Review: Battle of the Base Load Mobile CB Antennas

[Marconi]

heres an old thread about the z-180 .

http://www.worldwidedx.com/cb-antennas/27506-z-180-anyone-else-have-one.html

BM, here is an old Avanti HiPower mobile antenna with a 2 piece stinger that is at least 6 feet tall overall and it looks similar to other Sirio styled mobiles and the Z180. I would bet a $ollar that MC still doesn't have a clue whether this is a 5/8 wave or not regardless of all of his petty claims to find out.



I would bet another $ollar that the Z180 was just a 1/4 wave like most of the other mobile antennas for CB.

I have no recollection for how this antenna worked back in the old days. I do recall that it was only intended to be used as a direct mount, through the roof. This one will not mount on a Wilson mag mount either.

I did nothing to improve the support for the antenna back then. I seem to recall the mount was very tiny and weak as the mount was poorly designed. It probably fell apart, or came loose from the thin metal on the roof, or I sold the truck and took it down.

I can't say the Z180 didn't work and work well, but I don't think they are around anymore and I think the Wilson still is. What does that suggest? Maybe that liberal return policy had somehing to do with its demise?

Somebody said to take large grains of salt with anything 808 claims on the "Cu" website---and I do. I think that is the best advice I read throughout the entire thread.

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

i was just posting the link for those that may be interested . i know about 808 and Cu

 

[jazzsinger]

Here is a picture of the Z-180.


The whip length is 6'2" to 6' 4".
The diameter of the whip is about 25% larger than the Wilson 1000/5000

That clears things up a bit,its an RM (italy) z180 not a sirio,although sirio could well be the maker unless as i suspect both companies buy in from the far east and brand them,deffo looks like a hp4000.midland also had a similar style of antenna too as i believe have other european based companies.

 

[bob85]

eddie,
i have a couple of those avanti 6ft hippo/moonrakers, it was my first mobile antenna when i was a kid with my first car,
the avanti uses the fattest stiffest and most difficult to bend or straighten whip of any factory made cb antenna i have come across,
at highway speeds the sirio whips flop around and lean back at 90 degrees where the avanti does not, my towel and drill trick that works so well straightening other brand whips does not work on the 6ft avanti, they are made from tougher stainless,

the sirio 5000 uses a slightly shorter but fatter stiffer whip than the 4000 series that rides better on the move providing more stable signals but they spoiled the coil splitting it into two halfs with a swivel between the two that falls over at speed if you don't position them with the swivel at 90 degrees to direction of travel,
in our tests the hp4000 has a small advantage over the 5000 when stationary, on the move the 5000 has the clear advantage,

they are all shortened 1/4waves with a dose of sales bs,


how did you remove the chromed spreader from the bottom of the avanti coil??

 

[triple nickle]

I am curious to know what the SWR's are on 30 channels below Ch.1 Some ol' freight haulers still run below ch.1 as for my Dodge Caravan that i use for work, I am getting ready to install a RCI-2970n2 not sure what mike to use yet. Rk-56 makes me sound to bassy, Astatic 636 to tinny. Anyways i am looking for the best all around antenna to stick up on the roof of my Dodge that has a wide bandwith. Any suggestions ??

 

[70cst]

Hey...this is good info.

 

[Robb]

I did want to add that I tested both antennas on a MFJ-259B antenna analyzer. The Sirio/RM antenna had a wider bandwidth than the Wilson did. The Wilson had a 2:1 VSWR of nearly 800-850khz wide - while the Sirio was slightly over 1 mhz wide. The reactance/'x value' of the Sirio was also sightly lower than the Wilson. I think the Sirio is just a better antenna - overall - IMO.

I run with the Sirio these days. It had a problem after smacking too many low, small branches. One day, it just went dead. I took it apart and found the problem. The solder joint at the top of the base load was broken from the coil due to these impacts. It disassembles quite easily and is easy to service. I re-soldered it with a low power solder gun - and then it was as fit as a fiddle once again. It is slightly over a foot taller than the installed height of the Wilson.

 

[Red Ranger]

I don't think you fairly gave the K40 the light of day. I think this review is biased against the K40. The Wilson company has nothing to do with Wilson anymore, it's under new management and the quality(re: cheapen) could be real, but to be fair I've never owned a Wilson, I use K40's and other brands.

I find the K40, K30, truckers serve the CB niche quite well, there is a lot of hype, so it's hard to weigh thru the B.S.

 

[Robb]

I don't think you fairly gave the K40 the light of day. I think this review is biased against the K40. The Wilson company has nothing to do with Wilson anymore, it's under new management and the quality(re: cheapen) could be real, but to be fair I've never owned a Wilson, I use K40's and other brands.

I find the K40, K30, truckers serve the CB niche quite well, there is a lot of hype, so it's hard to weigh thru the B.S.

This thread is an opinion based upon the Wilson and Sirio/RM antennas; not the K40 antenna.

However, there was a local radio operator ('Mike') that I had a recent discussion with - that dearly liked his K40 and was willing to compare it to a Wilson 1000. Another local radio operator ('Bill') lent him a Wilson 1000. Mike put the K40 and the Wilson 1000 antenna on opposite ends of the roof of his van, plugged them into an antenna switch, then went driving to various locations all over the Santa Clara Valley (aka 'Silicon Valley') and transmitted. Bill and I gave Mike S-unit reports as he changed the switch and transmitted from different locations. Only Mike knew which antenna was working when he switched them back and forth - so he alone was subject to his own evaluation. He alone was aware of the quality of the received signals at his end.

But I knew when he was transmitting on the Wilson 1000 and the K40. Either antenna were close in S-units while TXing - because he was relatively close to me. But when he was farther away; one antenna was getting better S-units from my end. My guess was that it was the Wilson 1000 that was hitting my meter harder. After the test, Mike admitted that he saw better results with the Wilson 1000 than with the k40.

Needless to say, that Mike was the final judge. He also went out and bought a Wilson 1000 for himself after the test. He admitted that the Wilson could hear better and transmit better than his K40 did.

The K40 isn't a bad antenna; but why settle for less of an antenna when using a stock radio in a mobile environment? If you must use an amp to get out better - the K40 will 'pop' the capacitor built into its base - if you exceed 250 watts with it. Personal experience - BTW. The capacitor is used in the K40 to broaden its usable bandwidth. You won't see Wilson using this method to make their base load get a wide bandwidth. The Wilson won't have a problem with a low-power linear amp either - no capacitor in its design to snap/fail.

I'm not saying that Wilson antennas are the best. But there is a hierarchy of base load/magnet mount antennas out there. Personally, I would put the Sirio/RM on the top of the list ('best RX/TX/bandwidth regardless of cost'), the Wilson in 2nd place ('best bang fer buck'), and K40 in 3rd place ('could have done better for the money spent on this antenna'). And again, this comes from personal experience. It is more than just opinion, because there were three of us involved in the double-blind test - that gave our evaluations in real-time - and all arrived at the same conclusions.

AS far as the 'economy class' base-loaded magnet mount antennas; the 'Little Will' Wilson antenna seems to be an easy winner over the K30. This is based on anecdotal evidence and experience working with some locals that had and used them. Seems the the Little Will had few problems tuning for SWR and performed nearly as well as the K40 did. The K30 that I worked with had a narrow bandwidth and could barely cover 40 channels w/o getting outside of proper SWR reading. Again - personal experience. Your mileage may vary.

I know one local operator that had gone through two Wilson 5000 antennas. Seems that some of them can allow for water leakage into the base coil. He finally realized that water was inside and drilled several holes to drain them out. Water damage/corrosion was so bad that they were beyond repair. So, something to watch our for with the Wilson antennas.
No antenna is perfect.

 

[Red Ranger]

Yes the K40 antenna is a base loaded type antenna and uses a special capacitor to guarantee that you'll be able to achieve a good SWR. That's why the capacitor is there. The K40 also incorporates a couple of features to reduce ambient static noise while receiving.

After I had installed the antenna several years ago I began tuning it, which is quite a simple process because the K40 allows the whip to retract into the coil up to 2.25 inches. This means that you should be able to tune your antenna without having to cut or trim the steel whip. All you would need to do is adjust the whip inside the coil for the best SWR. I was able to tune the antenna for a SWR of below 1.5 on all of the vehicles in testing.(I got three vehicles) While on some vehicles I was able to get a lower SWR than others, the mounting location and size of the trunk played a part in the variance. The antenna performed exactly as advertised on all of the vehicles.

The receive on the K40 is excellent and compared to other well known antennas such as Wilson 1000 it definitely holds its own. I found the static level was very low (which is partly due to the antenna design and partly because a trunk mount antenna is farther away from the engine and its electrical noise). In all of my vehicle setups I always try to mount for best performance, but keeping an antenna away from the engine area often helps reduce electrical interference and trunk mount antennas are a great way to go.

Transmit is also great with the K40. I was able to talk to multiple people in my area without difficulty and everyone said I sounded great and my signal strength was the same as when I use some of my other high end antennas. Unfortunately we haven't had any DX in my area for a while so I didn't get to shoot any skip with it, but I have no doubt I could have made some contacts on SSB.

BTW, K40 makes a specific point of telling you how well this antenna performs in their 30-day money back guarantee, something that impressed me.

"Your new K40 must transmit farther and receive more clearly than the antenna it replaces or simply return it within 30 days with proof of purchase for a complete product credit from the K40 dealer who installed it."

Now it's easy for an antenna manufacturer to say their antenna will outperform another and you'll hear those types of claims often enough, but it's really cool to see a company stand behind their statement by offering this type of guarantee. While I don't necessarily believe this base loaded antenna will outperform a 102" stainless steel whip antenna, I have no doubt that it will beat many of the other antennas on the market for RX and TX. Additionally, the materials and workmanship are guaranteed for five years from the date of purchase. I'm kind of old fashioned when it comes to standing by my word so I appreciate a company that believes in their product. K40 is also located in Pennsylvania so their antennas are made in the USA.

The last thing I'll mention in regards to performance is the rated power level of this antenna. The K40 is rated for 500 watts maximum and in my personal experience with antennas I find that it's best if you don't exceed input by half of the factory rating, I've never ran more than 250 watts pep!.

Because the K40 is designed with a special matching capacitor that allows it to achieve a good SWR in a variety of installs, it is better suited to those running barefoot or running smaller amounts of extra power. The K40 works great with just a tuned radio and I can attest to that as I actually ran this model K40 on one of my vehicles for five years with great results. When I sold the vehicle the guy actually liked my install so much he made me throw in the CB/Antenna as part of the deal.

To sum this article up - if something has been selling in the CB market for a number of years you better believe that it works. Products that didn't meet their claims or were inferior disappeared long ago, and with the introduction of the Internet CBer's now can spread their reviews and opinions with the click of a mouse. So there's a reason that radios like the Cobra 29 have been made and sold for 20 years and those same rules apply to the K40 antennas.

The K40 is a quality, well designed antenna, built in the USA and it does what the manufacturer claims it will do.

 

[Shockwave]

The latest version of the large base loaded antennas is the Sirio Hi-Power 4000 series. At over 6 1/2 feet tall it is the king of the commercially made base loaded mobile antennas. It will beat the K-40 and the Wilson. The base with the connector is machined from a solid piece of metal with an internal O ring for sealing. It mates with many UHF type mounts from magnetic to trunk lip. The loading coil is wound from 14 gauge wire and spaced on a nice even form. The antennas are available through H&Y Electronics.

 

[jazzsinger]

The latest version of the large base loaded antennas is the Sirio Hi-Power 4000 series. At over 6 1/2 feet tall it is the king of the commercially made base loaded mobile antennas. It will beat the K-40 and the Wilson. The base with the connector is machined from a solid piece of metal with an internal O ring for sealing. It mates with many UHF type mounts from magnetic to trunk lip. The loading coil is wound from 14 gauge wire and spaced on a nice even form. The antennas are available through H&Y Electronics.

Not sure about your side of the pond Donald, but over here in europe we've had the hi power 4000 for at least 10 years, it was then followed by the megawatt 4000 which to all intents and purposes is very similar performance wise, in the last couple of years the latest sirio base load was the performer 5000, which although i haven't used yet i believe again is very similar in performance too the other two but i'm led to believe it has a stiffer whip from my learned friend Bob 85.

bottom line is all of these sirio antennas are superb performers and will outperform wilsons,k40's and probably every other base loaded 1/4 waves on the market.They excel at mobile dx'ing, i personally have worked all over europe,s.africa,most of s.america, the carribean, soviet union and even australia (on 18 watts barefoot from a president jackson) all from the highpower or megawatt 4000 antennas. The only mobile base load i can remember that compares with them is the avanti av 261, but sadly i never got the chance to compare them against each other.

The only antenna outwith the high power specialist antennas built in the states i would consider over them is the humble 1/4 wave whip, but its not ideal when mobile, simply because it is the best performer of all mobile antennas, but when it comes to loaded antennas few will touch the sirio range.


if you talk to a mobile station in europe via skywave its highly probably they will be using either a hi power or megawatt 4000.

 

[DIRTYWHITEBOY]

Yes the K40 antenna is a base loaded type antenna and uses a special capacitor to guarantee that you'll be able to achieve a good SWR. That's why the capacitor is there. The K40 also incorporates a couple of features to reduce ambient static noise while receiving.

After I had installed the antenna several years ago I began tuning it, which is quite a simple process because the K40 allows the whip to retract into the coil up to 2.25 inches. This means that you should be able to tune your antenna without having to cut or trim the steel whip. All you would need to do is adjust the whip inside the coil for the best SWR. I was able to tune the antenna for a SWR of below 1.5 on all of the vehicles in testing.(I got three vehicles) While on some vehicles I was able to get a lower SWR than others, the mounting location and size of the trunk played a part in the variance. The antenna performed exactly as advertised on all of the vehicles.

The receive on the K40 is excellent and compared to other well known antennas such as Wilson 1000 it definitely holds its own. I found the static level was very low (which is partly due to the antenna design and partly because a trunk mount antenna is farther away from the engine and its electrical noise). In all of my vehicle setups I always try to mount for best performance, but keeping an antenna away from the engine area often helps reduce electrical interference and trunk mount antennas are a great way to go.

Transmit is also great with the K40. I was able to talk to multiple people in my area without difficulty and everyone said I sounded great and my signal strength was the same as when I use some of my other high end antennas. Unfortunately we haven't had any DX in my area for a while so I didn't get to shoot any skip with it, but I have no doubt I could have made some contacts on SSB.

BTW, K40 makes a specific point of telling you how well this antenna performs in their 30-day money back guarantee, something that impressed me.



Now it's easy for an antenna manufacturer to say their antenna will outperform another and you'll hear those types of claims often enough, but it's really cool to see a company stand behind their statement by offering this type of guarantee. While I don't necessarily believe this base loaded antenna will outperform a 102" stainless steel whip antenna, I have no doubt that it will beat many of the other antennas on the market for RX and TX. Additionally, the materials and workmanship are guaranteed for five years from the date of purchase. I'm kind of old fashioned when it comes to standing by my word so I appreciate a company that believes in their product. K40 is also located in Pennsylvania so their antennas are made in the USA.

The last thing I'll mention in regards to performance is the rated power level of this antenna. The K40 is rated for 500 watts maximum and in my personal experience with antennas I find that it's best if you don't exceed input by half of the factory rating, I've never ran more than 250 watts pep!.

Because the K40 is designed with a special matching capacitor that allows it to achieve a good SWR in a variety of installs, it is better suited to those running barefoot or running smaller amounts of extra power. The K40 works great with just a tuned radio and I can attest to that as I actually ran this model K40 on one of my vehicles for five years with great results. When I sold the vehicle the guy actually liked my install so much he made me throw in the CB/Antenna as part of the deal.

To sum this article up - if something has been selling in the CB market for a number of years you better believe that it works. Products that didn't meet their claims or were inferior disappeared long ago, and with the introduction of the Internet CBer's now can spread their reviews and opinions with the click of a mouse. So there's a reason that radios like the Cobra 29 have been made and sold for 20 years and those same rules apply to the K40 antennas.

The K40 is a quality, well designed antenna, built in the USA and it does what the manufacturer claims it will do.

your post is nothing more than spam

 

[psycho]

RedRanger you have got to be kidding. K40s SUCK! The "coupling" capacitor you speak so highly of is just a CHEAP ASS way of connecting/matching the coax to the coil. They may rate it at 500 watts but if you run 100 watts it could open up at any time......why take that chance?
Wilson base loads don't have that capacitor and K40 is still in the dark ages.

 

[Red Ranger]

RedRanger you have got to be kidding. K40s SUCK! The "coupling" capacitor you speak so highly of is just a CHEAP ASS way of connecting/matching the coax to the coil. They may rate it at 500 watts but if you run 100 watts it could open up at any time......why take that chance?
Wilson base loads don't have that capacitor and K40 is still in the dark ages.

How many K40's I have that have "opened up" the tuning capacitor at any time? NONE, and I do run a little heat and own several K40's.

So your protestations of capacitors failing at random is nonsense!

Yes K40's are a little antiquated, they just work as long as you don't overdrive them.