1.5m in small unmarked bills pleaseHow much for that Radio Shack 102" ?
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11 meter is very quiet?
- Thread starter Tweetybird
- Start date
As it happens, the lower/cheaper grades of stainless steel make better antennas. All stainless steel alloys have poor electrical conductivity (which along with their heat resistance, is why they make great heating elements), but the cheaper/softer/more likely to bend alloys are a bit better in that regard.Quality of materials used, there are many grades of SS ....304, 308, 316.....how well were the components put together? Good QA/QC? Reputation of manufacturing. USA Made
I'm a fan of the fiberglass antennas because those use copper wire as the conductor.
Not one fiberglass antenna can compare to the 102" SS whip. They try, but just can't rub enough snake oil into it. Only beneficial thing of a glass antenna is lower height, but they do not withstand the elements worth a damn, that ity bity wire corrodes, and fiberglass durn sure ain't as durable. Obviously, hands down the 102" out performs any glass antenna.
I believe that to be a fair price....considering it's a Radio Shack SS 102" whip. Let's see here.....hold on .....I got it.....
Would you accept payment in wooden nickels?
From what i understand China is now the largest producer of Snake oil world wide and its such a cheap knockoff it only works half as good as the US made snake oil...
Shadetree Mechanic
Delaware Base Station 808
Ten four on that, when good old American snake oil was widely available, it was such a high quality. You only had to buy it once.....haha
You're assuming that I'm talking about cheap, short fiberglass antennas. I guarantee a full 8 foot fiberglass antenna made with a decent gauge of copper wire will outperform a stainless steel whip. In fact I've seen some before (real HF antennas, not truck stop CB antennas) that were wound with copper ribbon wire to increase the surface area of the conductor.
Actually even a lot of the short truckstop antennas have a base connector that is nickle plated brass, which is better than stainless steel. So one could take it apart, replace the fiberglass rod with an 8' one, slip the braid from a piece of RG-8 over it, cover that with heat shrink tubing and prune to tune.
Btw you say fiberglass antennas can't withstand the elements, but I have had at least 4 Hamsticks for 25 years and none of them have broken down despite being on several different Jeeps and 4x4 trucks.
Yea, right
. Why need 4 in 25 years? My 102" has been around for over 25. That's 4 to 1 ratio. Not even a Hamstich can compare to a 102"
Shadetree Mechanic
Delaware Base Station 808
Goofing around with my old DuKane mic, I happened to talk to a trucker passing through and had a good QSO on ch 22. The mic I think is a ceramic element (maybe crystal I don't know) and is not a powered mic, but it does work. Well I thought it needed a little kick on my Galaxy 99 and the idea popped into my head to use a small headphone amplifier inline.
The headphone amp I bought a while ago to use with the home stereo and cost about $30. Sony rack system with four 12s and the 5 disk changer from the late 80s. When the kids friends came over, they wanted to play music from their phones. Without blue tooth of any kind, I bought a turn table headphone amp to have for the kids to plug their phones in and with the volume knob on the front, it made it real easy to set the audio level. The kids had a blast taking turns being the DJ. The only rule was no songs with cussing. I like all kinds of music but I did not want my kids walking around the house singing cuss words because it was stuck in their heads.
So I chopped up an old RCA cord and wired it up to some mic jacks. Excellent audio reports, enough to make me think twice about changing the mic element to an electric studio element.
The headphone amp I bought a while ago to use with the home stereo and cost about $30. Sony rack system with four 12s and the 5 disk changer from the late 80s. When the kids friends came over, they wanted to play music from their phones. Without blue tooth of any kind, I bought a turn table headphone amp to have for the kids to plug their phones in and with the volume knob on the front, it made it real easy to set the audio level. The kids had a blast taking turns being the DJ. The only rule was no songs with cussing. I like all kinds of music but I did not want my kids walking around the house singing cuss words because it was stuck in their heads.
So I chopped up an old RCA cord and wired it up to some mic jacks. Excellent audio reports, enough to make me think twice about changing the mic element to an electric studio element.
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Those 8 foot long fiberglass antennas may fall apart today but I have one from back in the 80s that is in perfect shape and I still use it. On the end just above the screw in connector it says it was made by Shakespeare. I have held onto it for all these years and glad I did.
I'm glad you asked. That's one each for 80 Meters, 40 Meters, 20 Meters and 6 Meters. See, I'm not limited to just 11 Meters. 11 Meters is easy, almost like VHF. Try working 160 Meters mobile. I've done that, successfully, in Colorado and Wyoming where stations are few and far between. And I used a fiberglass antenna for it. That's 1.8 to 2 MHz, btw. Where a quarter wave antenna would be 130 feet long.Yea, right
I've also talked to Mexico City from Huntsville, AL with one watt SSB to a mag-mounted 7 foot Hamstick on 40 Meters.
Yeah, Shakespeare makes some good marine antennas.
And by the way, if fiberglass antennas are such junk, I wonder why the antennas you see on military Humvees are fiberglass? Redbeard needs to teach them.
I didn't mention my Yaesu YA-007FG fiberglass antenna, which is the one I used (with an SGC tuner) for 160 Meters. It's only rated down to 3 MHz, but it loaded well enough to work on 160M which is why I took it on that particular trip instead of my SGC milspec fiberglass antenna, which would only tune down to 80 Meters.
Both of those antennas are way stouter than the Hamsticks. But the Hamsticks have lasted 25 years and show no signs yet of laying down, so there's that.
Both of those antennas are way stouter than the Hamsticks. But the Hamsticks have lasted 25 years and show no signs yet of laying down, so there's that.
Shadetree Mechanic
Delaware Base Station 808
All I know is we need to do the best with what we got. What's the best antenna? The one you got, might be better , might be not. Try this, try that. That is the fun in this hobby. If all I had to do is sit down and key a mic, without skip I would be bored. This is truly the best hobby because I get to goof around with electronics, audio, and antennas. And RF power transmition fascinates me. Its not like DC or even conventional AC, its more like light. Just glad to be here.
Chris
Chris
Isn't that the truth Shadetree. I was goofing around yesterday putting up a 12 meter vertical quarter wave antenna onto a ground mounted radial field. Did some FT-8 and with conditions as they were Japan and Belize were easily reachable that day with the new antenna.