Base Imax 2000 question ?...

[Oatmeal]

I bought this new several years ago, it is a Solarcon Imax 2000, ok have used it on the mountain at the old place and now have it up down here.....since all this has went on I got into ham radio, and played with the Imax it tuned well on 10, 12, 15, 17m bands using the int tuner in my 450d.....

I listened to another ham and cut 6" off the top to try and use it on 20m, but didnt work...

Couple weeks ago, I tried to use it on 11m, and the swr was too high, so I took the top section of fiberglass part of it off, and put this ol ss whip I have one it just to see what it would do, so swr is a 1.1 across the 40 channels, but thing is it still don't work as well. rx and tx both down......do I need to cut this whip down to the measurements the fiberglass piece was that was on the top ?.....

Any of you guys tried this, lol...

 

[543_Dallas]

I've never tried that but I don't know why he would have you cut the antenna down to work 20m. For that to work you's have to bypass the matching device in the base and use it as a 1/4 wave antenna.....it would also need 1/4 wave radials for that to work very well.

You could try cutting the 102 whip down but I don't know that it would help. Are you comparing it to what you remember it being at the other place? Time and changing band conditions can play tricks on you.

 

[M0GVZ]

Simplest solution is to buy a new top section.

However currently conditions have been poor on HF, K index being so high some days you can wonder if you even have an antenna plugged in. Local contacts should be OK still though.

Hopefully you didn't damage the matching section or the capacitor in the middle section when you were trying to use it on 20m.

 

[Oatmeal]

At the ol place I did have radials on the Imax, but recall it didn't do very well, maybe due to the location I had it in, will never no...I took the cap off the end and it looks ok.....

I have the 450d hooked to the Imax, and the swr is good on portions of the 10, 12, 15m bands, without using the tuner on it, 17m is a little high for my Int tuner, but the Ext tuner would tune it.....20m band, the Ext tuner probably would tune it, it is up in the red....I haven't used this Imax on these other bands for a long time, just checking the swr on them...

11m band, swr is good on it as well, hoping the propagation is why the rx seems to be down on it,in which I have a cb for this, but on the other hand, haven't talked any here on 11m myself, my nephew uses it when hes up here...

I'm not sure the guys that used to talk on the cb years ago when I was on it, still uses it you never see any cb antennas like you used too.....all I hear on it is skip on channel 6 here, haven't heard much else on it...