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Colossal 5k antenna ?....
- Thread starter Oatmeal
- Start date
10-4, yea I know what a few of you are saying about the I 10k, but like I mentioned before I sent Steve a email asking him a few questions about his I 10k, but he didnt reply back to me, so I went on looking at this Colossal 5k...
In which where I have my Imax 2000 right now, its back on the mountain here and yea Ive been back there in the winter months and its a cold place and I have seen the winds blow back there and the Imax was laid over so far I thought it was going to brake a time or two..
And yea, I know the Colossal 5k cost is up there, but guys I need something that will last and do a good job.....Ive heard it for years that the antenna system is the key to having a good station, and this is why Im trying to get it all lined out while I can..
I was just wanting to know if anyone was running one of these antennas and how they may have liked it...but it appears nobody is running one of them..
In which where I have my Imax 2000 right now, its back on the mountain here and yea Ive been back there in the winter months and its a cold place and I have seen the winds blow back there and the Imax was laid over so far I thought it was going to brake a time or two..
And yea, I know the Colossal 5k cost is up there, but guys I need something that will last and do a good job.....Ive heard it for years that the antenna system is the key to having a good station, and this is why Im trying to get it all lined out while I can..
I was just wanting to know if anyone was running one of these antennas and how they may have liked it...but it appears nobody is running one of them..
Just pay the price and get an I10k. It's the sturdiest 5/8 I've ever seen, and I've built just about every antenna made for 11m since 1965. I helped a friend assemble one and it is truly a piece of industrial engineering. It's the only 5/8 I'd trust on top of a 500' tower, if I had one. Just the hub for the match, radials and radiator outweighs an entire assembled Penetrator.
The only thing I'd do is lose the top hat and extend the radiator 10" for a 5/8 or 16 1/2" for a .64, that way it will have the best chance of survival in big bad Mr Wind.
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No hookedon6, that's not what I said. I said that .9 tenths of an Sunit is not enough difference that you can hear or not on your radio.
You obviously might see such a difference on a typical "S" meter, but it's not enough difference value, as a signal, to ever make or loose a contact.
A famous quote by Strother Martin: ""What we've got here is failure to communicate"
Hookedon6 is use to signals s9+20, or he don't respond. You should just ignore us Pilgrims, else your Buds might get wind of such.
View attachment Sunit averaging.pdf
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He also said, "Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men."
Yeah, that I-snap2000 should work for a while until it starts having the normal swr issues in the rain because water will be leaking through the cracks that develop from severe flexing over time like mine and others around here.
Or you could bite the bullet and get an industrial strength antenna which will also give you better performance than the I-snap2000 unless it's more of a DX than a local vertical antenna that you want, then you should get a horizontal beam and put something like an I10k or Penetrator up through the center, using the beam as the radial system.
And anyone coming in even .5 s-units more than someone else talks right over him. I'd say almost a full s-unit(.9) better is very significant and would make the difference in hearing someone weak or not hearing him. On some meters (like amateur radios) .9 s-units is almost 6db difference or almost four times the power.
It would be nice if a simple antenna upgrade would make me come in clear at 100 miles with just the 150w out of the 2995 instead of having to run a 600w Heathkit SB200 behind it just to be heard with about the same strength on the old .9 s-unit weaker antenna.:w00t: Especially if it compressed power like the Imax does as the coil heats up but not like the I10k or Penetrator that get all the power out.
Can you tell I was just reading Bighair's website?:blushing:
Or you could bite the bullet and get an industrial strength antenna which will also give you better performance than the I-snap2000 unless it's more of a DX than a local vertical antenna that you want, then you should get a horizontal beam and put something like an I10k or Penetrator up through the center, using the beam as the radial system.
And anyone coming in even .5 s-units more than someone else talks right over him. I'd say almost a full s-unit(.9) better is very significant and would make the difference in hearing someone weak or not hearing him. On some meters (like amateur radios) .9 s-units is almost 6db difference or almost four times the power.
It would be nice if a simple antenna upgrade would make me come in clear at 100 miles with just the 150w out of the 2995 instead of having to run a 600w Heathkit SB200 behind it just to be heard with about the same strength on the old .9 s-unit weaker antenna.:w00t: Especially if it compressed power like the Imax does as the coil heats up but not like the I10k or Penetrator that get all the power out.
Can you tell I was just reading Bighair's website?:blushing:
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i agree on the i-max bender.i went through the swr problem when the rainy season set in around september.they went up out of sight.when i took the antenna down spider's or something had made a nest in the drain hole and the thing was full of water.it would have took till spring for the water to evaporate out of it.i considered putting up another ground plane but i like to shoot the dx so i just went with a 4 element yagi beam on the flat side.if i was to ever go with another gp it would be a maco 5/8 probably.i think jay made the i10k perposely for people who live in rough weather areas such as high wind and ice.thats the only way i would pay that much for a gp, and if i lived in those conditions i would pay the price cause i love the hobby that much.as far as performance would go over the maco probably wouldn't be much of a noticable difference i would think,but then again i don't know because i have never dished out the $500 to see,and probably never will in less i move to alaska or some where.my idea would be if you want to see a noticeable difference in your signal and want to talk local and dx go with a maco comet 3 element beam and forget about the ground planes.just my 2 cents.
From my anecdotal experience I've seen the signal increase most of an s-unit when ops switched to the Imax from the Maco and about the same when switching to a 22' metal 5/8 like the I10k or Penetrator from a decent working Imax without radials, so I'd expect about 1.5 s-units improvement from the 19.5' maco to the 22' metal 5/8(not including the mounting base) but that's just me, your mileage may vary.
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