Hello everyone!
I have wanted to ask this for a long time now. Probably a silly question, but figured I would ask anyhow.
How can you tell a Maco Alpha V5/8 apart from the V5/8 V5000?
I am assuming the wire that connects the SO-239 to the matching coil might be different gauges between the two antennas, but what other differences are there & what gauge wire is used between the two?
I could not find much info regarding the difference of the two, & I have just wondered how to tell them apart specifically. Not really a big deal, just out of curiosity I suppose.
Why I am wondering:
My first base antenna I got about 9 to 10 years ago, it was a new in box Maco V5/8 V5000. I got the Maco from an old local that bought a bunch of them as he use to buy and sell a lot of radio equipment & he said it was the V5000. He was selling them for $90 & is what I paid. The shipping sticker on my box shows it came from Palco electronics. I wanted to get the best base antenna I could afford at the time & the V5000 seemed like a better choice over the Solarcon A-99 I was going to get, & slightly more heavy duty then the regular Alpha V5/8 & for the price it seemed like a good deal (I did not have a computer at the time & could only go by what copper electronics was selling them for in the catalog I had).
I have wondered if I actually have the 5000, but not exactly sure of the exact differences to look for; my box although was clearly brand new & never opened said Maco Alpha V5/8 on the sticker and the only thing that says V5000 is hand written in black permanent marker on the side of the box. Now I figured it was not uncommon for Maco to do that to save money on stickers when the two antennas were very similar & the fact they stated right in the manual they did not clean up all the burrs & rough edges on the tubing to lower the cost of the antenna, plus the manual seems to apply to both models. So I just figured the V5000 hand written on the box was normal, which it likely is.
The wire connecting the SO-239 to the matching coil on mine is about 15-gauge.
It don’t really matter which one I have, I am sure it’s the 5000, but was just curious on how to tell them apart from one another. Not a whole lot of details like that online about them, at least I could not find any while searching.
My Maco 5/8 antenna is in the house here and is currently being stored in its original box as the darn thing is just too big for where I have my antenna now & I would not be able to use the radials without it hanging over the neighbors yard & they probably would not like that. I am currently using an old Big Stick I got from a local, and it looks old! But seems to work ok.
Thanks for reading this & for any info you can share.
