Maco103c Goodbye!

[314]

Had this beam over the summer and really a good starting point into how things work for a yagi...always had an imax or a99 and hitting flatside for the first time compared to vertical was really fun.....Now the really fun stuff comes into play as i want to go bigger...I want a H/V and really looking at a L4+quad or a Maco shooting star....I've heard the vertical side couples but if you get elements above the tower and put the beam on a fiberglass mast instead of steel it should be fine right? I dont mind for local to turn my beam 5x a night..all my locals are north to south and i'm in between....Kinda just wondering what the vertical side of the beam is gonna bring to the table..Ive heard someone say they went from an imax to a 104c vertical and came up almost 3 s units from 15 miles away on a bare foot radio...looking for a vertical side review for one of the bigger H/V beams and really haven't ruled out a Laser400 as that might be the biggest i go...Thanks

 

[Mr Clean]

You will love a dual polarity antenna and there is no need for a fiberglass mast. Go with carbon steel for the mast. May be overkill but I like overkill. Dual polarity is the only way to go in my opinion. Based on conditions one may work much better than the other for dx and local and on the fringe of local 200 mile contacts are possible if conditions are right. I use a maxi 5 element and could not be happier. If you can get it 60 ft or so is suppose to be about the best height for short or long distance dx. Hope this helps!

 

[Mr Clean]

Antenna is a maxi. Fat fingers got me.

 

[Mr Clean]

I did it twice! Maco. Going bigger than a five get you a little more gain but 5 is about the best bang for the buck. Going larger gets expensive. Got about 3 grand in my antenna system but I tried to do it right! If going 5 or less check out Delhi free standing towers. Great tower for the money.

 

[314]

I did it twice! Maco. Going bigger than a five get you a little more gain but 5 is about the best bang for the buck. Going larger gets expensive. Got about 3 grand in my antenna system but I tried to do it right! If going 5 or less check out Delhi free standing towers. Great tower for the money.

ok so you think a 5 element on vertical will outdo an omni 15 miles away both at same height...what im saying is someone 15 miles away is putting a s7 with my omni, i point that 5 element vertical right at him, is it gonna be enough difference

 

[wavrider]

Best bang for the buck is a three element.
Set of maco 3's and build your own vert and horizontal yagi.

You have the one maco 103c now, order aluminum tubing from online sources add the three elements vertical to your yagi you have and call it done.

you will have a three element vert and three element horizontal for a fraction of a cost of buying a new yagi.

Difference in gain from a 3 element to a four element is less than 2dbd, hardly enough to be noticed at the receive end.

 

[Mr Clean]

Yes a yagi vertical will out talk a omni local.

 

[Bearcat]

ok so you think a 5 element on vertical will outdo an omni 15 miles away both at same height...what im saying is someone 15 miles away is putting a s7 with my omni, i point that 5 element vertical right at him, is it gonna be enough difference

Yes! It will make a difference!

 

[314]

ok guys replies are really helpful and thank you..just ordered the 106h/v gonna give the 103c to my son and let him have at it

 

[222DBFL]

Quick question about placing the 3 element vertical. Do you pick up noise that you normally wouldn't being horizontal? This sounds like a good option for a vertical for local use, but also by doing this, do you lose a lot of gain vs being horizontal as far as dxing is concerned? Just curios. One of the locals here runs a 3 element beam at 85ft and he talks well both locally and DX it seems. It's it due to the height? And his is on the flat side. Just for reference. We have both talked to people across the state and he seems to have the better range locally than my vector 4000 due to less noise levels and height I would think. Now maybe it would be a different story if the vector was too at 85ft to the base I suppose. But at any rate I am just curious. Don't flame me guys, I'm trying to learn and understand what I am learning!! Thanks for the replies.

 

[314]

Quick question about placing the 3 element vertical. Do you pick up noise that you normally wouldn't being horizontal? This sounds like a good option for a vertical for local use, but also by doing this, do you lose a lot of gain vs being horizontal as far as dxing is concerned? Just curios. One of the locals here runs a 3 element beam at 85ft and he talks well both locally and DX it seems. It's it due to the height? And his is on the flat side. Just for reference. We have both talked to people across the state and he seems to have the better range locally than my vector 4000 due to less noise levels and height I would think. Now maybe it would be a different story if the vector was too at 85ft to the base I suppose. But at any rate I am just curious. Don't flame me guys, I'm trying to learn and understand what I am learning!! Thanks for the replies.

i've had the 103c flatside with very pleasant noise almost couldn't believe it. And also went vertical with it and heard an increase in noise. I know that my signal in most cases on flat was a s6 with about 50 watts for local, now when i put 2000 watts it came up to a 10 and that was around 10-15 miles of where my locals were within

 

[Mr Clean]

Quick question about placing the 3 element vertical. Do you pick up noise that you normally wouldn't being horizontal? This sounds like a good option for a vertical for local use, but also by doing this, do you lose a lot of gain vs being horizontal as far as dxing is concerned? Just curios. One of the locals here runs a 3 element beam at 85ft and he talks well both locally and DX it seems. It's it due to the height? And his is on the flat side. Just for reference. We have both talked to people across the state and he seems to have the better range locally than my vector 4000 due to less noise levels and height I would think. Now maybe it would be a different story if the vector was too at 85ft to the base I suppose. But at any rate I am just curious. Don't flame me guys, I'm trying to learn and understand what I am learning!! Thanks for the replies.

You may get little more noise on vertical but not night and day. If you have people near you on vertical running flat side will take their signal down some. allowing you to hear stations out in the distance. A lot of folks like running their single polarity horz but if I only had one to polarity to chose from it would be vertical. I like talking local and dx.

 

[jessejamesdallas]

I know this is a older post, but just encase anyone else is debating between something like a L4 quad or a Maco dual fed antenna like the Shooting Star or Comet, "Go with the Maco or anything else beside the L4 quad "IF" you live in a area that is prone to high winds and thunderstorms!

I had (notice the word "HAD") a Lightning L4 quad until winds turned it into a pretzel... I've been having problems every now and then with the wires snapping at the eyelets where they connect to the spreaders for a while now after a severe thunderstorm, and have had to bring it down and stick a new eyelet on, which ain't no big deal as long as it only happens once in maybe every 6 months or so. But we had a wind storm that blew threw last Tuesday night, that had winds of over 70-80+ mph from storms just south of us, and this lasted for several hours solid! No rain, just straight-line winds for over 2 hours!

Next morning I found all the wires on my L4 wrapped around the tower and one spreader snapped...Main problem with the Lightning Quads, is the fiberglass spreaders IMO are too flexible and in high winds it causes stress on the wires, which causes them to snap.

Ordered a Maco Shooting Star yesterday to replace it. The L4 is a nice antenna don't get me wrong, they just don't like Texas Storms. Think I've had the L4 down now at least 4 times this year fixing broke wires...

 

[hotrod]

gizmotchy are also decent beams aswell

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I know this is a older post, but just encase anyone else is debating between something like a L4 quad or a Maco dual fed antenna like the Shooting Star or Comet, "Go with the Maco or anything else beside the L4 quad "IF" you live in a area that is prone to high winds and thunderstorms!

I had (notice the word "HAD") a Lightning L4 quad until winds turned it into a pretzel... I've been having problems every now and then with the wires snapping at the eyelets where they connect to the spreaders for a while now after a severe thunderstorm, and have had to bring it down and stick a new eyelet on, which ain't no big deal as long as it only happens once in maybe every 6 months or so. But we had a wind storm that blew threw last Tuesday night, that had winds of over 70-80+ mph from storms just south of us, and this lasted for several hours solid! No rain, just straight-line winds for over 2 hours!

Next morning I found all the wires on my L4 wrapped around the tower and one spreader snapped...Main problem with the Lightning Quads, is the fiberglass spreaders IMO are too flexible and in high winds it causes stress on the wires, which causes them to snap.

Ordered a Maco Shooting Star yesterday to replace it. The L4 is a nice antenna don't get me wrong, they just don't like Texas Storms. Think I've had the L4 down now at least 4 times this year fixing broke wires...

Sorry to hear about your quad Jesse but that is something I have been trying to tell people for many many years. Quads are nice, no doubt about that, however the wires are indeed their weak point.It seems that is you pull the wires tight they will break with constant flexing and if you leave them a bit loose they will whip around and break anyway. I ran a Wilson Shooting Star for years back in the late 70's thru the mid 80's and loved it. The rear reflector wire never broke and the antenna was mounted on a tower with the boom about 43 above the ground. A few feet of the vertical elements were below the tow of the tower but performance did not seem to be effected much. It was on the top of a high hill with the horizon between 12 and 20 miles away. We get nasty nor'esters blowing up here and the antenna survived anything mother nature could throw at it including several storms of cat.#1 strength hurricane force winds both with rain and with snow. I am not sure how the Shooting Start is built today but I was more than satisfied with my old model.