ANYONE HAVE FIRST HAND KNOWLAGE OF THOSE 3FT NO GRUND ANTENNA'S

[Stellasarat]

Tram, Browning, workman and other names printed on these 39" fiberglass antenna. Says 500 watt handling. I doubt it. Maybe 200 watts. Anyway my question is has anyone owned one or, have any exspeariance using one. I'm curious what type of performance a 3ft patio / indoor antenna like this one performs . The ad picture even shows it mounted to a mast.

 

[Beetle]

I'd compare the wavelength of the freq/band to the physical length of the antenna. 1/4λ at 11M is ~ 8-3/4 feet. Unless it's supposed to be a 1/2λ, which would be a bit less than 18 feet.

If the antenna is "linear loaded", it might come close over a very narrow span.

 

[W5LZ]

Do I have direct experience in using one? NO, but I do have experience in hearing them. I have to say that they aren't the best things in the world that I've ever heard. Not the absolute worst either, but that's just a matter of degree.
Power handling ability. That is so variable that it's almost funny. It depends entirely on how the thing is constructed and tuned. Most claims are just so much fertilizer. Back to that 'how it's tuned' thingy, there's a lot of variations in that. You can bet that the manufacturer did it's absolute best in every possible way to optimize their antenna's performance. It's very doubtful if the average user could even get close to that. Most people just don't have the knowledge and resources to get more than 'close'. But then, sometimes 'close' is good enough, you know?
There are a few things that apply to all bands/frequencies. With antennas, that 'thing' is that the closer you can get to a 1/4 wave length the better off you are... when you are talking about antennas shorter than a 1/4 wave length. There are definitely some longer than 1/4 wave length antennas that will out perform a 1/4 wave in most cases. That's absolutely normal.
Another thing that applies to all antennas is that a 1/4 wave length depends on exactly what frequency/band you are talking about. The lower you go in frequency the longer that 1/4 wave is. At some point, it just isn't too practical anymore for a lot of reasons. Is that a good reason not to use lower frequencies? Nope, just be aware that the 'lower you go' the more compromises you will have to make.
Have you gotten 'lost' yet? Oh well... happens to everybody.
- 'Doc

 

[jon666]

i do

i have 2 of the workman
and there not worth a damn. my mag mount mobile ant. gets out better in the house.
don't waste your money.

 

[psycho]

They don't tune in at all without grounding them to metal. They don't hear worth a damn either, just rig up a dipole.

 

[davegrantsr]

got a black one that says 'midland' on it. acquired it probably around 1985. had it on a 17' pro line center console, with a 200 evinrude.....& about 16 amps of charge. used a beat up superstar(?) 360 & 200 watt gray for probably 10 years-on salt water-and probably made 10-15% of the skip contacts i attempted. the whole shebang was only in the boat 'cause i was too lazy to take it out....you couldn't use it while moving, & while in the marina it both killed the batteries & at the same time wiped out everybody's portable AM/FM radios
so i put it on the house, on a mast, where it sat for probably another 10 years til some monster winter storm knocked it down. in the spring i threw it behind some bushes. it's still there.....if nothing else, its a durable sonofabitch

 

[TonyV225]

Ive got one that looks like a billy bclub and isnt worth the time it was to pull the cash out to buy it back when I purchased it in the mid 1990's Mines blue on the bottom and the billy Club top part is like a rubbery plastic shrink wrap and the rubber and cap coms off. Strange antenna to say the least and I could never ever get the SWR down low enough to use i. I came accrosss it lastyear and maunted it to a 20 foot piece of metal pip and set it up fot the hell of it and to my amazement it actually worked but just on the straight 40 11 meter band not very good RX or TX but I guesss for local its would be ok bt if its has to be outside and mounted to a mast there are better antennas that are shorter in lenth as this is that would be way more efficiant and work better. A dipole wire hung vertical works better I found when experimenting. I have one of the Workman Dipole antennas that works well and are cheap and Ive talked ship with mine and ran 1oo Watts through it without an issue. I beloieve its a Workman BS-1 there easily made at home but I bought this years ago when placing a big order and it was cheap so I got one to play with I still have it and dug it out last summer and messed with it. It is what it is but is center feed with supplied coax with PL-259 connectors and the antenna I believe isn 8 feet per side so easily strung along a ceiling or wall or hung vertical from tree or rain gutter.

 

[222DBFL]

There are some dipoles selling on eBay for like 10-15 dollars that are supposed to work okay. TonyV225 is right though a good dipole will talk locally and skip quite well and doesn't have to be superb high in the air to work, although height will help. I had my dipole at around 20-25 ft off the ground and was able to talk locally up to 50 miles on ssb and dx with it on 11 meters around the world. Very inexpensive way to get going. You can build one for cheap as well. All it takes is some wire, some type of insulator material and a so-239 connector. I made my 1st one from an old swr meter that wasn't working correctly. I used the so-239 connector and a plastic piece from a tool box. It worked well until the neighbors complained. Had to take it down. Now I am in the process of putting the materials together to put a good base antenna up. Gotta get permits from the city. Anyway like posted, ditch the little 39" stick and go with a better antenna system. God bless.

 

[Stellasarat]

JUST WHAT I THOUGHT

The inverted V I have work ok for local qsl and grate for skip. I was looking for alternatives to reconfigureing it from an invert. V to a vertical. Instead of taking it down I'm gonna purchase another one. I purchased it from n9hrp on eBay. At about $40 it's twice as much as the other dipoles Ive seen on eBay but, when reading the descriptions and checking out the ad pictures it was apparent to me the quality of n9hrp's was superior to the other's. Now I don't know if when coming to dipoles looks are important but what I do know is after hanging it as per the instructions of a few members of WWDX, it worked perfectly. Swr was 1:1 on channel 20. I decided to purchase that particular one after seeing the guy also made dipoles for 160-10 meters. Some were actually very expensive. Being my current set up is only 40 channels am and I don't have any future plan's for higher or lower than that I thought 40 something $'s was worth it. So I'm gonna leave the invert V and purchase another for vertical. I've never had two antennas but it makes a lot of sense. One for skip and the other for local. If anyone else owns one made by n9hrp, I'd like to know how you would rate yours. I know many of you know your dipoles. If you have a chance would you check his antennas out on eBay and just by looking tell me if in your opinion its worth much more than the other cb dipoles for sale on eBay. Thanks to all who replyed.