16 Element Ground Plane

[SmackDown]

Today I was talking dx to an operator in Gainesville Fla. named Dr. Pepper. He was telling me he was using a 16 element ground plane but due to a lot of cross talking and hash and trash I wasn't able to make out the name of the company that he was saying. It sounded like Central Technologies or something similar. Does anyone have any experience or know about these antennas ?

 

[Moleculo]

He's talking about the Spectrum 1600 by CTE. It has one driven element and a whole bunch of ground radials....probably 16, which is probably what he meant by "16 element groundplane". It was a cheaply built 5/8 wave antenna.

 

[Sonwatcher]

Here is the manual that tells more about it-
http://www.cbtricks.com/ant_manuals/cte/spectrum_1600.pdf

 

[ButtFuzz]

Would that be the extremely shortened element ground-plane?

 

[Sonwatcher]

Would that be the extremely shortened element ground-plane?

6.2 Meters = 20.3 Feet

 

[ButtFuzz]

6.2 Meters = 20.3 Feet

Hmm, sounds like some trickery going on. Returning to dipole mode...

I should have read the install/owner's manual first. It is MUCH larger than it looks in the scan you posted. It's man sized! Pretty cool.

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

the sirio 2016 looks to be a copy , or are the related to or the same as CTE ?
Sirio Antenne - Products

 

[W5LZ]

I really don't think I'd go by the drawings for scale, they don't appear to be very accurate in that regard. As for this being a 'groundplane' antenna, I really sort of doubt that too. Those very short radials would constitute what's typically called a 'line isolator', not a groundplane as usually thought of. If you removed them and substituted a choke, you'd end up with the same antenna and performance. (Cushcraft used to do that with their "R" series verticals, such as the 'R-7', for instance.)
Are they any good? Beats me, no idea. They should be as 'good' as any other 5/8 wave vertical, I'd think. Would I pay over 200 EU for one of them? Sorry, I just don't think so!
- 'Doc

 

[Moleculo]

The ground plane radials are much larger than that picture...a lot of antenna manufacturers shorten them in the pics for illustratrive purposes. I had a neighbor that had one of these antennas and the radials looked like they were about the right length. Of course, I was just looking at it from the ground trying to guess the length with the eyeball method.

If the radials really are the proper length, then having 16 of them is just a sales gimmick.