Have to agree....bought a L2 from Lightning Antennas. Not real impressive on some components. There are 2 gama matching sections that really have much to be desired. Only reason I bought it rather than building is relatively cheaper due to parts and material availability, but some will have to be modified.The price of cb antennas has gone down relative to wages since i got into the hobby,
tube quality has also gone down & thinner walled over the years too,
the antennas of today look like your grampa's starduster / sigma4 but use cheaper weaker thinner walled tube & hub materials more suited to making toy cars & cap guns.
I learned last week after looking for skipshooters, that maco owns skipshooter and a couple of other names. They closed up shop last month due to covid and who knows when they'll open back up. The supplier said they were down to their last few of almost everything that comes from those guys so I would think thats why you are seeing them sold out at most places. With covid, shutdowns and so many with the prepper mentality seems to be lots of communications equipment is flying off the shelves according to the supplier I spoke to.Why have base antennas doubled and tripled in price over the last ten years. The Antron 99 I’m using now I purchased from cb city for about 65 dollars out the door back in 2011.
Now most Antrons I can find are priced well over 100 dollars, with $150 being common.
Edit: $125 shipped is common $100 shipped is a good deal lol.
The imax 2000 is also more than it used to be.
I’ve seen priced as high as $180.00
The Workman w58 is 160 dollars if you can even find it. Apparently this was a 55 dollar antenna 7-8 years ago.
Apparently the maco v58 has almost doubled in price in the last 8 years.
Is maco even still in business they seem to be sold out at a lot of websites I look at?
Modeled my home brew omni after a Starduster. Had the hub friend gave me. Used scrap aluminum tubing. Broke the hub, fabricated another from SS. Radiator got tore up, took 102" SS Whip and spring off truck. Mounted that. I call it a StarBuster......Hmmm, maybe ill buy a comet copy it and call it the asteroid.
What did you use for the radial supports?Modeled my home brew omni after a Starduster. Had the hub friend gave me. Used scrap aluminum tubing. Broke the hub, fabricated another from SS. Radiator got tore up, took 102" SS Whip and spring off truck. Mounted that. I call it a StarBuster......View attachment 36516
It's price gouging due to people realizing preppers were right.
So now they want a radio, and CB shops can make some real money on upped prices.
Gee; that means anyone having a collection of working CB radios may have turned it into a long term investment.
Cool Beans!
Fiberglass rods for electrical fence. Tractor Supply. The support hub was piece of polly used to make bushings from the plant dumpster. Used holesaw centered hole. Counter sunk and tapped threads for lock studs on mast. Pointed ends of rods into drilled holes in aluminum tubing and ss tie wire thru drilled holes in rods to aluminum tubing securing.What did you use for the radial supports?