11 year old A-99

[Unit 194]

I picked up the antenna this morning and it look like it did when i sold it. I put it on my old 20' TV antenna pole and already made several of contacts with some locales. So I'm 100% back on the airwaves Thanks for the help 8)

Enjoy and welcome back !

 

[C W Morse]

If you handle it without gloves, you'll wish you HAD put on the gloves! Seriously, *old* A99s deteriorate and have fiberglass splinters (I have one). If you grab one without gloves, you will have fiberglass in your hands and it ain't no fun
(itch, itch, itch) OF course, if this isn't the case, by all means stick it in the air and go fer it!

73

CWM

 

[Marty]

I did were gloves. I learned that lesson last time .

 

[Cold Beer]

I have an A-99 installed for probably over 18 years in a high wind salt air environment. Still works just fine

 

[Unit 194]

I have an A-99 installed for probably over 18 years in a high wind salt air environment. Still works just fine

Wow 18 plus years ! Thats one durable antenna.

I guess it's safe to say your A99 "doesn't owe you a thing".

 

[lords]

throw the thing up.hell i have one that i haven't used for 10 years
was up for 5 years and still is mint..rings are still locked in and ground plane on it still mint...last i remember the rings were tuned for 50 foot of coax 1 to 1 SWR's 1-40 +
good antenna? every day at 4am i skip and chat with Uk or some land to mobile out there ...great antenna for the price..now this being mint still just sold it for 85 bucks with shipping on ebay!
thank god opinions are opinions or you wouldn't be up..

 

[Marty]

Yesterday I notice the ground rod that i was using beside the garage/Radio room was only 4 feet in length. :? they must have cut one into for the house and the garage. I found out when i decided to pull on it and it came out pretty easy it's been raining here alot :shock: so i drove a 8 foot one in the ground today and it cut out the bleeding that i was experiencing on the TV 15 feet away from the mast.

btw: this is a stock Uniden 78XL

 

[W5LZ]

You know, this preoccupation with ground rods sort of makes sense if you follow it's history back to where it began.
Ground rods were 'born' during the time Mr. Edison tried to get New York wired for DC commercial current distribution. DC, instead of AC current distribution as it is now, was a very dangerous proposition, more dangerous than AC. So, to sort of keep things 'safe', a rod was driven into the ground at each site of use (ground rods). That wasn't all that bad of an idea, and it was continued when power distribution was changed to AC. (Those dang things really have been around for over a hundred years)
If you will do some checking, the early means of grounding for radio systems were ground radials, not ground rods. They worked just fine, but were a bit of a 'P.I.T.A.' to install! So, someone did some associating, thinking about the power systems etc. Then figured, that's sure easier than burying a bunch of radials, and tried it. Hey, it worked! Not completely the same thing, but it certainly wasn't all that much different electrically. So RF ground rods were 'born'.

One of the things all them guys back then didn't consider was the orientation of the distribution systems (electrical and RF) were almost completely opposite of each other. Power lines were horizontal. RF systems (vertical antennas) which used grounding were vertical. Changing orientation of the applied signal between the same 'parts' of the system really does do odd things. It get's sort of complicated to try to explain electrically so I'm not even going to bother trying. It IS there though.

So to correctly use grounding there are two things you should really try to keep straight, the ground should be close to the radio so keep bad stuff from happening there (I don't like being shocked), and the 'orientation' of the grounding device should be kept oriented correctly. It really isn't that difficult and more people really ought to try it. The simple means of doing both of those things is to drive that ground rod through the face of the radio (to maintain proper orientation), and to center that ground rod left/right and up/down, through that radio, to maintain symmetry. Works great every time...








Gotch'a!
- 'Doc

 

[Dealer]

You know, this preoccupation with ground rods sort of makes sense if you follow it's history back to where it began.
Ground rods were 'born' during the time Mr. Edison tried to get New York wired for DC commercial current distribution. DC, instead of AC current distribution as it is now, was a very dangerous proposition, more dangerous than AC. So, to sort of keep things 'safe', a rod was driven into the ground at each site of use (ground rods). That wasn't all that bad of an idea, and it was continued when power distribution was changed to AC. (Those dang things really have been around for over a hundred years)
If you will do some checking, the early means of grounding for radio systems were ground radials, not ground rods. They worked just fine, but were a bit of a 'P.I.T.A.' to install! So, someone did some associating, thinking about the power systems etc. Then figured, that's sure easier than burying a bunch of radials, and tried it. Hey, it worked! Not completely the same thing, but it certainly wasn't all that much different electrically. So RF ground rods were 'born'.

One of the things all them guys back then didn't consider was the orientation of the distribution systems (electrical and RF) were almost completely opposite of each other. Power lines were horizontal. RF systems (vertical antennas) which used grounding were vertical. Changing orientation of the applied signal between the same 'parts' of the system really does do odd things. It get's sort of complicated to try to explain electrically so I'm not even going to bother trying. It IS there though.

So to correctly use grounding there are two things you should really try to keep straight, the ground should be close to the radio so keep bad stuff from happening there (I don't like being shocked), and the 'orientation' of the grounding device should be kept oriented correctly. It really isn't that difficult and more people really ought to try it. The simple means of doing both of those things is to drive that ground rod through the face of the radio (to maintain proper orientation), and to center that ground rod left/right and up/down, through that radio, to maintain symmetry. Works great every time...








Gotch'a!
- 'Doc

Doc , have you taken up drinking or do you have something better. :shock:

Since I quit drinking 20 years ago, I would consider the
latter at a reasonable price 8)

Humm

 

[2M Guy]

The best way I've found to keep the fiberglass in good shape is to wrap it with electrical tape. You start at the bottom and spiral your way up. That way the water runs over the lap and not into it. I used black and green tape to make it blend in with the trees, but you can make it any color(s) you want. I might redo it with red, white and blue this summer. :usa

 

[Marty]

It really isn't that difficult and more people really ought to try it. The simple means of doing both of those things is to drive that ground rod through the face of the radio (to maintain proper orientation), and to center that ground rod left/right and up/down, through that radio, to maintain symmetry. Works great every time...








Gotch'a!
- 'Doc

Okay, ground rod driven into face of the radio... what do you think i should do next :gdlf :bounce :rknrl

 

[W5LZ]

Next? Why, ground it, of course!
- 'Doc


Oh! If your station is on the second (or third) floor, ground by using a 5 gallon bucket filled with moist dirt next to the radio...

 

[Marty]

Next? Why, ground it, of course!
- 'Doc


Oh! If your station is on the second (or third) floor, ground by using a 5 gallon bucket filled with moist dirt next to the radio...

It's only a one story house. If this was 15-20 years ago i could have gotten a good ground from the the pot plant in my closet.

 

[Seminoles]

Next? Why, ground it, of course!
- 'Doc


Oh! If your station is on the second (or third) floor, ground by using a 5 gallon bucket filled with moist dirt next to the radio...

It's only a one story house. If this was 15-20 years ago i could have gotten a good ground from the the pot plant in my closet.

Is that what they call a HI Q ground :shock: