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A Sirio antenna is born. (not real, just a joke)

nav2010

Active Member
Sep 5, 2010
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Minutes taken from the Sirio December 2007 meeting:-
(names have been ****'d out to protect the identities of those who chaired the meeting.
Director ******- We are here today to discuss a possible new antenna design in the Sirio range of 10 and 11 metre designs. However, the rising cost of aluminium in the recent recession has led us to the conclusion that we are no longer able to make a thousand percent profit on every antenna that comes out of this factory so we are looking at alternative materials. Here to explain more about it is chairmain ******
[applause]
Chairman ******- Good morning ladies and gentleman, today I will be discussing using cheaper alternative materials for the design and construction of our new range of antennae. Firstly, with times being hard and materials being more expensive these days we have decided to abandon using aluminium because we can no longer make our usual huge profit margins. We have decided to use Flexi glass and have ordered 4000 metres of various flexi glass sizes from a flag pole manufacturer that recently went bust. We got it at a bargain price from Ebay.
I was in a meeting last week with **** ****** in storage hanger 7 and he informed me that in 1994 we purchased 1000 meters of Teflon coated coax for a project which never got off the ground. We are going to use this for our tuning section and capacitor.
Interuption from ***** ***** (sales department)
But won't people notice us using sub standard and spare parts in our antennae?
Chairman ****** answers the question:-
No, we got away with it 3 years ago when we built the Top one out of scrap Vector 4000 parts, anyway on with the meeting. Also when I was in hanger 7 I noticed some old coax that had been stood next to the central heating boiler and had become very stiff and lost its flexibility. After talking with the design team it has been decided to include this into the design as a coil which is also in the tuning/matching arrangement.
OK, the mounting section I will leave to Director ****** to explain.
[more applause]
Director ****** - Thankyou chairman ****** for your contribution to the meeting. The mounting section and the former which we are going to wind our choke around at first posed a problem to us. We sent six teams to route in skips (dumpers) around the country to find something. Finally after weeks of searching we found a former to wind the choke around. Dyson hoovers had a machine malfunction in their plastic injection system and as a result 5000 units which they use to wind their power cable around on their latest model were ruined. In an act of good will Dyson offered us the units at a budget price. After a quick job with an hacksaw and a craft knife these met our needs perfectly.
The last remaining items on our list were the driven element and the mounting plate. The driven element, we decided to use any bog standard coax because no one can see it and the mounting plate was adapted from a Yagi 5 element beam that went totally wrong in 1972.
[massive round of applause]
Now here to explain how we chose the name for the new antennae is Pedro ****** from the sales team.
pedro ******- At first we were going to call it the 'I've been ripped off by Sirio again' but we realised people wouldn't go for that and we needed a name to really BS people with. Here were our top 5:-
1.K-mart toilet brush look alike
2.Gainmaster
3.Sub standard parts list
4.Imax copy but with the cheapest tuning section in antenna history.
5.Just another Sirio rip off

We decided on the GAINMASTER.
End of meeting.......
 
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^^ ab v c^^^^ ab v c^^^^ ab v c^^
pretty funny , but i bet the minutes taken from the merlin meeting were funnier (y)


BTW have you tried a gainmaster yourself ?
 
^^ ab v c^^^^ ab v c^^^^ ab v c^^
pretty funny , but i bet the minutes taken from the merlin meeting were funnier (y)


BTW have you tried a gainmaster yourself ?
Not many have tried them around these parts but we've heard good things about them performance wise. I'm not a fan of the direction Sirio have taken to be honest Booty, the Gainmaster reminds me of a cheap and tacky 1970's car dashboard when little care was taken about quality and presentation. But thats just my very humble opinion.
 
Not many have tried them around these parts but we've heard good things about them performance wise. I'm not a fan of the direction Sirio have taken to be honest Booty, the Gainmaster reminds me of a cheap and tacky 1970's car dashboard when little care was taken about quality and presentation. But thats just my very humble opinion.

I don't have but three Sirio made antennas, and they all work just as indicated. Nav2010 is no doubt talking out of inexperience, but opinions are welcome too...even if they're wrong.
 
I don't have but three Sirio made antennas, and they all work just as indicated. Nav2010 is no doubt talking out of inexperience, but opinions are welcome too...even if they're wrong.
Eddie, do you live in an area where antenna's get battered by high winds and adverse weather conditions?
Do you think I havn't had Sirio antenna's?
The Vector 4000 snaps off at the base when any high winds hit it, the 827 goes open circuit at the tuning coil after a couple of year, the 5/8th wave will bend like a banana in winds above 60mph. So what in this new Sirio design is going to be any different from the usual crap they sell us?
At the end of the day, the Gainmaster is nothing more than a jumped up fishing rod with coax running up it and they want £120 + shipping. Although it probably works well, there is something in my old fashioned mind telling me something isn't quite right here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URXE67qMMZg
 
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Further to this conversation I might add:- may I make a recommendation for Gainmaster owners?
Mount the antenna at a 45 degree angle, glue a fishing reel handle on the exposed coil then sit a garden gnome at the end of it.
 
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Not like I understand you guys get Nav, and that is something for you guys to consider. I do live near the Gulf of Mexico, so when we get a hurricane...I just take my stuff down.
 
I shared your sense of doubt and suspicion.
I remember when I first read a post about the new fiberglass Sirio antenna and clicked on the link provided only to see what appeared to be another Imax, then my eye caught the "dipole" reference and I immediately closed the webpage with a "Yecch!" having jumped to the wrong conclusion that they were simply resurrecting the mediocre performing Big Stick design with the simple addition of a choke.
Later I read another post about it being a center fed 5/8 and had to more carefully re-read and re-think it.
Then I bought mine and I was seriously impressed with how well it performs as it not only keeps up with the metal 5/8 but outperforms it as claimed and does so even without radials, for a cleaner looking installation.
Not only that but having had an Imax I can also add that it only flexes about 1/3-1/2 as much and weathered the 70mph wind we had a week ago like a champ.
The swr never wavered and it works as well on 10 and 12 meters as it does on 11.
It's the quintessential vertical omni which will handle full legal power with a simple $15 modification.
I think Sirio should begin to offer it with the 1500w capacitor mod even if they have to raise the price $15, but I would rather they lower the price and still net a decent percentage of profit to offset the cost of their million dollar test facility and continuing research into genuinely new and improved performance antenna designs.
After all, the Gainmaster is the first actually new antenna idea to come along in the last 30 years since the Imax came on the market, and the Imax doesn't keep up with the metal 5/8, especially when it comes to static dissipation.
I give the Gainmaster two thumbs-up.
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I think the SGM is a fine antenna. But I think it is already over-priced. They should INCLUDE the hi-power mod and sell it for ~$25 less so they can just compete. It is not as though it cost them too much to build it. But for what it is, it has some decent engineering to it - IMO.

Having said that, I have enjoyed my 4 element Sirio beam immensely. Having literally talked around the world with it several times over in less than just two months time. Worked on both 10m AND 11m with a tuner. Built a bit thin? Yes. But it worked far beyond my fondest expectations too . . .
 

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