best 11meter vertical ever, period.

[BOOTY MONSTER]

Tagra BT-104, the best 24-30 MHz, 7/8 J-pole antenna, ever built - YouTube!

 

[Z-MAN 369]

This old relic is still standing at an old friends backyard. Hmmmmm, thinkin about asking if it's for sale.

 

[nitroturbo4u]

best antenna is/


sirio gain master <can not stand it>

 

[Al n3izr]

Sigma 4

I Saw some replys here talking about the ground cage on
the Sigma 4. This antenna is called acoaxial sleeve antenna
The sleeve opens up at top to for a wide banding the
antenna. I wish the copy cats were made as good as
the old Sigma 4!

73s Al

 

[TD126]

Better than Avanti Sigma 5/8 ??

I have ran a Avanti Sigma 5/8 since 1972 or 73...I've Dx'ed around the country and South America with less than 75 watts with an old White face Johnson and for 8-10 years a Zachary T that has never been opened. I have been out of it since the late 80's, put the sigma in storage. Now have put the Sigma back up and using a Galaxy 2547 (which I am not liking at this point). The antenna has a 1'1:1 on every frequency from 26.400 to 27.995. I make contacts as far away as 50 miles locally...but not enough power (Yet) to reach over all the "Racket"...especially the El Spanish during prime time. If The Sigma 4 is any better than my 5/8 I definitely want one! Let me hear about the 4...Thanks TD

 

[nosepc]

I Saw some replys here talking about the ground cage on
the Sigma 4. This antenna is called acoaxial sleeve antenna
The sleeve opens up at top to for a wide banding the
antenna. I wish the copy cats were made as good as
the old Sigma 4!

73s Al

Is a copy of the old AV-174 AVANTI

 

[Needle Bender]

how many times have we been through this?, i dont pretend to understand how it works, i have got to the point that i dont care how it works i dont care who says what about the design, even the so called designer contradicts what the patent says. whoever thinks the sigma4 wont outperform a sigma2 is wrong including the guy you claim designed it, i had one and a wilson v1 vertical and an electronica special i replaced them with the sigma4 because it performed better, if thats not what your tests confirm then you just like a few others i know over here could not set a sigma4 style antenna up correctly if your life depended on it, theres other people near me that have had 5/8 groundplanes and sigmas that believe the sigma4 beats the sigma2 and they would argue with ya all day long if they were on this forum, get ya heads out of the books and do some real world tests, the patent states that it gives higher gain than the 5/8 and that is true from my tests which i believe more than what anybody else says just as you would, the documentation in the box and printed on the box said whole antenna radiates, another fact is that my 32 foot hybrid does beat the avanti and this is confirmed by a friend that did the same as me to see for himself if i was right or wrong, my other friend 15 miles away took down his battered 7/8 and put up a 5/8 and to be fair his 5/8 is not as good as my i10k but his 7/8 was never set up right either and it was battered in the wind, his signal dropped by 1 s unit which is a half in power on my radio, i could retell more similar tales but why bother you think what you want and i will believe what i have seen time and time again, calling people stupid because they think one antenna beats another at their location is not the way to get your point across, my response to such a taunting comment is if you really want to see stupid then go buy a full length mirror and take a good look into it! but lets not start all that nonsense again and cause mole to have to flex his muscles, as to the big avanti style vs i10k argument i cast my vote neither way right now, i will tell you the i10k is infinately stronger than the sirio 7/8 version, unlike most people commenting about it i will not get my answer from a book i will do my own tests at my own location within 10 minutes of each other with reliable stations at night so agc's are not getting pumped by locals skewing meter readings and decide for myelf, comparing them in skipland is near meaningless, i can work 12000 miles easy on 100w into aus @signal 9+ and get my name called on the superbowl using just 10w am with my 7/8 mounted at 12 feet or so, does that make it many times better than a guys antenna in the states that cant get on the bowl with way more power than 10w? i dont think so its all in the conditions at the very moment you key your mic, i will always champion the i10k as the best 5/8 i ever owned and one of the strongest antennas for 11mtrs you can buy today or in the past, what i wont do is laydown and just accept that a regular 5/8 will beat my 7/8 hybrid because i know that is not true at my location and nobody else on here has ever had one to compare it to anything, now where are all the guys that think an imax or a starduster beats everything out there? :roll: .

It's a blast reading old posts, and I'm glad you liked your .64 over it's re-phased counterpoise.
Looks like you had a semi-folded 1.14 wavelength, off-center fed vertical. Probably produced a lot of energy toward the D layer for mid-dx local contacts.

 

[Heavy Metal]

I never knew how nice could be either reading it but also kick myself in ass on the sigma IV vector 4000 ect had one back in the late 80's early 90's along with the .64 radio shack. 3 4 and 6 element moonraker, the Antron 99, and an array of others Grr I tossed them all to the trash in late 90's original boxes ect... Yes kicking myself quite a bit on that. Lol live and learn.

 

[Chris Cross]

aluminum antennas do not survive well under the ravages of severe thunderstorms, microbursts and winter storms, and i do not feel like lowering an antenna for every storm that blows through

I don't agree with what you say about an aluminum antenna not holding up. I use Avanti AV-174 antenna that was made in the early 70's and it's in Buffalo,N.Y. If you put it up correctly it will make it through most ruff weather. Buffalo has it's share of bad weather conditions and she has been through 65mph winds and in the morning she stands tall and proud.

 

[Marconi]

Welcome to the forum Chris.

Try checking the Sticky Threads at the top of this Antenna Section, you'll find 2 threads that discuss the Sigma 4 and New Vector 4000. If you do a Forum Search for either antenna you will find this great designed antenna has plenty of other discussions as well.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Bump for the best.

 

[HomerBB]

Shade, you trying to start trouble?
Everybody already knows my wet noodle is the best 11m vertical ever.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Who, me?

 

[S&W357]

 

[TheBlaster]

I think this depends a bit on the set up situation. For me personally... nothing touches the 5/8 wave Sirio Gain Master. It is quiet on the RX noise, tends not to suffer common mode RF issues, it is wide band low SWR.

It seems to be consistently better than any other vertical I have tried as long as you can get it a minimum of 0.5 wavelengths up and you don't have any metal near by. I believe its radiation angles (or spread of angles) is very easily upset by surrounding objects.

It does not like being near the ground. For this you probably would be better of with a high quality 5/8 wave ground plane antenna with full size radials (1/4 wave).

If you can get this thing to 10 meters high @ feed point it is incredible both local and on DX (all DX Sporadic E and very very long F2 layer long haul - think 10,000 miles +) I simply hear more and get out to more with this antenna.

I believe the devil was in the detail on this antenna, silver matching coax stub, perfect dimensions, perfect choking, high quality construction of coaxial radiator parts, every element computer designed. The end result is an antenna greater than just the sum of parts.

If it breaks I would not even consider buying any other antenna, I would buy the 5/8 wave Gain Master again. (I would not however buy a 1/2 wave Gain Master)