• You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.
  • Click here to find out how to win free radios from Retevis!

A new to me antenna


I’ve had one for 20+ years.

Signal Engineering Goldenrod 45

See threads. Discussions get involved.

Meant to be a trunk mount just behind rear window of a sedan or coupe when I talked with the guys at SE way back when. (5’ tall).

It’s a talker. Just having it on the roof of an SUV (Cherokee) got plenty of questions. Made twice-annual round trips Dallas to Chicago four years straight with it.

When they learned it was only my 25W dual-final Uniden PC76 running off a cigar lighter I had believers up & down the highway. Nothing but compliments. That was on a triple-mag.

On my ‘71 Chrysler only a 108” out did it (height advantage) where a trunk deck mount was used. Neither was overhang or clearance friendly with a car.

Tried it on the last Pete 579 I was in and it was a little too far past 14 on the sleeper back factory mount.

Big wind load.

One I’ll not ever sell. Too much fun.

You may not have an application for it today, but . . . it’s a whole lot shorter than a 102” on the pickup roof. And gives up little. Maybe nothing. Maybe better for local DX.

IIRC, I think I paid $65 in 1998.

.
 
Last edited:
An A-B test against other antennas on the pickup roof would be fun to try.

I don’t have a Predator, and that one in 5’ configuration is the price range competitor. (I don’t recall that it was available at that time; could be wrong). I don’t recall that comparison test (there are online reviews).

As memory served it got about 2+ feet above the sedan roof viewed from the front. 8-feet? 9-feet? (Been 15+ years since then). More clearance to play with, so the 7’ antennas would also be in contention.

“How much better” (if any) comes down to install location clearance questions.

Stationary:

1). Five & Seven Skipshooter
2). Five & Seven Predator
3). Seven Foot Texas

102” as control.

Where it falls in the mix (clearance vs performance).

But anonymous, it ain’t.

Wins “Attention-Getter” in a landslide.

It WAKES UP the AM-19 crowd out on the road. That’s a good thing.

East on IH-40 from the Armadillo thru OKC would be a natural test ground to see if one could keep the talk going every mile with this “help”.

“Funny-looking, huh? So how’s this mud-duck radio sound to you from Mile Marker XXX?”

Start getting radio check requests then right & left, that’s what. And let things drift off to Radio Performance in a big truck, as topic.

Intersecting that crowd on US-54 & US-287, then US-83 & US-283 means a whole lotta large cars with owner-ops running N-S. Big Radio Country. Looong Distance rigs.

Present employer manages most of the windmill hauling. Think they’re on AM-16.

Those highway intersections with IH-40 have some high spots “natural” to this. Get both roads.

The Petro at Amarillo would be a decent place to run the stationary test. I’ve both given & received some fair distance air checks from there several evenings just this year.

Guess I need to get to cracking on my pickup install. That’s sounding like a fun way to spend some vacation time away from Fort Worth. Up to the ‘dillo then across to OKC and back down.

Sadly, I won’t be able to broadcast,

. . from the commanding heights of Mt. Norman!”

once I’m in metro OKC as the money-grubbers destroyed yet another artifact of WWII. In this case, USN Air Attack Training.

“It’s just a pile of dirt”.

And Little Round Top is just a farm field.

Ask the Japanese Naval Command about proficiency via the Battle of Midway.

.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Christopher17
3x power multiplication:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

And a 4.75 dBi gain, but It will never outperform a Texas Bugcatcher.

images
 
  • Like
Reactions: Slowmover
Whew. That's too much money for me!
I think Marconi ran one of those years ago.
I consider it the originating idea behind the Merlin base antenna.
Cap hat sitting directly over the inductor. . .
 
  • Like
Reactions: Slowmover

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • @ BJ radionut:
    EVAN/Crawdad :love: ...runna pile-up on 6m SSB(y) W4AXW in the air
    +1
  • @ Crawdad:
    One of the few times my tiny station gets heard on 6m!:D
  • @ Galanary:
    anyone out here familiar with the Icom IC-7300 mods
  • @ Crawdad:
    7300 very nice radio, what's to hack?