Product review FlyTenna by DA6MAX

Field-Tested and Loved: My Take on the Flytenna XL and SML EFHW Antennas

By Max Sammet, DA6MAX

There are a lot of end-fed half-wave antennas out there — honestly, about as many as there are grains of sand on a beach. Most look the same, promise the same, and end up in a drawer after one activation. So when I ordered the Flytenna XLand Flytenna SML from radio-stuff.com, I wasn't expecting to be surprised. I was wrong.

I first heard about radio-stuff.com through TEHRS (The European Ham Radio Channel) and a shout-out from Morton, LB0FI — and after a few weeks of putting both antennas through real activations, I understand why they keep getting recommended. As someone who builds my own antennas, I know exactly how much thought (and how many failed prototypes) go into a design like this. Chris, M0VUE, has clearly put in the hours.

What Sets These Apart

It's easy to wind some wire onto a 49:1 transformer and call it an EFHW. What impressed me about the Flytenna line is everything around that basic idea. The transformer housing uses genuinely good PCB material for the coil former, the units handle both SSB and digital modes comfortably on the XL and the SML alike, and the winding/reel mechanism on both antennas makes deployment and pack-down painless in the field — no more wrestling a birds-nest of wire back into a stuff sack with cold fingers.

Then there's the small stuff that tells you a lot about the person behind the product: both antennas ship with ground stakes on paracord, packed in their own little pouch, ready to go. It's a tiny detail, but it's exactly the kind of thing that separates a well-thought-out kit from a bag of parts.

The XL: My New Favourite

The XL has quickly become my go-to EFHW. The reel makes handling effortless, and the flexible silicone-jacketed wire is a joy to work with — no memory, no kinking. I ran it at 75W on digital modes without it breaking a sweat, and Chris tells me the same core has seen 50W SSB and 100W FT8 duty, so there's clearly headroom to spare.

The SML: Small, Light, and Built for POTA

The SML is the one that comes with me on activations, and the form factor is genuinely excellent — this is a serious ultra-portable antenna. In the interest of a fair review: the reel isn't quite as buttery smooth as the XL's, and the DX-Wire UL wire it uses can be a little temperamental when winding and unwinding until you find the right technique to avoid tangles. I raised this with Chris directly, and I appreciated that he didn't wave it off — he's aware of the wire's quirks (including that it's trickier to solder than advertised) and the handle balance, has already increased the handle size once, and is actively looking at hub and core revisions to smooth it out further. That kind of responsiveness matters as much as the hardware itself.

I also had one hiccup worth mentioning: the solder joint on the cable shoe connecting to the transformer tore off, most likely from leverage on the hook while rolling up the antenna. I swapped it for a sturdier crimped terminal and it's been solid ever since. Chris took the feedback on board immediately — the sign of a maker who's still actively refining a product rather than just shipping and forgetting it.

One more thing I asked about: pre-tuning. Chris doesn't pre-tune these out of the box, and once he explained why, it made complete sense — the cores used in the Flytenna line (aside from the entry-level model) are genuinely low-loss, which is exactly what makes them hard to pre-tune for arbitrary conditions and antenna heights. Compare that to something like a Spooltenna, which is lossy above 20m and therefore easier to pre-tune because the losses mask the mismatch. In other words: my SWR was already "fine-ish" on 15m and 10m straight out of the bag, and the lack of pre-tuning is a side effect of these being efficient antennas, not a shortcut.

Putting the SML to Work: POTA on the Jakobsweg

The real test of any portable antenna is a proper activation, so I took the SML out along DE-1259, the Jakobsweg Fulda–Frankfurt–Mainz–Bingen–Trier National Historic Trail, for a genuinely ultra-portable setup: a QMX 5W QRP transceiver, a Raspberry Pi handling the digital mode decoding, and an iPad as screen and control surface — no laptop, no generator, just a bench by the trail and a fishing pole to sling the wire into for an inverted V setup. 

In just over an hour, running 5 watts on 15m FT8 (Band Conditions wasn’t the best), I logged 10 QSOs across four DXCC entities — Spain, France, Italy, and England. For 5 watts into a lightweight wire antenna hung into a fishing pole, that's a result that speaks for itself.

The Bottom Line

The Flytenna XL and SML aren't just "another EFHW." The build quality, the attention to the details that actually matter in the field, and a designer who genuinely listens to feedback and keeps iterating — that's a rare combination. The SML still has a bit of room to grow on the reel and handle balance, and I'm looking forward to seeing where Chris takes the next revision, but as it stands both antennas have earned a permanent spot in my go-bag.

If you're after a portable EFHW that's actually been thought through, head over to radio-stuff.com and give the Flytenna range a look.

73 de DA6MAX