Community Forums

GUS2000 · 02-18-2021, 07:19 AM

Looking at putting a Yaesu 991a in our Newmar Super C and wondering if anyone has had any good experience with the Yaesu ATAS-120A antenna..

dbord · 02-18-2021, 07:22 AM

Might want to go to https://www.eham.net/reviews and read the reviews

GUS2000 · 02-18-2021, 08:02 AM

Reviews are sometimes skewed sad to say, so thats the reason for the post here to see if anyone has real world experience specific to motorhome installation.. thanks for the response though. are you a Ham also?.

eham seems to be having technical difficulties this past few weeks... [mod edit]

Mark_K5LXP · 02-18-2021, 08:16 AM

I've owned an ATAS100 antenna for almost 20 years now. I've made many thousands of contacts with it driving across the US mounted to various cars I've owned. All with the same Icom 706 I got at the same time as the antenna.

They're arguably one of the worst antennas you can have. Their nickname "rain gauge" is accurate - water intrusion is a given. Mine has had every possible electrical and mechanical problem these antennas are known for. Performance is on par with hamsticks, but at 20x the cost. It's so bad that I actually enjoy using it. Sorta like fishing without a worm on the hook. Anyone can catch fish with a worm, but a bare hook is a challenge. When you make contacts with an ATAS antenna it's in spite of, not due to your antenna.

On an RV there are zero reasons to run an ATAS. For the same money you can buy a much better solution, which will be pretty much anything other than an ATAS.

Mark K5LXP
Albuquerque, NM

TXiceman · 02-18-2021, 08:19 AM

I ran a ATAS 120 on my truck with a Yaesu FT857d for a few years. The antenna worked OK, but you have to be sure that the antenna is well grounded. I later change to a Little Tarheel II with a TurboTuner. I like the Tarheel better.

Ken

rk911 · 02-18-2021, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GUS2000

Looking at putting a Yaesu 991a in our Newmar Super C and wondering if anyone has had any good experience with the Yaesu ATAS-120A antenna..

i've got the predecessor of the 120 and have had it on two different MH on a Kenwood 120 and then on an ICOM 706MK2g. like any mobile setup...especially on a fiberglass body everything is a tradeoff. I had mine ATAS-100 mounted on the rear ladder with a separate ground wire to the chassis. It worked OK and on some days when the bands were open it worked better than OK. This model was 20m and up but I got it to work, again 'OK', on 40 by adding a tuner. did i break any records or score that hard-to-hear station on Kwajalein Island? of course not but I was able to work special events, MID-Cars and others.