Chance to pick up an old master mobile 80-10 antenna

[mr_fx]

any one have pics? is $50 a good deal? was this antenna any good? It is in good shape and the owner has some old black and white pics of it on his Austin Healey... but its hard to make out what it really looks like in the pic

 

[mr_fx]

it's a mastermobile all bander 80-10 coil, total height is about the same as a 102 whip...

problem is it will not tune on 20m... it can tune around 13.2mhz, or 14.6 mhz... the tap seems to run up and down the coil... BUT it's like I need to be on the other side of the coil...

 

[W5LZ]

I think you are right, if the contact could be moved to the 'other side' of the coil it would probably tune just fine. As it is, it should get you 'close enough' for your radio to handle the mismatch. If not, then there are a couple of 'tricks' that can work for you. One of them if to use a short clamp-on wire attached to the whip above the coil. That wire/rod sticks out horizontally. It doesn't have to be very long at all, just a few inches, 4, maybe 6 inches long. It acts as a small top-hat, and could add enough "length" to the whip to find a usable tap point on your antenna. Of course, adding that wire/rod will change the tap-points for other bands, that's why it's removable.
I haven't owned an antenna like yours, but have used the same sort of thingy on another such antenna, it works.
Have fun.
- 'Doc

 

[mr_fx]

I think the whip has been shortened... it feels a little jagged at the end

 

[mr_fx]

well I took my old 102 whip and shortened it to 62" the OEM whip is about 52"

however this only moved it down about .250 in frequency on 20m, surprised the hell out of me nice healthy match around 14.450, really high match on 14.240

I the coils match is weird in the 12-16Mhz area... hard to tell if you are on res or if the antenna is res in a lower freq and you are just on a weird harmonic or something...

someone was kind enough to leave the analyzer running/// thank you toddler so the batteries are dead as a door nail...

(not sire WHY I cut that 102 whip down... oh well it WILL become a BA 6m antenna, all I need now is an NMO to 3/8 24)

 

[mr_fx]

Well the coil was just too old. The glue inbetween coils just fell apart...

 

[W5LZ]

Sorry to hear that. You could always re-make the thing. (Easy to say when it's someone else doing that 're-making', huh?)
- 'Doc

 

[mr_fx]

Sorry to hear that. You could always re-make the thing. (Easy to say when it's someone else doing that 're-making', huh?)
- 'Doc

that's the plan... MFJ happens to sell a coil for about $25 that will drop right in BUT it's a little short... however if I run a top hat it really won't matter will it...

Alan and I talked at length about it... he actually recommended that coil for the price to simplicity ratio... OR solder to of them together

Alan had also mentioned that if I ran that coil and a 102 whip it SHOULD tune 20 just fine... but he then mentioned that at BEST an 80m mobile would get around 5% eff... if EVERYTHING is perfect, more like 1-3% otherwise