This is an amazing antenna, I believe better than the Wilson 5000. I would go out and replace a new Wilson 5000 if you just bought one, but when considering check it out. The reviews are excellent. It is the Wilson 5000 of a lot of European CB'er. The band width is much better when going below channel1 and above channel 40, making it great for 10,11,&12 meters. The stinger is about 10 inches taller than Wilson 5000. It skip talking ability is amazing, because I had owned a Wilson 5000 for years and loved antenna but didn't hit skip nearly as often as the Sirio antenna. And also can just fold down antenna for Garage Parking at home or underground lots, don't have to remove entire antenna. Keep in mind when have to replace your Wilson. Also have to buy the base magnet separate from the antenna itself, a little odd. Only DNJ and H&Y are importing them from Italy. But an awesome antenna.
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Sirio Preformer 5000 Magnet Mount Antenna
- Thread starter NewYork714
- Start date
It is pretty much all about the whip length when it comes to performance. I had a Sirio 3000 which has a whip length roughly similar to the Wilson 5000. When I replaced it with the Sirio 5000 I saw roughly 1.5 S point increase in received signals using the same mount. A S5 signal increased to just below S7.
So now you've given it a test, the next thing to do is get over to Breedlovemounts.com, order one of their SO239 puck mounts and put that sucker in the roof then over to www.k0bg.com, read up the page on bonding and apply that to your vehicle and then you can watch the noise drop and your signal get out even better.
Remember real men drill holes.
So now you've given it a test, the next thing to do is get over to Breedlovemounts.com, order one of their SO239 puck mounts and put that sucker in the roof then over to www.k0bg.com, read up the page on bonding and apply that to your vehicle and then you can watch the noise drop and your signal get out even better.
Remember real men drill holes.
i have the wilson and not very happy about the swr on it 1.5 is the best i can get and i did drill a hole in my truck roof mounted almost dead center back jus a little. My question is will the sirio mount right to the connector for the wilson or would i have to change everything??
Thanks for the feed back on this antenna NewYork. I think I'm fixing to get one myself. I've seen nothing but good reviews. I've seen reviews where people were saying it blows the 102 whip away.
I have one and it is my favorite. Low SWR and broad bandwidth make it the best antenna for my mobile radios. I think 222DBFL runs one as well.
Un-screw the Wilson and screw on the Sirio. I ran a Sirio on a Wilson hole mount for 2 years with no problems.
The sirio 5000 works great don't get me wrong...but my 108 whip beats it hands down..jmo
Yep same here sirio 5000 performer. Running a mag mount but if I could a breedlove puck would be in order like M0GVZ has stated and perform the extra work of bonding. It makes a difference. I am blessed and cursed as well. My work van which the system is in has a 9ft roof line. Add the sirio 5000 at 6.5ft and its pretty tall. And it's long too, it's one of the Nissan NV3500 work vans. High back. Been just using the optoma mk3 and mag mount setup now for a couple years. They work well! Make my share of dx contacts and even with the locals I do well. I can get right at 60 miles locally at night on SSB and hold a conversation when it's quiet. Did it early this morning coming home from the panhandle. Anyway the antenna does work and it has proven to be a winner with a lot of people.
I don't know the Wilson but if its a SO239 it should work just fine. I would certainly try it first.
If you've not done it yet bond the hood to the main body of the cab. That'll improve things a bit. You may notice your SWR goes up on the lower channels and you may need to retune the antenna by shortening it. That is a good thing as it is an indication that you've improved the ground for the antenna.
Mobile antennas manufacturers can make many claims that are somewhat misleading. This antenna could be tunable for multiple bands, but doesn't mean it will cover all bands without retuning.
The manufacture specs say +/- 2000KHz at 2.0 SWR. That means at the true resonant point, you should see a safe operating SWR reading up to 2.0 at 1000 KHz above and below that resonant point.
The only true way to find that resonant point is with an antenna analyzer, not the SWR meter in your radio or some radio shack SWR meter. An analyzer will show where the antenna is at or near 50 of impedance and a reactance value of at 0 or close to it, Then you have the true resonant point of the antenna system. As you increase or decrease frequency from there, you are moving away from the resonant point regardless of what your SWR meter says.
I find it hard to believe this antenna will tune for 12 meters without lengthening the whip if it is even long enough or replace it with another whip all together, then you will lose the other bands.
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I doubt it. I wonder who those people were and how they concluded that statement.
The reason why using a 1/4 wave whip on the CB band for instance is still superior is because there are no losses in the form of a loading coil.
All shortened mobile CB antennas have a coil form in one way or another. The reason for this is to match the impedance back to 50 ohms since the impedance is significantly changed when the antenna is shortened to a less than 1/4 wave length on any band in mobile operations.
The coil used in these shortened mobile antennas adds inductance which is electrical energy stored in a magnetic field. This coil is where your radiated losses occur from. This radiated power value is measured as ERP. (effective radiated power) after coil losses.
Just because your radio shows on a meter 100 watts output, doesn't mean your radiated power or ERP is 100 watts especially when using an antenna shorter than a 1/4 wavelength. This is the trade off for running a shorter antenna because not every mobile install can tolerate the height issue with a 1/4 wave antenna.
There are published reports in the reputable ARRL handbook from testing done with mobile coil loaded antennas. At 10 meters, (since this amateur radio testing) the average mobile antennas measured less than 70% ERP at 100 watts. That means 30% of the radio output was lost at the antenna coil and some other smaller losses too.
Now consider this, At 80 meters, the losses were outstanding at 97%. So at 100 watts on 80 meters, only 3 watts is radiated if your lucky. But consider a 1/4 wavelength antenna at 80 meters and you will need a 65 ft. antenna, not likely you will clear any overpasses with that antenna on your mobile. If you look at a Hustler 80 meter mobile antenna, notice how huge the coil is to get a 50 ohm match, that means big losses. While the antenna works, it is hardly efficient.
Now can you understand the differences between 1/4 wave antennas and coil loaded antennas? 1/4 wave antennas are superior if you can withstand the height, If not, then go with the best shortened mobile antenna like this Sirio seems to be.
The trade off with a 1/4 wave CB antenna other than the height is the feed point impedance is around 36 ohms. This is an easy fix to bring it up to 50 ohms if you have a antenna analyzer and 2 ft. of 14 gauge enameled wire like the kind used in electric motor windings and you can have a near perfect mobile antenna.
If interested I can explain making a shunt coil for a 1/4 wave antenna.
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True. But with out the matching coil and the inherent loses, in your mobile 80 meters would not be possible. The trade off here is you can use it in your mobile. Then there is always the balun or the un/un transformers. I have a "QSO King 80 through 6 meters" and only the auto tuner in the radio is used. I routinely have the power turned down on my Icom IC-746 and make contacts with ease. I have a Yaesu FT-2100 that I have never used. Don't see the need for it.
I recently purchased a Sirio 5000 performer, and like M0GVZ said, I purchased a Breedlove puck mount and drilled a hole right into my truck's sheetmetal roof skin and hard mounted it.
So how well does it work? Well, I havent gotten much air time with it, but I did talk to someone 5 miles away today, briefly. I wasn't able to get a signal report because I was driving and by the time I was parked and could watch the meter, he was gone.
Some say it works better than a Wilson 1000/5000 and I can see why. The whip on the Sirio is longer than the Wilson's. This means most likely there is less windings in the base coil. And the taller you can get and the less turns of coil = the more TX/RX it'll see.
About the only thing better might be a 108 whip, followed closely by a 102 whip.
Sadly with the DX cycle I'm thinking I just dont have enough power to make many contacts, as I am feeding a 4 watt carrier/10 watt modulation into a 4 pill amp with 2SC2879's inside. It needs a driver and I don't have one.
Also someone said this antenna works down to 12 meters....not so. I have checked mine and at best it has a flat SWR at 26.500 MHz, and at 28 MHz it's at 2.0:1. When I checked on 12 I think it was closer to 3.0:1....of course you could use an antenna tuner to make up for the last little bit, but not out of the box is it going to work.
So how well does it work? Well, I havent gotten much air time with it, but I did talk to someone 5 miles away today, briefly. I wasn't able to get a signal report because I was driving and by the time I was parked and could watch the meter, he was gone.
Some say it works better than a Wilson 1000/5000 and I can see why. The whip on the Sirio is longer than the Wilson's. This means most likely there is less windings in the base coil. And the taller you can get and the less turns of coil = the more TX/RX it'll see.
About the only thing better might be a 108 whip, followed closely by a 102 whip.
Sadly with the DX cycle I'm thinking I just dont have enough power to make many contacts, as I am feeding a 4 watt carrier/10 watt modulation into a 4 pill amp with 2SC2879's inside. It needs a driver and I don't have one.
Also someone said this antenna works down to 12 meters....not so. I have checked mine and at best it has a flat SWR at 26.500 MHz, and at 28 MHz it's at 2.0:1. When I checked on 12 I think it was closer to 3.0:1....of course you could use an antenna tuner to make up for the last little bit, but not out of the box is it going to work.