parallel simultaneously by a common coax and balun. The boom is 24 feet long and has double and triple wall construction; no boom support truss is needed. The antenna also has torque and wind compensators to ease strain on the rotor.
Another key feature that sold me on this antenna was its mechanical design, which includes its simple feed system and great element to boom mounting hardware. The only pop rivets in the antenna are used to connect the element tubing sections together. All other fastener hardware is stainless steel bolts and screws.
My Skyhawk is 72 ft above ground and there is a Cushcraft 2 el 40-2CD 40M yagi 6 ft above the Skyhawk.
SWR was measured at the shack cable entrance panel with an MFJ antenna analyzer. 20M SWR is 1.5 at 14.0 and a min of 1.0 from 14.250-300 and only rises to 1.1 at 14.35
15M is 1.8 at 21.0 and 1.5 at 21.250 and continues to fall off to a min of 1.1 at 21.45. The 15M SWR is no doubt influenced by the Cushcraft 2 el 40M 40-2CD which is only 6 ft above the Skyhawk with their booms parallel.
On 10M SWR is 1.6 at 28.0 with a min of 1.1 at 28.40 and rises to 2.0 at 28.9
So far the electrical, mechanical, and on-the-air performance of the Skyhawk has met or exceeded my expectations in all respects.
73 Phil NA4M
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KM8R
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 25, 2005 10:33
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Great antenna
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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For nearly 20 yrs, I used the HyGain 205BA on 20 meters and before that a Moseley TA36 on top of my Rohn tower at 66 feet. I never thought much of the Moseley's performance, and that was confirmed by the Tribander Antenna Comparison handbook by Champion Radio. The HyGain performed well but was limited to 20 meters and its large boom (34 FT) became a maintenance problem. Also, the clamps provided by HyGain began to fail and required several repairs over the years. I Chose the Skyhawk based on what I read in the Champion Radio comparisons and found all they had to say was correct.
A smaller boom of 24 ft. was more manageable and required no extra cable supports for the boom or elements (as did the 205BA.) It's full-sized elements meant no traps and therefore fewer losses to worry about. It loads easily on all 3 bands at 1.5 or less. It has a very narrow beamwidth or about 15 degrees and therefore excellent gain figures, probably as good as the much larger 205BA. Its front-to-back are as advertised, in the neighborhood of 24 dB, and even better front-to-side. It was easy to assemble as it was premeasured and drilled for the pop rivets supplied by Bencher. No element clamps to worry about failing this time! The big bonus was regaining the use of 10 and 15 meters, and, with a tuner, it works on 12 and 17 meters as well. As a footnote, I should mention that I took down all my steel guy lines and installed Philistran instead. I am positive that there is no inteference with the antenna from guylines now.
It has been up for almost 2 yrs and has survived several wind and ice storms here in SE Michigan and has never lost a beat. I have also noticed that the antenna doesn't have any violent motion in wind storms due to its very effective counter balancer. The only negatives I can find include the plastic spacer provided to separate the 3 driven elements. The wind tends to twist the elements and the spacer doesn't give much, so the slightest slippage of the elements in the spacer will cause a bowing of all the driven elements. It doesn't affect performance at all, but does look a little goofy. There is a mod that fixes this, but you have to take the antenna down to do it.
Do I recommend it? Absolutely. Good design, good support and service, good hardware. Tough to beat.
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W5JQ
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 29, 2005 21:45
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Quality Antenna
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I have had the Skyhawk up for almost a year now and am very satisfied with the performance. This antenna was selected based on the performance data published in the N0AX - K7LXC Tribander Performance Report of 1999. I believe the assessment in this report as to the performance of this yagi to be quite accurate, although I do not have the means of measuring the true gain.
The antenna arrived in a single large box and all of the parts were present and accounted for. During the assembly process, there were a few frustrating moments. First, the 20m driven element which, like the 15m and 10m driven elements uses a fiberglass-type element insulator, was too large to easily fit inside the aluminum element. It stuck about half-way to it's desired position and wouldn't budge. I had to hacksaw the element to get it free. I explained the problem to Bencher and they promptly sent a new aluminum element and insulator that fit. I also had to redrill the three holes in both of the plastic spacers that each of the driven elements fit through, which keep the elements from contacting each other during heavy winds. On a more positive note, the materials are all stainless steel and of the highest quality. The antenna boom requires no struts which is especially nice during installation, and gives more room on the mast for stacking. The EZ mounting bracket should be used by all large antenna manufacturers as installation to the mast is a breeze. The wind compensator seems to work; this antenna does not move around during high winds like my previous TH6 did, which saves the braking on the Tailtwister rotor.
The performance of this yagi has definitely met my expectations. I spent quite a bit of time plotting the raw data from the Silver/Morris yagi report on all of the yagis that they tested. The Skyhawk had the best data for all of the medium-sized boom lengths (< 24 ft)and was less than a db in average gain (cw band) below some of the larger boom length models. The SWR across the three bands is excellent, as advertised, and the F/B is also true to Bencher's specifications.
I have the antenna mounted at 50 feet, although I have sharp dropoffs in all direction but east, giving an effective height of around 80-100 ft, and I work everything I can hear. One "problem" that is surfacing is that if you are not pointed in the proper direction, you won't hear the station if he is below about an S6-S7. (Time to put up that vertical as a scout antenna) As you can tell, I would buy the antenna again. It looks great up there and has withstood some strong winds of near 50 mph. The ice and snow don't seem to bother it and I seem to have no problems with interactions between it and the 2 element 40m Cuschcraft that is mounted about 10 feet above it on the same mast. What else can I say? It's a fine antenna!
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M3SKF
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 19, 2004 15:44
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SKULL CRUSH-ERR
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Great Yagi this one,Only used on RX & works a real treat.Very well made a little tricky to asssemble but when its up its up.SWR reading are fine even in the rain & noise levels are very low.Very happy with this beam & recommended as a top class piece of kit not the cheapest beam in its class but by far the best.
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I1VDM
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 9, 2003 13:56
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Like a monoband
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Very easy to assemble, good materials. About performance? Simply great. SWR flat and near 1:1 on 10, 15, 20, higher on warc but can be managed with a good tuner.
I was not used to get 9+ signals from US and VK with as little as 100 watts.
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LU1DO
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Rating: 4/5
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Aug 24, 2002 15:32
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first try ...
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Time owned: months
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Just had it for 5 hours on 18m height. Very low SWR on the phone part of the 10 and 15 meter bands, slightly higher on 20 meters.
My rating would go for a 5 but the manual is obviously written in english only and more pictures would clear some additional doubts during assembly. At least Bencher could have a proper manual (in several languages) on their Web-site including more detailed pictures.
My packing lacked one small nut....
Manual print is cheap...
Nevertheless , signal reports have been promising.
My previous antenna was a HB9CV tri-bander made by TET ( unfortunately they closed, made also very good swiss quads for 10 meters) mechanically weak.... lasted 15 years.
Mechanically, the boom is solidly presented, almost no sagging.
More comments to come .
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