YB Land DX Club DX-ing Is Our Life
Reviewed by Mark J. Wilson, K1RO, QST Product Review Editor, k1ro@arrl.org.
In 2013, I cleared some trees and installed an InnovAntennas DESpole rotary dipole for 20, 15, and 10 meters on a decommissioned utility pole in my woods. That antenna worked fine, and I made thousands of contacts with it. Last April, I installed inverted V antennas for 12 and 17 meters in preparation for operating as W1AW/1 during New Hampshire week. Again, those antennas served me well, but after a while I was hungry for more.
The Force 12 XR series of multiband Yagi antennas caught my eye. Although the XR model designator has been in the Force 12 lineup for years, the current antennas have undergone a complete electrical and mechanical redesign. (In 2013, Force 12 was acquired by the group that brings us InnovAntennas.) The new design was developed by InnovAntennas, Ltd founder Justin Johnson, GØKSC.)
The lineup includes several models ranging from the XR3 for 20, 15, and 10 meters to the XR6 for 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, and 6 meters. I picked the XR6 because I enjoy operating on all of those bands. I would be able to mount it on my utility pole using the same brackets, mast, and Tailtwister rotator I had used for the DESpole, and I could make room to turn it after clearing a couple more of those pesky trees to accommodate the antenna’s 19.7-foot turning radius.
