Chameleon MPAS vs RG-6 TV coax dipole antenna 600 dollar antenna vs antenna built from scrap

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:05]Hello, this is Brett from Survival Comms. And in today's content, we're going to do a single band comparison of the 40 m dipole I built out of discarded RG6 TV coax and other junk versus a heavily marketed, commercially available, and expensive antenna system, the Chameleon MPAS.

[00:00:22]I did an in-depth review of the MPAS system years ago, and mechanically, it's an extremely well-constructed antenna product. The weakness in the system is this, the Hybrid Micro. Now, the Hybrid Micro uses a 5:1 unun transformer, which is lossy by nature, and this is what allows the antenna to be multi-band capable. So, why did I select 40 m? I did this because the 40 m band is the workhorse band for EMCOMM purposes available to an amateur operator. The next question is why did I elect to do this test during the height of day when 40 m propagation is theoretically at its lowest? And this is because you do testing when the ionosphere is a disadvantage, in my opinion. If I was to do testing on 20 m right now, and I happen to work Mozambique, the viewer may be under an illusion of antenna performance when, in reality, it is an incidental talk path due to good propagation. Now, this is how our test is going to run. We're going to run 20-minute whisper cycles starting with our control antenna, the RG6 dipole set up as an inverted V with a feed point at 15 ft, the north end at 4 ft, and the south end at 6 ft at 13:00 to 13:20 local time. Then, we're going to run a test of the MPAS in a vertical configuration with its included counterpoise using the mil whip extension and whip at 13:50 to 14:10 local time. Then, we're going to run the MPAS in its In-Fed inverted V configuration with the apex at 15 ft and the north end at 4 ft at 14:50 to 15:10 local time. Now, doing this is going to allow the viewer to see the performance of the $600 MPAS system in a vertical and horizontal configuration in comparison to our control antenna, the RG-6 Field Expedient dipole, which costs $5, $3 of which is the BNC connector, the balance is the wire, wire ties, and cordage.

[00:02:16]Feedline length of the dipole is 50 ft and the feedline length of the MPAS is the 50-ft cable included with the MPAS system. The MPAS required an antenna tuner in both configurations.

[00:02:28]The dipole did not.

[00:02:31]The radio for testing is the MicroBit kit I built years ago. Let's get started.

[00:02:36]So, we don't have our antenna set up very high. You can see right here, this is where one insulator's tied off at.

[00:02:43]And there's our center support.

[00:02:46]Just tied off to that branch. It's up about 15 ft.

[00:02:50]And here's our other element support, just a shovel shoved in the ground.

[00:02:56]Here's our control antenna, the RG-6 dipole. Now, it's important to remember that the results we get here do not represent a bidirectional talk path, but rather they give us a snapshot of objective antenna performance within a period of time.

[00:03:10]In this period, with the RG-6 dipole, I heard six stations and 27 stations heard me.

[00:03:18]And now for antenna number two, the Chameleon MPAS.

[00:03:22]You can see here we got the Mil Whip extension on here.

[00:03:26]And we have just the goodies that come with the antenna in the package. We have their feedline with the integrated choke, which you can see here. And we have their 25-ft counterpoise.

[00:03:43]Here are the results of our whisper cycle with the MPAS in its vertical configuration.

[00:03:49]In this test, I heard two stations and 11 stations heard me.

[00:03:56]And here is our third configuration, the MPAS using its wire element that's included. We have the counterpoise hooked up on the other side.

[00:04:05]And our wire runs up to our tree. Apex of the wire is supported in the tree.

[00:04:10]You can see it there.

[00:04:12]And here is the opposite end of the wire radiator.

[00:04:15]Our third test is with the MPAS and an In-Fed horizontal inverted V configuration.

[00:04:22]In this period, I received three stations and nine stations received me.

[00:04:28]Well, that was interesting in our testing. The RG6 dipole prevailed as I felt it would because it's very difficult for a multi-band antenna to compete with what is basically the standard antenna, which is a resonant dipole antenna. And there's no mystery science that's going to improve that, especially something that's using a transformer in its design.

[00:04:50]I look forward to your comments. I hope this helps. This is Brett from Survival Comms. Till next time.