Hygain Penetrator is a highly touted 5/8 wave antenna. - Page 2 - Worldwide DX Amateur Radio Forums - Ham - CB - HF - VHF

Master Chief · #11 (**permalink**) 02-21-2006, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marconi

I'm afraid them boys out there in the desert are going to gang up on me and my little Starduster. All they have to do is not let me get some height equal to their height and the game is just even steven maybe.

Hey now, we are going to let everyone use the SAME set-up for their tests. The top of the tower will be 40'. That can't be helped! If your antenna is only 9' tall, than your tip will be at 49'. Taking a 5/8 wave antenna down to 27 feet so the tip will be at the same height as yours is not an even steven test.

As far as modeling the Penetrator, I wish! Dipoles, yagis, and simple antennas are not a problem. So, no help from me on this one!

bob85 · #12 (**permalink**) 02-21-2006, 03:25 PM

i had one of the stardusters with the loop and maybe it had small coils in the legs not sure,it was known as a starduster mk2 locally and an old friend is still using it after 20+ years, it worked ok especially with close stations out to a mile or so
but neither that nor the fullsize one worked as well as the 5/8 and up antennas, i would be confused and amazed if the starduster came even close to the avanti over longer distance say 50+ miles out, how do you determine when the m400 is mounted at the same height? do you go by the antenna base or the tips of radiators been the same, good luck marconi, i always like to see the underdog beat the bigboys it keeps them on their toes

Marconi · #13 (**permalink**) 02-21-2006, 07:41 PM

Well guys, I'm just trying to have a little fun with this challenge thing. I guess I was wrong, these old boys are just too serious about what is best and I guess we should just listen in. If I am there I will have my SD'r because I have confidence in what I can do with it.

Thanks for your support Bob.

CDX-007 · #14 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 11:37 AM

Hey what ever happened to the desert test? Was that the one no one was able to make?

And I know this is an old posting, but 1976 is even older and that's when I was a Sophomore trying to get the best performance I could from an antenna.
I was quite competitive back then, football, wrestling, bike racing, water polo, ...Cb radio.

I really wanted to feed my big 16 year old ego and have the king-sh!t station, so I bought and tested every ground plane antenna available, plus the Big Stick, Astroplane, Starduster and Magnum44(POS!) I decided I would keep the best performer and sell the rest.

For testing, I used several locals, one in Woodland, Ca who had a Moonraker and was about 30 miles away, and another in the mountains about 45 miles away above Nevada City, along with one other near Angel's Camp which was about 75 miles from me, all of whom I picked because, like me, they used Johnson Messenger 223 radios which have both an AGC circuit and a meter like a piece of test equipment, and the needle on that radio is like 2-hair-widths, bright dayglo orange and easy to read because of the bright white meter background.
I still own 7 of those rigs.

My test results showed the Sigma5/8 to be 1/2 needle width down from the Penetrator on TX, and 1/2 needle up on RX.

I attribute the slightly extra RX on the Sigma to the lack of top-hat radials, thus allowing it to be about 10" taller, providing slightly more vertical capture area. I believe the elevated radials provided the slightly higher TX on the P500.

- Talk about indecisive, for two months I couldn't make up my mind which I wanted to keep. Remember, I was a Sophomore in High School and 2 months back then was like two years is now to my 50 year old ass!

I ended up keeping the Penetrator (which I still have, cleaned and re-installed yesterday!) because I like the radial build quality better. It always seemed like they (Avanti) took the cheap way out with those little 3' pieces of solid rod at the end of the radials for birds to bend.
I also cracked the aluminum hub which holds the radials, even though I THOUGHT I was being careful not to over-tighten. (...Wrestling, football?)

I did, however, prefer (and almost keep) the Sigma radiator because it seemed like it was heavier and more stout than the lighter Penetrator radiator, but I couldn't successfully interchange them due to the different lengths & sizes, the Penetrator top hat piece not fitting, etc...

So, years ago I read (where it was I do not remember) that Hygain designed the elevated radials to split the current in order to attain a lower take-off angle of radiation, and add horizontal components. I believe this and have noticed better horizontal receive, on stations running horizontal, with the P500 than with any other 5/8 I've played with over the decades, except the Taylor Grandslammer GLR-4 ( I sure wish I would've kept that one, talk about rare!) which also had elevated radials.

OK, so, do I get the long post of the year award? Sorry about the 'book'!

73

bob85 · #15 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 04:20 PM

007 those boys in the desert dont do anything very quickly

do you have any pics of the taylor antenna?

CDX-007 · #16 (**permalink**) 10-26-2008, 02:48 AM

Hi Bob,

No pictures, but the Taylor GLR-4 was coil loaded at the bottom and fully made from 6061 T-6. It flexed a lot more than a P500 in the wind, but worked as well from what I remember. I seem to recall that I didn't like the radials because they drooped a bit, unlike the Penetrator radials, so I sold it and bought a Penetrator, the one I still have!

If I'm remembering correctly it looked just like the P500 and the R/S .64, but with somewhat drooping radials and a gray PVC cover over the coil below the radials, at the bottom of the radiator.

bob85 · #17 (**permalink**) 10-26-2008, 03:07 PM

hey 007, i am trying to find out about a 5/8wave i had years ago but never knew who made it,
it was pretty well made with 3 9ft radials that slotted into the upper insulator on the bracket, the insulator looked like white nylon, the lower part of the radiator was a grey tube covering a heavier than usual tapped wire coil, the radiator was fatter than my a/s magnum3 or skipmaster 5/8,
never seen one since or anything on the net,
im almost out of possibilities.

CDX-007 · #18 (**permalink**) 10-26-2008, 06:41 PM

Gosh Bob, I wish I could remember back that far back with a detailed enough memory to describe it in detail, but I was barely 16 and only had that antenna installed for a week or so then sold it, so I just don't recall those particulars.

Eddie (Wolf) had one, if you contact him he might recall if that was what you described.

73

Bomber · #19 (**permalink**) 11-07-2008, 05:33 PM

I have the penetrator 500 up here about 50 ft and I love it and it will take the wind and ice .

Gearhead · #20 (**permalink**) 11-10-2008, 06:35 AM

I replaced my old penetrator with an I-10k, and let a friend borrow my p-500, after his 3rd I-max 2000 broke. After using the penetrator, he said he'll never go back to fiberglass.
I think the p-500 was better than the I-10k in the recieve department, but barely noticable. One huge difference, is that when it rains, the SWR on the p-500 goes up, and my I-10k is not affected. I've had 1/4" of ice coating my antenna, and still had less than 1.5 SWR.