Yaesu ATAS 120 Review

hey guys I'm Justin wi4 EC this is blackbeards radio today we're going to go through a uh Yu atos um I'm going to finally do my review on it I have four or five activations with it I've used it mobile moving around some uh I've noticed some good things I've noticed some bad things uh and I also have a new way to mount the antenna that might interest some of y'all so stick with me and we'll get right to it hey guys so the Yu atos 120a uh the mount on the back is great uh so far this is like I've said before that's a mirror Mount that has a back clamp that I don't use on the plate uh for my setup I had to use spacers behind the antenna and that was just to get the antenna body itself away from my toolbox lid you can see if I wouldn't have had them probably would have hit um everything's going great every once in a while I'll have an SWR issue with it you can see I still hadn't bonded well all I have is one ground wire that runs from there down to a chassis ground and then the back of my radio is also grounded to that same chassis ground uh I had noticed it coming loose everything seems to be holding firm um the antenna itself is a screwdriver so this this goes up down right now it's tuned for 20 M and you can see the whip is about 3 ft tall the total height of the antenna is just over 5T I think um but I'm very very happy with it it seems like uh under $800 for my research it might be the best option that you can have right now if you have Yu radio there's ways to make it work if you don't have a Yu radio you just have to buy a separate control head for it um um but with the Yu radio you just set your radio to atos and you hit the tune button and it automatically goes and they tell you you'll be under 2: one and I've noticed that to be true uh I have not had problems tuning on 40 m I have a friend that fought to get his the tune on uh 40 m um but he he has his working now uh but there are a couple deficiencies in it uh one it does not do 80 M with the atos mode enabled on your radio the radio won't let you do 80 M so I bought another thing to try and make that go away uh and we'll see what I can do I bought the Gable radio Gable antenna tripod I got it off at Amazon I'll post the link well it'll be in the description probably but let's unbox it real quick so first we'll notice that the tripod itself comes in a nice little pouch I'm sure that'll be lost soon uh this is 239 oh that's 2392 hamstick so that's 38 x 24 that's neat I didn't even know it came with that and then it also comes with 239 to 239 ah so that's awesome and then it has a goodie bag I don't know what's in the goodie bag hold on sweet so inside the goodie bag it looks like it has these spring loaded lugs and some clips for grounding wire hold on for one second and I will pull the tripod out let's lengthen the draw string as much as we can I bet that is way wider than the bag will open that's it there's the tripod oh it's very stiff I like that that is going to be sturdy so I'm guessing these sleeves will slide in here and there's a ground screw or is that a locking screw that might be the Locking screw yep and then the ground screws are here on each collar all right so I adjusted the height of it really simple you just twist the foot of it counterclockwise to unlock it you can extend it and each leg can operate independently so you can get it level uh right now like it's not very level on my tool gate so I could lengthen that a little bit and move that around so it's level and I can do that with each leg as needed if you're really OCD or uh maybe you have a bad Hill or you're in gravel or something so you can play with that to get your antenna really very uh vertical so that's pretty neat to see and now let's put in one of these and we'll get that slid in here and we'll see what what it we'll get that slid in there and we'll see what it looks like I can tell you all of these components um from Gable seem very very robust they're heavy I don't know if that is yep so this collar also loosens so you can raise and lower that and I'm guessing since that's where your ground lugs go you probably want the collar up above here but now it's in there and TT and that's probably the set the one for a set screw right here so I might actually unfold the destructions real quick to figure this out and it did come with an instruction manual so let's take a look and see what we get or maybe I have this upside down according to the picture it might be upside down we'll find out hold on yep it's definitely upside down so I'll spin this around and I'll take this back out sh and now I'm going to need both hands and I'm going to flip the legs from being down like this to up so that this cap is on the top and when you put it the right way a you see a actual logo in a label and B it has these locking logs for your legs so you can actually set it up and you'll hear a tactile click so now I bet when I drop it in the top side yep and uh this will probably still lock down sure does so that is probably still very much a set screw I'll try and figure that out it says pick the wireless radio grounding wires can be easily installed yeah pretty short and pretty uh short and simple it's got an adap even to go from the 3/8 threads on the hamstick mount the4 in thread it looks like just in case you have a/ quarter inch um or maybe that's the set screw that goes in there I don't know okay so I have the grounding lugs installed on the 239 to 239 adapter which is what I'm going to use for my atos I'm going to pull that off my truck and I'm going to try and mount it here with no grounding and we'll see how it works grounding is everything with the atos from what I've seen so I don't know if it'll be viable without the grounds but we'll see you can kind of see these are not fun to put in because they are spring-loaded you see how little of that thread is showing and it's because it has a spring-loaded collar so it took two hands that's why I didn't show you uh but I'm going to get these other two put on to the hamstick version the 3/8 thread version and that way that task is over with cuz then I can always crimp in my wire at a later time uh and then we'll set up the atos right there and we'll see if we can get it to tune all right I got the hamstick one screwed in uh so those lugs are there I'll put that in back in the box cuz I don't want to fight with tuning a hamstick today I got everything else bagged up in the box so now let's take this if I have to um what's neat is you can turn these up and I can crimp from there without taking them back off I do have some wire that I could use as ground wire and I can drive a ground rod o I can't my power comes in over here um but I can figure something out for a ground I have a ground over there for my 160 so maybe I could run it to right there where my ground for my 160 is so let's see what happens all right so there we go got the a house mounted on the Gable tripod uh I really like the 239 adapter it's a great adapter um I didn't retract it you can still see the whip and then I have almost it's 49 ft of rg8x going into my radio so this was just going to give me a vertical screwdriver that I could Mount elsewhere and I was thinking this might be a great application for field day or some other longer duration operation so let's see what happens when we turn around and go the radio was tuned on 20 m a second ago again we'll come way down [Applause] here we hit the tune button and since atos is showing it'll automatically tune the radio high high high going really bad so this is one of those things where the antenna doesn't know what to do because the S SWR is high so if we come out here to the screwdriver you can see the screwdriver portion actually raising and it'll hit the top and now it doesn't know what to do so it's coming back down and you'll see it lower and it's still flashing High s SWR with the red light uh and it's going to reach the upper limit and then it'll start to lower itself down and all it's doing is trying to find a happy home and this is part of the problem with the atos is you don't know really where the antenna's at uh it doesn't give you this is my issue with the atos is you don't know where the antenna's at sorry about that shaky shaky I was trying to put my foot up on something for support um there we go nope still not happy so now it's going to go all the way to the bottom because it couldn't get below under two: one and this is because of the grounding issue and there's no way to stop this I don't think oh there's a way if you hit tune again it'll stop look at that we're learning together folks uh so let's try switching bands and we'll go to let's go to 10 [Music] [Applause] m so with atos pressed you can see atos just flashing that means that the SR is way off so we come out here you can see that the antenna is completely collapsed so now the system is trying to figure out where it is it doesn't know how retracted it is and this is part of the it's good and I'm very pleased but it could be better you know like the Tar Hill antenna has an exterior control box so you can see kind of where it is especially once you get it set you know okay I'm in 10 m or 20 M I need to move to this number of coils which is displayed in a display and it moves automat atically so now it just tried to cycle the coil all the way down or up and it finally made it to one end or the other and then it cycled all the way down and it picked up the coil load again the screwdriver did and now it's raising it to try and find 10 m where it'll be under 2 to one let's go check it out on the radio you can see how it looks different it's actively trying to tune it now High s SWR we're not quite white to infinite but we're creeping that way dear Lord I'm sorry I dropped you and the antenna is on the way back down let's see what this says now yeah so what we can do is hit the tune button and we'll stop it and y'all might not be able to hear it but you can actually hear things clicking and clacking uh which is a weird noise so if we go to atos settings we can click cck cck it's all the way retracted so we'll try and lower and that should extend everything that's my truck clicking and clacking I keep pressing the keys yep so everything apparently needs to be grounded really well all right well the sing ended up not working uh for this little tripod but I absolutely love it so far the tripod seems amazing uh this is the same tripod that some of y'all might have seen when we were testing out uh Mike's uh vertical antenna four or five videos ago when we were at moris Creek Battlefield uh it's the same tripod so I know the tripod Works successfully I love the functionality of the tripod I love the kit I so far it's great I just got to add some grounding wire and some spikes or the other thing I'm thinking about doing is getting some faad day cloth and running Faraday cloth under it and then getting big alligator clamps and clamping into the faad day cloth and I'm going to see how that does too so stick with me for more of that all right guys we're on another day but I did want to continue my atos 120 review and how I bought the Gabriel tripod to use it um with my atos 120 to turn it into a vertical whenever I initially set everything up excuse me set everything up I did it in my sidey yard that way and I couldn't get um 40 m it wouldn't tune the atos would just go up and down up and down it was trying to tune and it just never would tune today we're going to try something different come along with the ride let's check it out again I'm Justin wi4 EC this is Blackbeard's radio so this is what we're working with today we have my atos 12a we have the Gabriel tripod we have a Magic Carpet that's what people call it this is a 3tx 8T aluminum window screen it's still in the package from Home Depot 36x 84 excuse me it's not quite 8 ft that's 7 ft actually but 3 ft by 7 ft a rer sorry I have my handy talkie going uh I'm outside just figured I'd listen listen to the repeaters uh and the other thing I have is some grounding wire you can see this tripod has a couple grounding lugs on it I'm going to put ring terminals to grounding lugs and I'm going to connect the alligator clamps to the window screen that is aluminum and we're going to see what we get uh luckily I am at home and I also have some metal tin staks uh that I use for Christmas decorations I think honestly um but with those metal tent Stakes um to keep the mat from rolling up if I need to I can use those metal ENT Stakes to stick it into the ground and that might even increase the ground plane a little bit more uh I'm going to do it in my front yard which is that way and I'll get this thing rolled out set up um I'll actually set up the camera to videotape that cuz this is my first time doing it I've seen other people do it and they've had great success with W wolf River coils and stuff like that um I'm sure there's videos online of people doing this with the atos uh I didn't search I just figured I'd make one and true to my nature I would film it as I experimented and y'all would come along for the results so hang with me and we'll get it set up and then we'll put it on the air and we see what happens all righty here's all my supplies this little bag is ENT Stakes if I need it coax I'll go ahead and hook up oh it's laying pretty flat is this in frame oh yeah the whole thing's in frame that's fabulous Perfect all right and now we will put the grounding wires so guys I'll be honest this might be the toughest part for me so far that one in over there and we'll move this one to as far over as we can get it over here all right let's see what we get all righty let's see what we get guys we'll power it on 12.4 Volts let me crank the truck and then I'll shut some doors glow plugs are warming up give me a second there we [Music] go I'm going to need to go shut that door hold on all right sorry about that Roger I think so I was tuned to 20 earlier I just filmed the video on my new mixer so I tuned to 20 for that so let's try and go to 40 and see what happens let's get out of the extra [Music] band all right let's try it who this is real time I am not going to edit this um let's just see uh for my position my wife's car is actually in the way oh swr's coming down ah it's still really high wasn't it let's try it out whiskey India 4 Echo Charlie testing testing testing wi4 EC doing a radio test with vertical antenna so it's hovering right around two let's go to the bottom testing testing testing w4c test it let's get up towards the top I can hear slow scan TV so we'll tune right there same thing a two to one wi4 AC testing testing testing so what we have found out is the Magic Carpet does work it will let you tune 40 m in a vertical using a tripod and some grounding wires let's see if it increases how well the antenna heares on 20 [Music] M again we're tuning from 40 to 20 can you got sir KD5 rhl KD5 OJ uh the call sign is little yeah February yeah it's hearing better the bush here we got 70 Acres of bush and the deer and the wild turkeys all La in the typically Maritime Channel this guy's talking about trimming his bushes so I don't know how many bushes he has on a boat but most people avoid 14300 because it is the maritime Channel um and that whole 333 rule for martiners um transmit for the for three solid minutes for the first three minutes at the top of every hour so or the every third hour or something like that so most people leave this channel EXC me Ron r okay very good Ron nice to make your but the only the only filtering I have right now is the noise blanker I'll let you go and turn it back to the and the radio is hearing pretty D going well golly towards the bottom it's just flat wi 4C testing testing testing new vertical so it's one and a half or below towards the bottom of the extra portion in the front of the house they theying out of the offing out get out of the way so they can go do their thing with this well seem like we might have we go ahead Perfect all righty guys I would say the Magic Carpet and 40 m was a success it wasn't great SWR I'd love for it to be under 1 and A2 I'd honestly love for it to be under 1.2 but um for what it is I'm not complaining at all that little setup I mean the tripod mount uh I have a discount code for I'm not an affiliate for it uh one of my friends Dorian W4 dkf uh he actually listened to a podcast or watched a podcast and the guy that makes these tripods he was on it and he listed a um discount code on him so I I get no money from them I like the tripod it's sturdy um it feels tight it's maneuverable uh I would buy it again uh and it's doing exactly what I wanted it to do um but that $80 $90 tripod or whatever it ended up costing after the discount and then $6 or $7 worth a window screen and I now can use my atos 120 away from my truck as a vertical screwdriver antennas independently and my SWR is just a little high I'll take that compromise that's pretty cool to me uh it's nice it's another tool in the toolbox I don't know if I'll use it all the time I I won't use it all the time uh but it is another tool in the toolbox if I can't get a wire in a tree or uh you know there's some uh national parks and national monuments you can't you can't run ineds to and they don't want you sitting in your truck and running running a truck well for me that left me with no other options uh besides my ham sticks mounted to my truck and if they don't want you sitting in the truck well that makes it a little difficult now doesn't it um so having this as an option will now let me um remove everything I can take my radio my coax and that tripod and that antenna and then can go set up under a picnic shelter and run a vertical on a screwdriver that Tunes with the tune button I love love it fantastic I'm Justin wi4 EC this is blackbeards Radio uh give me a like and a follow please it helps me know helps the channel grow um in like a year and 3 months we've gained almost 500 followers that's awesome I'd love to get the 5,000 by the 2-year anniversary I'm going to try and be more diligent through the summer of posting multiple videos uh a month my goal I'm setting a realistic goal of two videos a month and some shorts intermittently posted uh and then of course there'll be big videos to come out uh we have the North Carolina cuso party in a little while so I'll post a video from that my as most of y'all know my local amateur club uh we operate from the battleship and the battleship North Carolina this year is a special station for the North Carolina cuso party so listen for us on the air uh our call signs ni4 BK November India 4 Bravo kilo we're one of the five special event stations uh for the North Carolina cuso party so give us a shout um if you get all five you can submit for a special I think it's five it might be six but you can get a special certificate if you get all the special events um and then coming up we have Museum ships weekend field day I have a couple things that I'll film for my local Club as well we're doing a couple cool projects a fox hunt and and maybe an antenna building and then we're going to do an antenna analization for uh mobile and portable setups um so people we're going to do different wire configurations for infed half waves different verticals verticals on wire screen no wire screen different grounding options um so y'all be on the lookout again I'm Justin wi4 EC give me a like and follow I appreciate you hope you all have a great day 73 all

Channel: Blackbeard's Radio

Views: 9,049

Keywords: ham radio, amateur radio, yaesu, mfj enterprise, heil sound, Blackbeard's radio, yaesu usa, icom, myantennas.com, iPad, ATAS120 A, Vertical Antenna, Screwdriver Antenna

Id: rPQGheOlY1c

Length: 34min 43sec (2083 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 12 2024