Z-180, anyone else have one?

[sixwheeler775]

Anyone else tried a Z-180 mobile 5/8 wave, base coil antenna in here? Comparing this antenna with the Wilson 5000, the Z-180 blows it away, both performance, and bandwidth wise.
After having the Monkey made's, & the 55's, &... This one is almost as good as any of the coil type antennas I have in my inventory. I now have a Leer cap on the truck, so I can't really run a big coil antenna anymore. So I had to go this route instead.
It might not handle as much power as the Wilson, or the popular big "coil type" antennas can handle, but.... Who needs alot of power, if you have a good antenna, & radio setup, right? Quack, quack!! goes this loud Mud duck!

After having the Z-180 on my truck, and trying a few different mobile radios in the mobile for over a year now, I'm impressed at the range this thing has, both TX, & RX.

Not a bad antenna for the price really. Most people I talk to think I'm on my base, but I'm not! 8)


OK, there's my little reviw of this great little antenna. 73's!

 

[Master Chief]

You would have a hard time convincing me it is better than A Wilson 1000.

 

[BIONIC_TEXAN88]

You would have a hard time convincing me it is better than A Wilson 1000.

Im with you on this one.

 

[sixwheeler775]

I hear what you mean, I was the same way, Wilson is still a good antenna, & I've owned all the different versions at one point or another, and I'm not bashing them at all. I just could'nt get as much band width out of my 1K, 2K, or 5K for some reason.

On the Z-180, I can go "anywhere" from 26.2XX.X - 29.7XX.X Mhz without the need of re-tuning, with an SWR of 1.5:1 or better on either end and around 1.2:1 or better in the middle(27-28.5 Mhz) in the middle.

I suppose this is due to it being a 5/8 wave? At least that's what I read on their site. And it's been working like they claim! Not bragging here, just curious if anyone else has tried one yet.

 

[Marconi]

How do you make a mobile antenna a 5/8 wavelength radiator?

 

[hotrod]

ive seen it.reminds me of the magnet mount radio shack used
to carry back in the early 90s when i first started.
id have to try it for myself to believe its better than the wilson
hows the recieve that what more important to me if i cant hear ya i wont be able to talk to ya.

 

[sixwheeler775]

How do you make a mobile antenna a 5/8 wavelength radiator?

Must have something to do with the coil? I dunnow, :? but that's what they claimed it was when I bought it. I know it's got great bandwidth, and hears, and talks like a base does. Every 3-4 months, I have to tighten the allen screw for the adjustable angle part down again, but other than that, no real complaints from me, or other friends, & folks that I talk to.

Kinda looks like one of the 'ol "big bubba" antennas does'nt it? Remember those? As I recall, President made something like these awhile back. I have'nt been on the President site for a few years, but I'll have to see if they're still selling them.

To answer the other question about the RX, let's just say I don't need a pre-amp anymore.

 

[sixwheeler775]

I almost forgot to mention that mine is roof mounted, with the supplied stainless steel roof mounting kit. OK, I'm not bragging but....My friends all have them on their vehicles now after hearing how good I sound on mine!

BTW, If anyone does decide to get one, I think they'll be pleasantly suprised at how great they work. Thanks for everyone's input so far!

I promise I'm absolutely not trying to sell anything here, & I don't want to start an "antenna wars" thread here either. I just want to get other folks opinions on them, and share my opinion about them in here, that's all.

 

[AudioShockwav]

I am sure it works just as good as a base loaded 5/8~ antenna should, looks very close to the President/Midland (EURO) version that was for sale for a while.
I would be interested to see what kind of power it would handle...
Wish I had the time/money/and test equpt to compare the antennas on the Market today.... 8)


73
Jeff
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Don`t take this as a stab at you six,It has nothing to do with your post.
I do find it funny that the Managment of the retailer that has the antenna for sale is Quoting CBTricks for Props.......after its brother company threatened to sue Benny( the owner of the CBTricks website) for allowing someone to post a disparging comment about them on his forum.

 

[bob85]

that looks like a sirio hypower4000/megawatt, yes they do outperform a wilson 1000/5000 base load on some but not all vehicles,
the sirio 6"magmount is better than the wilson magnet on my car with either the wilson 5000 or the sirio antennas,
downside is the sirio aint as well made as the wilson and both antennas use skinny floppy stingers that make your signal sway if you get your boot down,
the new sirio 5000 has a much better stinger but the swivel stinger holder sucks,
i would like to combine the good points of all 3 and make a decent antenna

 

[hotrod]

ive seen ya can get just the antenna and no mount or coax
so will this antenna mount onto a different mount .like say
a wilson 5000 magnet mount

 

[Master Chief]

How do you make a mobile antenna a 5/8 wavelength radiator?

You add wire and build a matching network.

 

[Marconi]

MC are you suggesting that this Z-180 has enough wire coiled up inside to make this antenna appear electrically to be about 22' long?

If so, how does all the loss associated with and inductor this long and a matching device included affect the performance in this 7' long element compared to a resonant 1/4 wave that may be only a foot or two longer for 11 meters?

BTW 775, where do you find that this Z-180 claims to be 5/8 anyway?

I can see maybe making such a sacrifice to performance with a mobile 80 or 40 meter rig, but I don't see it in 11 meters.

 

[bob85]

i have seen and modified that style of antenna, same length and design under several different brandnames with different style coil covers mainly sirios and midlands,
sirio used to claim 7/8 for the 4000 and 5/8 for the 3000,
i dont put much stock in their claims at all, they also used to claim the vector 4000 was a 7/8 which it is in physical length, now they claim its a 3/4wave, yeh right maybe if i cut the top 4-5 ft off it, along with most other cb antenna makers they used to publish crazy gain figures and they could not even get the order of which of their antennas had the highest gain correct, now they have it about right and in the right order,

there is nowhere near even a halfwave of conductor in the whole antenna on those mobile base loaded antennas, if you straighten the wire above the tapping point you would end up with about 1/4wave and maybe 6-7" below the tapping point,
physically they are more like a slightly shortened 1/4 with an inductor from the feedpoint to ground, they dont perform as well as a 1/4wave whip but they are less noisy especially if using a preamp,
how they originally came up with the 5/8 and 7/8 is beyond me,
maybe its something to do with voltage and current distribution and maybe its just more cb bullshit like the A99.

 

[Master Chief]

MC are you suggesting that this Z-180 has enough wire coiled up inside to make this antenna appear electrically to be about 22' long?

I make no claims about the Z-180. I only answered your question.