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Using a 102" as a base

Hey 2685 what if a nice wind comes along and huffs and puffs that thing right over onto your neighbors property, house, kids, or their dog, or flips up and goes flying sending those cinder blocks crashing down.

Just mount that A99 on a 10' pole that is attached well to something sturdy like a heavy fence post that is not close to any power lines and be done with it. That way if lightning strikes it, it won't be attached to the house either.

Be safe. This idea is not a real good idea for being safe.
 
I wonder if a Antron 99 ground plane kit would work well with 102 SS ? or would they be to short ?
 
SK, I used the hub on my 1/4 wave, but I found that the 72" elements were not long enough when using only 3 elements. Maybe if I had been able to add more elements, these shorter radials would have work or worked better.

I had to use 102" SS whips or 11 meter 1/4 wave antennas to get what I considered workable results with a good match.

If you were to work with such a setup you would easily see just how important the proper GP is to the 1/4 wave radiator.
 
SOMEBODY RESCUE THIS GUY FROM THE ANTRON99 DUMMU LOAD ANT!!

WAIT!!! HOLD IT!! - If IMAX-2000s are still available get one of those as I and several friends have tested them, one against the other, and seen TWO FULL 'S'-units gain from the Antron99 to the IMAX-2000 PLUS much less TVI from the IMAX!!!!!!!!
(on my Kenwood TS-930S meter)

I have given away (thank the Lord!!) every Antron99 I had (7 of them came my way...poor me!!!) and have set up my friend Donn with my old IMAX which he said has transformed his station performance to what he thought he would need a beam to get in comparison to his old Antron99... which he gave me.

...and I thought he was a friend ;)

And another thing, if you get an IMAX and can drill a small hole thru the top of the aluminum mounting tab / bracket so you can add 3-10 or more 8' 6" radials (centered on ch.40) made from wire, even guy wire, to an insulator and hanging down at ~60* angle, you should get even better performance, especially at a distance, along with even less TVI!

Let us know what you end up with & how well it's working for you.

73!
 
Wow, memories..... Back when I was 15 I used a 102 0n a "custom" :roll: mount attached to my chimney. I grounded the base out to a water pipe in the attic and I had a 1.2 match. Man, I talked all over town on that thing with an old Navaho base and a giant old hand held power mic (I don't remember the manufacturer)
Cheap but effective.
 
skirtchaser said:
Wow, memories..... Back when I was 15 I used a 102 0n a "custom" :roll: mount attached to my chimney. I grounded the base out to a water pipe in the attic and I had a 1.2 match. Man, I talked all over town on that thing with an old Navaho base and a giant old hand held power mic (I don't remember the manufacturer)
Cheap but effective.

...prolly outperform an Antron ;)
 
Marconi said:
CDX-007, me thinks you jest.

Actually, NO.

- Cconsider a directly fed 1/4 wave vs an efficiently fed 1/2 wave; the gain on the 1/2 wave should be about 2dB. However, the case has been made against the Antron's feed system being rather lossy & inefficient, up to -4dB, which leads me to believe the 1/4 wave should 'prolly' outperform it.

Also, I make no apology for any discomfort my post offers those who are avid Antron lovers as the A99 is what it is, and almost ANY other antenna has proven superior in multiple tests of which I have either conducted or been on the receiving end.

On top of the lower efficiency matching system, (which tends to show up even more dramatically on the relatively small signal of the receive end) the A99 has also shown a much greater tendency for much worse TVI / RFI and I despise both of those weaknesses when they are unnecessary.
There are: MACO V5/8, IMAX-2000, I-10K, Sigma 4 copy and others available on the market which, though a bit more costly, would provide quite a respectable performance increase in comparison.

Why put all that time and money into a nice station, including the radio, mic, (amp?) mast / tower & coax only to drop the ball where it counts the most: the ANTENNA?
 
CDX-007 said:
Why put all that time and money into a nice station, including the radio, mic, (amp?) mast / tower & coax only to drop the ball where it counts the most: the ANTENNA?
That's what I always say! The first money should be spent on the antenna and feedline!!!
 
Considering the original idea (temporary and sort of 'make-do'), the 'W' looking thingy ought'a work. I think I'd go along with the fence-post and pole idea because it would probably last a bit longer. Or, if there's a convenient tree and metal fence, just hang an appropriate length of wire from the tree, use the fence as a ground plane, and have at it. It's not exactly as if miracles are expected of it.
- 'Doc
 
No 007, I thought you were referring to Skirtchaser's 1/4 wave without a ground plane.

I agree that a direct fed 1/4 wave with an effective ground plane is a very effective antenna if you get it up 30'+. However, I doubt that the matching devices used in most of the antennas we talk about in CB are loosing as much as 4db due to the matcher. There is some loss involved with transforming any impedance to another value in order to make a transmitter happy, but I don't know of anyone here capable of actually measuring what this value is.

I have had several A99's over time and I agree some act bad, but I have never seen one that did not talk good and the one I use today is one of the original A99's and it does not cause TVI. But with the thousands of A99 out there it would not surprise me that some are bad and maybe don't perform as well.

In my area here in Houston probably 99% of the stations that talk locally here hit my stations with signals from S3 - S9+. Now if one is 4db better than another, what difference does that make?
 

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