Chameleon MPAS 2.0
$$$$$
| Frequency | 1.8-54 MHz (160-6 m) |
| TX power | 100 W (Hybrid-Micro variant: 100 W SSB / 25 W CW / 25 W high-duty digital; Hybrid-Mini variant: 500 W SSB / 100 W CW / 50 W high-duty digital (spec section; the page's option labels quote higher CW figures - another doc conflict, conservative figures adopted)) |
| Modes | SSB, CW, AM, FM, digital |
| Connector | SO-239 on the Hybrid matching unit; 3/8-24 threaded whip mounting; 50 ft RFI-choked coax included |
| feedpoint | CHA Hybrid-Micro or Hybrid-Mini matching unit (5:1 unun); 3/8-24 whip thread; spike mount |
Estimated (unverified): introduction year (late 2010s); Mini-variant price ($625 in our page fetch; some renders surface only the $600 base price)
The Swiss-army answer to portable HF: one backpack builds a ground-spiked vertical, an NVIS antenna, an end-fed wire in three shapes, a balcony antenna, or a man-pack whip, all from the same matching unit and hardware. The 3/8-24 standard means everything interchanges with the wider accessory world, the 50-foot choked coax is included rather than extra, and the Kevlar PTFE wire and stainless hardware are the company's military-grade stock.
At 8 pounds before the bag it is portable the way a toolbox is portable - SOTA ultralighters will look elsewhere. The Micro tier's 25 W CW and digital ratings are modest, and the manufacturer's own page disagrees with itself on the CW figures between the option labels and the spec table, continuing a documentation sloppiness that runs across this product line. It is also a system price: you are buying the modular concept, and a single-purpose wire antenna does any one of its jobs for a third of the money.
The flagship of Chameleon's modular concept: not the best vertical, wire, or NVIS antenna you can buy, but the only bag that is credibly all three at once. Buy it for the flexibility, size the matching unit to your modes, and read the spec table rather than the marketing labels.
The MPAS 2.0 (Modular Portable Antenna System) is Chameleon Antenna's flagship expression of an idea the company has built its catalog around: sell the operator components, not antennas. The backpack holds a 5:1 matching unit, two whip sections, two lengths of Kevlar-insulated wire, a ground spike, and fifty feet of choked coax, and from those parts the manual documents nine distinct deployments, a ground-spiked vertical using one or both whip sections, a horizontal whip for NVIS, sloper and inverted-V and inverted-L wire antennas, a low NVIS wire, a balcony-rail mount, a stationary-vehicle setup, and a man-pack vertical that rides to the site on your back, the page lists nine; the manual develops six of them with full procedures.
The engineering glue is the same 5:1 unun family that runs through the company's EMCOMM line, here in two tiers: the Hybrid-Micro (100 W SSB, 25 W CW and high-duty digital) and the Hybrid-Mini (500 W SSB, 100 W CW, 50 W digital), wrapped in identical modular hardware. Coverage runs 1.8 through 54 MHz with the usual configuration-dependent tuner caveat. Everything mounts on the 3/8-24 thread that is ham radio's de facto whip standard, so the system happily accepts third-party whips and mounts, modularity that extends beyond the brand. Two details show the field heritage: the spike mount that turns any patch of soil into an antenna site (whip-only setups reach 28-54 MHz standalone with a tuner), and the manual's insistence on anti-oxidant paste in the whip joints before any permanent installation, because telescoping aluminum and weather are old enemies.
Two buyer's notes, in the house tradition of reading Chameleon's paperwork carefully. First, the product page disagrees with itself about CW power, the purchase options say one thing, the specification table another; this profile quotes the conservative spec-table figures, and the pattern of shifting numbers repeats across this manufacturer's line, so trust the sheet in your box. Second, 8 pounds before the bag is honest field weight, not ultralight backpacking weight; the same company sells the EMCOMM III Portable at a pound and a half when the mission is wire-only.
The natural comparison outside the brand is the Mini-Buddipole, the other famous modular portable: the Buddipole approach buys you a resonant, tuner-free dipole at the cost of per-band clip-and-whip adjustment, while the MPAS buys you grab-and-go broadband at the cost of transformer compromise and tuner dependence. Both are systems rather than antennas, and both reward the operator who enjoys the building blocks as much as the contacts. The MPAS is the one that also stands up as a vertical in bare dirt, ten feet from the truck, ninety seconds after you open the pack.