No, I believe he wanted to see your A99 radial system. I presume it's similar in design to m0ogy's "Boomer kit" in his video of adding a GP kit to his ABS1600?
video
I'm not registered, and I see them even now.Uh, do I need to register on the secondwivescafe forum to see these smilies or have they caught on and blocked them before I got here
Doc, you seem to have a downer on GP kits for Antrons and Imax's. Don't you understand that using your mast or your coax as a counterpoise for any antenna is just simply taking a stab in the dark?
Think of all the possible arrangements you could have with different masts, coax and so forth which could affect the performance of any antenna. Wouldn't it be great if we had an industry standard way of mounting antenna's so that they could all be compared with at least comparable parameters?
What is the point is suggesting that one antenna is better than another if mounting poles and coax location is too much part of the equation?
I've just mounted a custom GP kit on my Antron 99. The custom kit is a design that i've used before that myself and Bob-85 were tinkering with a couple of year ago - the imfamous spiderplane.
Firsty, to make sure we get all the currents we need flowing in the right places, I isolated the antenna from the mast. Not by taping the mast and mounting the antenna on the tape because this creates capacitance between the mast and the antenna. Isolated it by driving a piece of strong ash into the end of the mounting pole and mounting the antenna directly onto that. The antenna is choked with five turns of my RG213 on a four inch former, directly below the feed point. The GP kit bolts directly onto the base of the Antron about an inch below the tuning rings and consists of a 3 sided clamping system similar to the basket clamp on a Sigma 4.
There are three Sirio 827 radials attached to this but with a twist, the electrical length is increased to full quarter wave by attaching wire to the end of each radial which is aimed in free space towards the next radial tip and secured to it using strong nylon thread. The general shape of this kit if I were using four radials instead of three would resemble a swastika if you get what I mean. So its general sort of shape would resemble a three leg swastika with each leg secured to the next leg with nylon wire.
I will post pics up later.
When I first tried this method about two years ago on an half wave GP it worked tremendous and i had TX signal increases ranging from S2 to S4 over the standard GP. RX went up hell of a lot and I was hearing stations i'd never have dreamed of with the standard GP.
The Antron is a slightly different animal and seems to work better than a standard GP out of the box but it didn't stop me from trying to improve it.
An increase of one S point at 25 miles was my first result and an immediate increase in RX was apparant.
I worked 333 Tennessee and New Jersey yesterday from Central England using 5 watts when the skip was not very good.
Don't let anyone try to convince you that GP kits are not worth while, just make sure you Isolate the mast properly, choke it and get those currents flowing where we need them.
Nav 707 waving an hand.
That was on a cheap GP and those were the results. Antron is better built and the performance increases are not as apparant apart from the lack of static.
You seem to spend a lot of your time lately Marconi trying to imply people are liars. Do as you will, you are now on my ignore list.
There you go again Marconi, I never said My A99 had a 2-4 S point advantage over any other Antenna, I said I have no static which allows me to hear better.
The subtle differences between being deaf because of static and not being deaf make differences.
There is no point you modelling my A99 in your software Marconi because your software is only as good as the idiot that wrote it. I'M TELLING YOU THE FUCKING TRUTH. I'm not trying the BS people or claim to have found some sort of miracle I'm telling you how it is and if you don't believe it book a flight over to the UK and come witness it, my A99 because of Bob-85 is a better machine.
I've got a flat dead needle most of the time where static is concerned, the antenna certainly isn't deaf, now if you will care to listen which I did, Bob can tell you why, but if you wanna continue to argue the toss till you are blue in the face then be my guest.
Ur, um, did anyone notice I have been tinkering with a homebrew end fed 1/2 wave antenna, and that I put up a 1/2 wave dipole in its place to see if I might benefit from horizontal polarity over the vertical polarity while I add a set of GPs to the vertical . . ?
You know that I like and respect you, Marconi, so do not step beyond the purpose of my request to work through our differences without getting too personal by suggesting you and I have a problem that would make me happy if you died.
I had some spelling errors, and wanted to add some thought to the post.
I didn't feel the thread was shanghaied, I felt that the tendency to personalized differences was beyond the scope of the discussion. I have no problem with a very strong disagreement, nor with calling out apparent discrepancies in remarks by participants. A "IF this is what you said here, then what did you mean here" is perfectly acceptable. It provides clarity, and resolves seeming discrepancies. Those very things are the basis of debate, and discussion.
You know that I like and respect you, Marconi, so do not step beyond the purpose of my request to work through our differences without getting too personal by suggesting you and I have a problem that would make me happy if you died.
I expect your input, I am glad you have the tenacity to pursue the subject matter beyond small talk. Continuing to do so until you no longer can will provide the basis for provocative thought on these subjects for a long time to come.
I am your friend, and you'll have a hard time changing that.
When all is said and done, likely my thoughts as expressed here are as worthless as most other things representing one person's point of view. . .
Now, maybe later this afternoon I can try a GP on the EFHW and see what happens. I despise the chores that delay my playing with the antennas as much as I'd like.