can the A99 ever be a good antenna?

[Stellasarat]

What's going on bearcat? Believe it or not, even when not setup correctly the a 99, at least for me worked incredibly.12 feet off the ground, and 40 mile ground wave trips with no problem and contacts all over the world when conditions were correct. My SWR was higher than I would have liked it to be, but still acceptable. I did have a reflected power of about 12 watts for every 200, but like I mentioned it really was an excellent antenna. I've since switched over to the IMAX 2000. Its on the same exact non-penetrating roof mount with three 5' masts their supported the a 99. My purpose in going from the a99 to the 2000 was too at least hopefully improve My receive capabilities, and the 2000 did exactly that. Locally everyone jumped up about 1.5 s -units, maybe a little more, but the biggest difference I noticed in the receive was with DX stations. Both antennas have there drawbacks, and during the springtime I will be switching over to a Mako or another 5/8 wave aluminum antenna. Everyone knows the Mako is a better antenna them both the 99 and 2000. I'm also going to be installing it up above the roof line. Right now my IMAX peeks over the roof at approximately 6 feet. If I didn't have an SWR of 1.3:1 I would actually leave the maco at the same height, as my locals and further hear me as I do them,and my station works just about every one it hears DX wise, and that's what important to me. I assume the high swr is caused by the very large near object, which is my house.

If set up properly can this antenna shine locally and dx? I have used one that was good for 25 miles locally...good on ssb..decent on AM...thats with a 12watt Washington base

 

[222DBFL]

The high vswr may be an indication of something else as well. Remeber vswr isn't all you want to look for when getting your antenna system right. There are other variables. What is the R and X values on an antenna analyzer? This will tell you more about what is really going on. While you might see a 1.3:1 vswr reading, your R and X readings may be off bad enough to cause other issues that you may not know exist. Not saying your antenna setup isn't right, just don't go totally off an swr reading as its not the whole equation but only a part of it. JMHO. And what I've seen from testing and messing about.

 

[Bearcat]

What's going on bearcat? Believe it or not, even when not setup correctly the a 99, at least for me worked incredibly.12 feet off the ground, and 40 mile ground wave trips with no problem and contacts all over the world when conditions were correct. My SWR was higher than I would have liked it to be, but still acceptable. I did have a reflected power of about 12 watts for every 200, but like I mentioned it really was an excellent antenna. I've since switched over to the IMAX 2000. Its on the same exact non-penetrating roof mount with three 5' masts their supported the a 99. My purpose in going from the a99 to the 2000 was too at least hopefully improve My receive capabilities, and the 2000 did exactly that. Locally everyone jumped up about 1.5 s -units, maybe a little more, but the biggest difference I noticed in the receive was with DX stations. Both antennas have there drawbacks, and during the springtime I will be switching over to a Mako or another 5/8 wave aluminum antenna. Everyone knows the Mako is a better antenna them both the 99 and 2000. I'm also going to be installing it up above the roof line. Right now my IMAX peeks over the roof at approximately 6 feet. If I didn't have an SWR of 1.3:1 I would actually leave the maco at the same height, as my locals and further hear me as I do them,and my station works just about every one it hears DX wise, and that's what important to me. I assume the high swr is caused by the very large near object, which is my house.

I have ran both A99 and maco 58....the macowas a bitch to install clean receive.A99 was decent on ssb dx..just wanted to see what everyones real experience was

 

[Needle Bender]

My experience with the A99 was brief.

I was given one and decided to install it when I moved to an area where they frowned on antennas so I installed it where it was hard to see, and near the ground. It worked, I talked to people.

A month later I took possession of an Imax through a swap. I installed it in place of the A99, same location, same coax, same radio.
- EVERYONE told me exactly the same thing, Imax is 2 S-units stronger.

I tried one (brand new) years earlier in place of my Penetrator 500 atop my 50' tower, lost 3+ S-units across the board, TX & RX.

Now I'd like to have two A99s so I could build a local receive nulling 18' 1" wide 'T-bar' and rotate it until whatever troublemaker was out there would be put in one of the side nulls. - Hey, they gotta be good for SOMETHING!

 

[Onelasttime]

I used one at my first house before I lost my home. It was my first base station antenna. I knew soldiers in the barracks that kept them in the shipping tube for storage. When they had the time they would assemble them and just stick as much as they could out the open window and talk on them. The reason the A99 get's a bad rap is because it came in the wake of some really fantastic all metal 11m antenna. The matching on it is not the best design on earth and can cause some issues. If not for all the better antennas that came before it I doubt it would get such a bad rap. The SWR running rings where ground breaking when it first came out. Everything about the antenna was a compromise. When I owned one I bought it for $49 new and that included shipping. So you have to keep that in mind as well.

If you can not talk 25 miles with a base station with the antenna base at least 20 feet in the air you are either doing something wrong or you live some place that is hostile to rf propagation. Base to Base you can easily do better than that. Base to mobile it depends on the mobile set up. This all assumes you have good coax with properly terminated connectors, good grounds, and a radio that is properly aligned.

Also what are you counting as making the trip? Does that mean being clearly heard with audio on the other end or something more? Do you have to be able to do it all the time or just 50% of the time?