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CHA EMCOMM II Comparison and Buying Guidance

CHA EMCOMM II Comparison and Buying Guidance should be decided from the operating job and available site—not from wire length or one headline band alone.

Product Installation Guides CHA EMCOMM II Reviewed 2026-07-14
In plain language: CHA EMCOMM II Comparison and Buying Guidance should be decided from the operating job and available site—not from wire length or one headline band alone.

The better purchase is the antenna that fits the operator’s recurring job. More wire or a wider frequency label is not automatically more useful.

The CHA EMCOMM II V2 is a one-pound, one-operator broadband wire system built for rapid field communication when the station cannot carry a collection of resonant antennas. Its matching transformer and 60 ft insulated radiator pack onto the supplied line winder and can normally be deployed in less than 15 minutes.

What matters for this decision

  • Choose the shortest, lightest system that still supports the required bands and path.
  • Count the actual supports and usable height at the site.
  • Include coax, return conductors, line, stakes, tuner, weather protection, and recovery time in the comparison.
  • Horizontal NVIS: keep the radiator approximately 10–12 ft high; use a 50–55 ft counterpoise or the documented 25–100 ft coax-as-return condition.
  • Sloping wire: one support, normally 25–40 ft high, with a recommended 20–40 ft counterpoise or the documented coax-as-return condition.
  • Inverted-L: two supports with roughly 18–40 ft of vertical rise and a horizontal remainder; use the recommended 20–40 ft counterpoise or documented coax-as-return condition.

Why operators choose this system

Its value is not one universal pattern. The same 60 ft radiator can be kept low and horizontal for regional NVIS work, raised as a sloping wire for general field coverage, or bent into an inverted-L when the site offers two useful supports.

Published operating reference

  • Published continuous frequency range: 1.8–54 MHz.
  • Published power: 200 W SSB and 100 W other modes under intermittent commercial/amateur service.
  • Published wire length: 60 ft maximum and approximately 35 ft minimum deployed length.
  • Published weight and setup: approximately 1 lb; one operator in less than 15 minutes.

Make the next deployment repeatable

Record product revision, configuration, wire dimensions and bearings, endpoint heights, support hardware, return path, coax and choke condition, tuner state, analyzer reference plane, weather, and on-air reports.

Boundary: Broadband coverage does not mean no tuner, identical radiation on every band, or permission to reuse the EMCOMM III counterpoise table. Follow the EMCOMM II V2 configuration and return-path instructions.
Keep the current guide with the station.

This lesson explains the operating choice in plain language. The current guide still controls assembly, dimensions, power limits, and safety.

Open the EMCOMM II V2 User Guide 240317 · View the current product page

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