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SHAKESPEARE BIG STICK
- Thread starter doctor
- Start date
Whatever you do, don't let go of it, they are the best all directional with 7db gain, hard to find. If your SWR is less than 2, don't worry about it. I've talked to midwest on mine with a naked base station. I have mine on probably 25 ft or less of mast on the garage, works great. Hope everyone had a good 4th, and be safe.
555
555
I've got the marine "Big Stick" version: the 176-1. It is a very solidly constructed all fiberglass, 1/2 wave 2 piece job. The top section is simply a 102" fiberglass whip. Shakespeare also made a base version. It was sold in a Shakespeare version and in a Radio Shack version. The latter was called the Crossbow. I have a Crossbow hooked up right now that has been working well for over 30 years.
The upside is that the Shakespeares - both my 176-1 and my Crossbow - are very well built antennas. They are rock solid. The down side is that they do not get out as well as my A99. I've had them all on the same mast using the same coax and the same radio within minutes of one another. Speaking to multiple stations 10-15 miles away in different directions, the difference was very noticeable. Stations I could barely hear or that could barely hear me with the Crossbow or the 176-1 were very workable with the A99.
The longest local contact I ever made with the Crossbow in 30 years was about 39 miles.
Bottom line: after 30 years plus of using these antennas, my conclusion is that you get rock solid build with O.K. performance.
The upside is that the Shakespeares - both my 176-1 and my Crossbow - are very well built antennas. They are rock solid. The down side is that they do not get out as well as my A99. I've had them all on the same mast using the same coax and the same radio within minutes of one another. Speaking to multiple stations 10-15 miles away in different directions, the difference was very noticeable. Stations I could barely hear or that could barely hear me with the Crossbow or the 176-1 were very workable with the A99.
The longest local contact I ever made with the Crossbow in 30 years was about 39 miles.
Bottom line: after 30 years plus of using these antennas, my conclusion is that you get rock solid build with O.K. performance.
Whatever you do, don't let go of it, they are the best all directional with 7db gain, hard to find. If your SWR is less than 2, don't worry about it. I've talked to midwest on mine with a naked base station. I have mine on probably 25 ft or less of mast on the garage, works great. Hope everyone had a good 4th, and be safe.
555
You must be kidding? I owned 2 of the Shakespeare ABS-1600 Army Big Sticks and they were both out performed by my A-99 and I-MAX 2000. The ABS-1600 is a solidly built antenna but it is a very poor performer.
BIG STICK
I found the firestick $25 , but then I can hook up my end fed wire which is 64 feet long 10-40 meters, and hear twice as many stations than the bigstick, in fact I talked to a chap on channel 36<AM> in NC and he said it was s9 on his meter, with the bigstick in the noise.
I never had a A99 but the price is right around $55.
A friend has a A99 and added ground plane and saw no difference with it, although his swr was 1 to 1, and on the big stick I had to use an antenna tuner.
All interesting.
I was looking at the A99 manual, SHAKESPEARE must have copied from A99 all about the same.
# DOCTOR/795
I found the firestick $25 , but then I can hook up my end fed wire which is 64 feet long 10-40 meters, and hear twice as many stations than the bigstick, in fact I talked to a chap on channel 36<AM> in NC and he said it was s9 on his meter, with the bigstick in the noise.
I never had a A99 but the price is right around $55.
A friend has a A99 and added ground plane and saw no difference with it, although his swr was 1 to 1, and on the big stick I had to use an antenna tuner.
All interesting.
I was looking at the A99 manual, SHAKESPEARE must have copied from A99 all about the same.
# DOCTOR/795
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Forget everything the manufacturers say about gain until they admit it's 0dbd. That's right, the Big Stick and Antron 99 have absolutely no gain whatsoever since they are end fed 1/2 waves. They should actually be just under unity gain due to small losses in the matching network and would be technically impossible to develop even one drop of gain.
A wire dipole with a matching balun will yield better results at the same height, might lose a bit of local, but at 25-30ft, the horizontal wire dipole I had up worked awesome!! Too bad for crappy neighbors behind me or I would have it back up now Instead of the old a99 or whatever It is I have, mine is aluminum at least. It works okay, but I liked the dipole much better for dx'ing. JMO.
I have had both over the years I never noticed any difference between the two other than the receive SUCKS ! The more I read I think I'm going with a wire for my DXing . I talk to a guy in Texas a few months back running one an his signal stayed consistent for more than 10 minute's .I really need something for my East/West talking .
The truth is if you want to talk DX and a directional beam is not an option, nothing you can buy regardless of cost is going to perform as well as a few dollars worth of wire made into a dipole or quad loop if space permits. These simple wire antennas will run circles around any vertical omni for the vast majority of DX propagation.
Doctor, I was merely giving you my opinion, didn't mean to cause any waves. I still stand behind experience, as we all know it's all about weather conditions and mother nature. I guess I should say I've been lucky, and will continue as such, it's also what you like best from Radio/Mic/antenna,etc.
555
555
BJ radionut
Supporting Member and 6m addict
"So what is the TRUE gain of the Antron 99? Assuming a 1/2 wave shunt fed dipole in free space, minus the
losses associated with the series capacitance and inductance, according to my math, the Antron 99 has 1.8
dBi gain. That is to say, the Antron 99 has 1.8 dB gain on the horizon over an isotropic radiator.
Referenced to a center fed 1/2 wave dipole, which is the industry standard, the Antron 99 has a
NEGATIVE gain of 0.3 dB. This could also be stated as -0.3 dBd. As a reference, my old 5/8-wave ground
plane antenna had 3-dBi gain. So, the Antron 99 was a step 'down' so to speak. Replacing the Antron 99
with a new 5/8-wave ground plane antenna will result in a 1.2-dB gain improvement."
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/ham-radio-manuals/a99.pdf
Yes Shockwave, when will the masses believe...I guess never:bdh:
DOC: Sold Many of those Big Sticks, when my Elmer and I had the shop.
Not bad for cost at that time, but yes they were a little DEAF unless they were up in Clear Space +40 ft or more...
We sold 7 ft. Francis whips for replacement top sections, and "Firesticks" 5 foot'rs with adjustable tips worked just as well...
The old Avanti (Antenna Spec.) CLR II would kicks it's butt however.
All the Best
Gary