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HAM BIG MAC

yes they are a little bendy, i had mine in the early to mid 80's on 68ft of unguyed scaffold pole twinned up for the first 48ft, the whole lot swayed in the wind, in high winds the groundplanes would go past vertical with the radiator pointing at the floor, mounted like that it survived without a problem, in calm weather it outperformed my avanti sigma4,
its hard to decide which of my verticals performed the best the big mac or the vector4000 hybrid, it would be a close call imho.
 
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that big hair guy makes some pretty wild claims, i dont think they would stand up in the wind.
 
Well, I can certainly see where an antenna such as this one (vertical array) would produce more gain than others, so it ought to perform well, in general. I can also see where it's a 'kloogy' mess, too complicated and 'flimsy' for the typical bad weather around here. Simplifying the thing, better engineering(?), would certainly not be a bad thing. 'Course that's going to drive the price of it up. Not sure if it would be 'worth' the effort, really.
I couldn't tell from the diagram, but is there an insulator above that 1/4 wave section? If not, then it's not a vertical array, gotta separate those sections electrically first. If that top coil is supposed to do that, then it's much too small (mechanically weak). Don't see any evidence of it doing the 'separating', and in that case it isn't a vertical array at all, just a 7/8(?) loaded vertical antenna. And considering the radiation pattern of a 7/8 wave, not very desirable at all (not 'flat' at all, good NVIS though).
Oh well, beats me...
- 'Doc
 
doc there is an insulator above the lower 1/4wave, what the makers call the phasing coil connects either side of the insulator, definately not just a 7/8wave with 6 x 1/4wave radials,
i agree it would be very expensive to make a good quality big mac today,
an interesting and great performing antenna,
maybe i should convert my i10k:biggrin:
 
7732granitestate,
That 'choke' thing at the feed point, also reminds me of a 'Big-Mac'...
(sorry, couldn't resist...all puns intended)
- 'Doc
 

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