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5/8 antenna

918Oklahoma

918Oklahoma

KG5FLM
Dec 5, 2014
100
43
38
35
Bartlesville, OK
Hey guys. Finally worked up the courage to order my base antenna, tried to pick up a Sirio tornado from dnj radio but they were sold out and wont have tuem again for months.... Well, conditions could be gone by then, i dont have time to wait lol. Since i cant find it anywhere else for sale, i may change antennas.
What would be the best ground plane antenna i could put up instead that is omparable in price and simplicity as the tornado?
The antennas im considering: Maco V58, Sirio GPE27, Sirio 827. How would these compare to the tornado? Has to be broadbanded enough to cover 10 and 11 meters, even more frequency coverage would be a bonus.
i dont want to go the fiberglass route with an imax or antron, i want something with a lower noise floor. Feel free to make suggestions on other kinds of antennas.

Any advice or help would be appreciated.
 

If you can afford a bit more check out the 2016 as well 918, my local bud has one on the way, should be here next week around Tuesday. They are supposed to be good antennas. Haven't heard anything bad about the others you listed though, like stated the radials are a bit different, from the reviews it seems to work well. It should work on 10/11 meters.
 
.625, 5/8 wl antenna is a 5/8 wl antenna.

No performance difference that can be proven between any 5/8 wl antenna.

Sure manufactures claim all sort of snake oil performance factors. Some operators who paid big money for some expensive over engineered 5/8 wl antenna will claim 2 S units difference from their previous antenna.

The quality of the antenna, strength of the aluminum will be the price difference..

The weather in your QTH, snow, wind, ice should be determining factor on what type of 5/8 wl antenna you need.

Hard to find a 5/8 wl aluminum gp that will cover 2 mhz in band width. Most have a high Q matching network.

Also the amount of wattage you will be using.
Of course 4 watts legal limit on 11 meters does not require a 5 kw rating of antenna handling capability.:sneaky:
 
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wavrider said:
.625, 5/8 wl antenna is a 5/8 wl antenna.

No performance difference that can be proven between any 5/8 wl antenna.

Sure manufactures claim all sort of snake oil performance factors. Some operators who paid big money for some expensive over engineered 5/8 wl antenna will claim 2 S units difference from their previous antenna.

The quality of the antenna, strength of the aluminum will be the price difference..

The weather in your QTH, snow, wind, ice should be determining factor on what type of 5/8 wl antenna you need.

Hard to find a 5/8 wl aluminum gp that will cover 2 mhz in band width. Most have a high Q matching network.

Also the amount of wattage you will be using.
Of course 4 watts legal limit on 11 meters does not require a 5 kw rating of antenna handling capability.:sneaky:
Click to expand...

Very informative. Im just new to having a base station, so i dont know what to look for in these antennas. My location is NE oklahoma, snows a few times a year, can be very windy like 30-40mph gusts in late winter early spring, and some severe storms in spring as well. but other than that the weather is mild.

Basically im looking to upgrade from my dipole. A Ground wave antenna seemed like the next step so i have both a vertical and horizontal antenna. Currently i cant talk locally, which is another reason i was thinking a ground wave would be best.

Would there be a better choice than a 5/8 wave that i will be able to use to tune between 11 and 10m with an antenna tuner? I want something that will allow me to put my ham license to use on 10m, so im looking for room to grow.

As for power, i only run 50w, and i will likely never run more than 100 or 150w.
 
you could use a tuner to work 11 or 10 meters,

I am a big fan of the imax 2 k
it is not a great antenna but it does have a good vswr on 10 through 15 meters no tuner required

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1376

10 pages of amateur reviews

I use one on 10,11, 12, and 15 meters works ok, multi band and around $120 shipped to the door.
 
wavrider said:
you could use a tuner to work 11 or 10 meters,

I am a big fan of the imax 2 k
it is not a great antenna but it does have a good vswr on 10 through 15 meters no tuner required

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1376

10 pages of amateur reviews

I use one on 10,11, 12, and 15 meters works ok, multi band and around $120 shipped to the door.
Click to expand...
I do like how broadbanded the imax is... what i worry about with a fiberglass antenna is RFI and TVI interference people talk about with the fiberglass antennas. I live in town fairly close to my neighbors. I dont want to cause any interference that may annoy neighbors because eventually it will have an HF all mode transceiver hooked up to it which would be an increase in power. For the coax I plan to use something like 9913 or LMR400.
Between the Maco V58 and the Sirio 827 which do you think is more durable and suited for my QTH?

Any forum members have any experience with the 827 or V58?
 
I have used full legal limit on 10 and 15 meters on the I2K, simple rf choke AKA ugly balun at the feed point and no rfi tvi.

I have friends that used the maco V58 and it is not plug and play but once tuned it worked fine for them here in Florida, high winds but no snow.

I can not say about the sirio, if it is like their other products it is light weight and prone to wind damage
 
918Oklahoma said:
Hey guys. Finally worked up the courage to order my base antenna, tried to pick up a Sirio tornado from dnj radio but they were sold out and wont have tuem again for months.... Well, conditions could be gone by then, i dont have time to wait lol. Since i cant find it anywhere else for sale, i may change antennas.
What would be the best ground plane antenna i could put up instead that is omparable in price and simplicity as the tornado?
The antennas im considering: Maco V58, Sirio GPE27, Sirio 827. How would these compare to the tornado? Has to be broadbanded enough to cover 10 and 11 meters, even more frequency coverage would be a bonus.
i dont want to go the fiberglass route with an imax or antron, i want something with a lower noise floor. Feel free to make suggestions on other kinds of antennas.

Any advice or help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

A seller on amazon has one Tornado in stock with free shipping

Amazon product ASIN B001J4E15G
 
tecnicoloco said:
Also the 2016 is very good preformer

Amazon product ASIN B009GW3D3O
Click to expand...

Any idea why this 2016 one is so much more expensive than other 5/8 antennas like the Sirio GPE27 and the Maco V58? Seems like the aluminum may be a little heavier in the 2016, that's about the only difference I can find other than it has more shorter radials.... Will these antennas all perform pretty similar? I'd go with the 2016 but man that's a big jump in price, I'm trying to keep it under $200 for the antenna and coax.
I'm going to have the antenna mounted between 20-25ft to start.
Also curious how difficult it is to assemble the 2016 and get it tuned... If anyone out there reading has one, please chime in.


Going to take some time to think about this and not rush my decision, I want to get it right the first time... Really was deadset on the tornado, it seems perfect for what I want, and i love the look of it. Wish they weren't difficult to find. That one from amazon was from a UK seller, expected arrival was 33-45 days, DNJ radio said they'd have more tornadoes in about 2-3 months, but Id like to have it before February when propagation is supposed to really pick up.
 
Last edited:
The aluminum is heavier and the parts are more robust from what I can tell about the sirio 2016. Not sure about the tuning of the 2016, but my tornado was very easy to put together and the tuning was simple as well, they give you the kenght for the top section that is the only one that needs to be moved. They also provided a list of freqs with the lenght the tip needed to be at. Very simple to put together. I would imagine the 2016 would be Similar, I will know myself next week sometime when I help my local pal put his sirio 2016 up. Borrowed an MFJ269 to tune it with. I'll post results when I get it up for him, probably next week or weekend.
 
222DBFL said:
The aluminum is heavier and the parts are more robust from what I can tell about the sirio 2016. Not sure about the tuning of the 2016, but my tornado was very easy to put together and the tuning was simple as well, they give you the kenght for the top section that is the only one that needs to be moved. They also provided a list of freqs with the lenght the tip needed to be at. Very simple to put together. I would imagine the 2016 would be Similar, I will know myself next week sometime when I help my local pal put his sirio 2016 up. Borrowed an MFJ269 to tune it with. I'll post results when I get it up for him, probably next week or weekend.
Click to expand...

Thanks man, looking forward to hearing the report. I may go ahead with the 2016 if i can find out a little more about it, not a whole lot of info on performance and assembly online like for the tornado.
One thing about the 2016 that concerns me is just how much more robust it is than the tornado.... 11.5lbs compared to 3.5! Might be better for the high winds we get here during storms. My toprail mast may not work 222, may have to find something a little sturdier and I'll definitely need the guy wires.
Could I get away with using RG213 for the feed?
 

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