xtatik
Explorer
Just my opinion, and based on my experience and comments heard from the few other people I know that use them.......... I'm gonna' have to disagree with you on the ATAS performance issue. Thery're certainly not the most efficient gadgets, but I've had mine for about a year now and love it. It's been bounced around all over Death Valley backcountry and across the Saline Valley washboards.... On countless trips throughout the Mojave and Sierras and it keeps on tickin'.
Now, I know a list of contacts isn't necessarily proof of effectiveness when an antenna is to be considered....but, it is proof they will work.
Here is a two month excerpt of mobile DX contacts from my log. All from last year while on trips. They are contacts I've made from odd parts of California, central Nevada, or Baja using an ATAS. Without dumping my entire log here, I'll tell you that interspersed with these were probably 5X as many domestic contacts logged.
Here goes:
5/24/09 6:01 UTC 20M KL7LF ALASKA 59
5/24/09 6:43 UTC 20M JA3JOT JAPAN 57
5/26/09 5:35 UTC 20M UA3TCJ EUR. RUSSIA 57
5/27/09 4:17 UTC 20M UT7QF UKRAINE 57
5/27/09 4:33 UTC 20M VK7GK AUSTRALIA 59
5/28/09 4:20 UTC 20M ZL1BYZ NEW ZEALAND 58
5/29/09 4:17 UTC 20M KH7Y HAWAII 59
5/29/09 4:53 UTC 20M LY1000A LITHUANIA 59
5/30/09 2:37 UTC 20M CU2KG AZORES 59
6/2/09 4:34 UTC 20M SP7AID POLAND 53
6/2/09 4:41 UTC 15M LY1000A LITHUANIA 59
6/3/09 4:41 UTC 20M SP2FAP POLAND 57
6/7/09 4:52 UTC 20M VK7ZE AUSTRALIA 58
6/7/09 4:59 UTC 20M LY1000A LITHUANIA 59
6/10/09 5:27 UTC 20M ES5QD ESTONIA 59
6/10/09 6:02 UTC 20M H44MY SOLOMON ISLANDS
7/25/09 6:12 UTC 20M KH2JU GUAM
7/25/09 6:25 UTC 20M VK4MA AUSTRALIA
Aside from its demonstrated ruggedness (for me at least), the thing I like most about it, is that it covers the bases on everything discussed in the last few posts here. It's greatest benefit is convenience.
With the push of a button I can switch from FM to HF, and back. It performs very well on FM with no noticeable difference between it and the the best of FM mobile sticks. There maybe a difference...I won't dispute that point. What I'm saying is there is no perceptible (audible) difference at either end of a QSO. On the HF side, it tunes 40m and up, which would be the preferred HF bands that someone would want for an "expedition", or let's say big distance communication. I say this based on the fact that the 15, 20 and 40 meter phone bands (with 20m far surpassing the other two) are usually the most successful (highest log scores) phone bands for most DXpeditions around the globe. There are good reasons why 20m is the preferred band for the maritime crowd...because it more consistently covers the distances their travels require.
Both Hamsticks and the ATAS are pretty flat across the phone portion of the 20m band, and neither would require a tuner. 80m or 160m would only be a concern to me for short-range (in the HF realm) rag-chew communications within my own or neighboring states. Neither would be my first choice day or night, if I needed assistance.
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