Make a High Powered ( late 70's ) Radio Shack 5/8 ?

[Xjeepguy]

Just curious if anyone here has ever tried this ? I picked up a late 70's Radio Shack 5/8 vertical a couple of years ago and it is such a heavy-duty antenna, good thick-walled tubing, and quality everything. It's just the power handling of these is, let's say not adequate for these times we live in .
Has anyone ever opened one up by the SO-239 ? Or attempted this mod ? Just thinking outside the box here .

Being in Canada and having to get a new omni - vertical delivered up here is now in the 400 bucks plus range , its terrible !!

Thanks for any info / advice .

Jeff 102 BC

Top right one in pic

 

[BC Coyote]

I feel your pain, I live on an island on the west coast of BC !

It shouldn't be too hard to build a 5/8 groundplane if you have the materials to do it. You would need to figure out the loading coil at the base as that is the critical part. I wouldn't attempt to do it without an antenna analyzer.

If you don't have the materials to do it, you will likely find that by the time you acquire and have said materials shipped the cost will likely be similar to what it would cost for a new antenna ! You could build it out of wire and suspend it from a high branch or something to get around the need for aluminum tubing.

I've always run Antron 99's here because we get hurricane force winds all winter long and any antenna I put up always comes down in pieces within a couple of years. A-99 is cheap ($120 Canadian for the last one I bought) and easy to replace......... I buy them 2 at a time.
I also run a homemade horizontal delta loop which cost nothing to build and works much better than the Antron for DX, which is about 90% of what I use the radio for...

 

[midnight special]

it can be done with a coil mounted outside of the base ,, i have lost all pics of mine and the thread here on wwdx about where i got info on it pics no longer there,,, i used a radio shack .64 crossbow that some one burned the circuit board loading coil out, this not mine but it is simular to mine,,,,

 

[Xjeepguy]

I feel your pain, I live on an island on the west coast of BC !

It shouldn't be too hard to build a 5/8 groundplane if you have the materials to do it. You would need to figure out the loading coil at the base as that is the critical part. I wouldn't attempt to do it without an antenna analyzer.

If you don't have the materials to do it, you will likely find that by the time you acquire and have said materials shipped the cost will likely be similar to what it would cost for a new antenna ! You could build it out of wire and suspend it from a high branch or something to get around the need for aluminum tubing.

I've always run Antron 99's here because we get hurricane force winds all winter long and any antenna I put up always comes down in pieces within a couple of years. A-99 is cheap ($120 Canadian for the last one I bought) and easy to replace......... I buy them 2 at a time.
I also run a homemade horizontal delta loop which cost nothing to build and works much better than the Antron for DX, which is about 90% of what I use the radio for...

Wow where are you buying A99's for 120 bucks ? They are 300 bucks plus taxes and shipping from Radioworld . I do have a 70's RS 5/8 wave in good shape , like mentioned above. Its just the power handling like I mentioned in original post.
I also have a 2 ele delta loop up but being nestled in the mountains , the thing is so picky and am tired of moving the beam 5 degrees constantly to talk to pretty much anything from Japan to NZ. Just wanna try an omni and see how it works .

 

[Xjeepguy]

it can be done with a coil mounted outside of the base ,, i have lost all pics of mine and the thread here on wwdx about where i got info on it pics no longer there,,, i used a radio shack .64 crossbow that some one burned the circuit board loading coil out, this not mine but it is simular to mine,,,, View attachment 69097

Thanks for the info , I'll look into that . Its a shame my nice old HD Radio Shack 5/8 cant be used just due to power handling. I'll figure something out , thanks

 

[BC Coyote]

Wow where are you buying A99's for 120 bucks

The last 2 I got from Amazon about three years ago. I just looked and see they are now $254 Canadian on there ! Fleetwood Digital in Surrey has them for $237 Can.
Wish I'd have bought four of them the last time around now !

 

[Xjeepguy]

The last 2 I got from Amazon about three years ago. I just looked and see they are now $254 Canadian on there ! Fleetwood Digital in Surrey has them for $237 Can.
Wish I'd have bought four of them the last time around now !

Yeah all that radio stuff seemed to have skyrocketed huh . I have an old school A99 hiding in the shop somewhere , I'll find that and do some testing .
How's DX out your way ? Pretty crappy here but I guess that's the summer blues right now .

73

102 BC

 

[BC Coyote]

How's DX out your way ?

It hasn't been fantastic that's for sure! It was much better a couple of months back.

There has been something for at least part of every day though. These days it's mostly short E-skip to the western U.S. states, often with better signals after dark. East Coast and Florida have been in from time to time.
Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii are all very very regular in the evening hours, though they haven't been as strong as usual the last couple of weeks.
And Mexico.......seem to have a pipeline to southern Mexico....

Lots of days with not much of anything as well.

Which part of BC are you in ?

 

[Xjeepguy]

It hasn't been fantastic that's for sure! It was much better a couple of months back.

There has been something for at least part of every day though. These days it's mostly short E-skip to the western U.S. states, often with better signals after dark. East Coast and Florida have been in from time to time.
Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii are all very very regular in the evening hours, though they haven't been as strong as usual the last couple of weeks.
And Mexico.......seem to have a pipeline to southern Mexico....

Lots of days with not much of anything as well.

Which part of BC are you in ?

I'm in the North Okanagan , nestled in the mountains . Since all the good winter skip ended I haven't listened much . Nice weather is here and my outside 'to-do' list is long lol . Maybe with this short skip we'll hear each other this summer !

73

 

[SuperLid]

Just curious if anyone here has ever tried this ? I picked up a late 70's Radio Shack 5/8 vertical a couple of years ago and it is such a heavy-duty antenna, good thick-walled tubing, and quality everything. It's just the power handling of these is, let's say not adequate for these times we live in .
Has anyone ever opened one up by the SO-239 ? Or attempted this mod ? Just thinking outside the box here .

Being in Canada and having to get a new omni - vertical delivered up here is now in the 400 bucks plus range , its terrible !!

Thanks for any info / advice .

Jeff 102 BC

Top right one in pic

It has been done. There were two versions of the matching coil. One was PCB, the other was a toroid. Marconi had photos of the toroidal version on here somewhere. Search on Hy-Gain CLR II.

You could also try the beta match from the Penetrator, that should also work.

 

[BC Coyote]

I'm in the North Okanagan , nestled in the mountains . Since all the good winter skip ended I haven't listened much . Nice weather is here and my outside 'to-do' list is long lol . Maybe with this short skip we'll hear each other this summer !

I'm up in the Discovery Islands about 160km northwest of Vancouver. Right at the top end of the Strait of Georgia.

I haven't been on the radio as much lately either! Garden, house and land projects, visitors, beach, mountains etc etc.......
I've talked to 878 up in Kelowna a few times so we do occasionally get E skip short enough to make the 400 mile jump from here to there. Hope to connect with you sometime on the air !

 

[Xjeepguy]

It has been done. There were two versions of the matching coil. One was PCB, the other was a toroid. Marconi had photos of the toroidal version on here somewhere. Search on Hy-Gain CLR II.

You could also try the beta match from the Penetrator, that should also work.

Hmmm yeah , thats a good idea actually. Never thought of a beta match setup . Thats why I ask here , always good ideas . Thanks !

 

[Xjeepguy]

I'm up in the Discovery Islands about 160km northwest of Vancouver. Right at the top end of the Strait of Georgia.

I haven't been on the radio as much lately either! Garden, house and land projects, visitors, beach, mountains etc etc.......
I've talked to 878 up in Kelowna a few times so we do occasionally get E skip short enough to make the 400 mile jump from here to there. Hope to connect with you sometime on the air !

Yeah , I can just barely hear Kevin if its quiet ( ground wave ) . He seems to be on mostly in the summers , never hear anyone calling him during winter DX .

73

 

[SuperLid]

I was mistaken on the non pcb version. It is on a PVC core. Here is the thread, with the photos from the legendary Marconi. This may help you with your project.

HY GAIN CLR 2 Survivor

Was going through a few antenna bases today. Came across all the parts to a Hy Gain CLR 2 MODEL 473 . I thought about rebuilding it with a new matching network. Much to my surprise when i checked the matching coil in the base insulator it was good. I say surprise because most are burnt out or...

www.worldwidedx.com

 

[Tucker442]

I feel your pain, I live on an island on the west coast of BC !

It shouldn't be too hard to build a 5/8 groundplane if you have the materials to do it. You would need to figure out the loading coil at the base as that is the critical part. I wouldn't attempt to do it without an antenna analyzer.

If you don't have the materials to do it, you will likely find that by the time you acquire and have said materials shipped the cost will likely be similar to what it would cost for a new antenna ! You could build it out of wire and suspend it from a high branch or something to get around the need for aluminum tubing.

I've always run Antron 99's here because we get hurricane force winds all winter long and any antenna I put up always comes down in pieces within a couple of years. A-99 is cheap ($120 Canadian for the last one I bought) and easy to replace......... I buy them 2 at a time.
I also run a homemade horizontal delta loop which cost nothing to build and works much better than the Antron for DX, which is about 90% of what I use the radio for...

I would check the SWR and if it’s OK, just leave it alone and use it. I got an old Hy Gain antenna that I use. I have had it up since the 80s and it still works very well. I changed the coax about two or three years ago because SWR’s were going up and I realized it was water intrusion in the coax not the antenna itself.. it was amazing how the new LMR 400 made such a big difference so try whatever you wanna do but I’m just saying what works well for me