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Stryker 5K Magnetic Mount: what's your experience?

Rick330man

WDX 404
Mar 16, 2013
1,135
2,088
273
Florida Keys
These were supposedly made to compete with the Wilson 5000. They have been out a few years now. I picked one up a little over a year ago and have experimented with it quite a bit with very respectable results.

I had to snip a few a segments off of the stinger, but I was able to tune mine to a pretty much flat SWRs across 11 meters. Recently, I was able to communicate with the Stryker 5K to my son 48 miles away. He was on our barefoot Uniden PC122 hooked up as a base using a 1/2 wave Radio Shack "Crossbow" (a Shakespeare Big Stick sold by Radio Shack.) That's the longest local distance I've been able to talk with the Stryker.

Some folks love their Wilsons. Some folks love their Sirio's. Any Stryker likers out there? What are your experiences with this antenna.

Thanks.
 

The Stryker 5K is basically a Wilson 5000 mag mount with RG 58 coax. I always thought that RG58 coax is good up to 500 watts peak but I could be wrong.
 
Doesn't the Wilson 5000 have a silver plated coil? I heard that the antennas are made by Barjan and they are completely the same except for the name on the base.
 
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i ran 620w FM not pep on AM/SSB for 8 years on a trimag with rg58,
rg58 gets warm on long overs, it can handle the power providing vswr is very low,

since the mid 80's i ran 300w+ FM on single mag mounts with rg58,
never had any issues with arcing on single tri or quad mags even when i remove the sticky pads from the magnets and use thin rubber boots for better coupling & grip,


i don't know why some people have issues but it's not because a texas star 500 is too much for a magmount.
I can peddle faster than a ts500 without any breakdowns on magmounts with rg58,
my mate round the corner uses a ts500v flat out on FM with a single sirio or wilson 5000 on a sirio magmount.
 
I'll prefer to avoid any coil-loaded antenna when it's constructed with metal plates or covers, even aluminum, directly above &/or below the coil, as I believe it somewhat depletes the coil efficiency.

I've tested & seen this happen with a Hi-Q vs a DK-3 on 40m & 80m.

Even though Charlie swore to me the aluminum being non-ferrous has zero effect on the field generated by the coil, I have found it actually does in my performance testing.

Also, if aluminum has no effect on an RF coil field, then shouldn't it also have no effect when within a magnetic field?

I've dropped 2 voice coil formers down into the magnetic gap of a woofer motor structure, one was kapton one aluminum.

The kapton dropped like it should, quickly as if nothing was reacting on it to slow it's decent, however, the aluminum took 2-3 times longer even though the gap was extra wide for an 8-layer voice coil, so it was definitely not a damping effect from air trying to escape, the gap was plenty wide for air to escape.

Is an RF field generated by a coil any different than that generated by a magnet with relation to materials interaction?

Other than the RF field being AC and the magnetic field being DC, I don't believe either differs significantly with relation to materials interaction.

As always, I could be wrong, but I sold the Hi-Q and kept the Screwdriver.
 
When you move aluminum as opposed to none conductive kapton through a magnetic field eddy currents are generated in the aluminum which create their own magnetic field in opposition to the magnetic field of the magnet,
its how eddy current brakes work & the trick Boyd Bushman used dropping magnets down tubes and lift shafts or levitating coils above aluminum plate.
 
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When you move aluminum as opposed to none conductive kapton through a magnetic field eddy currents are generated in the aluminum which create their own magnetic field in opposition to the magnetic field of the magnet,
its how eddy current brakes work & the trick Boyd Bushman used dropping magnets down tubes and lift shafts or levitating coils above aluminum plate.
So then, may we conclude there would also be present in aluminum plates above &/or below an RF coil, similar eddy currents?
If so I might wonder if those eddy currents might not be out of phase and cause issues in the efficiency of the coil field...???
 

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