Good reception poor transmit

[Duckodb]

An antenna should perform the same on RX as it does on TX. Look up "antenna reciprocity".The take off angle is the same for RX as it is for TX. Those three radials on the bottom should NOT make a difference on RX versus TX.

I wondered about that and the thing about the 1/4 wave, I’ve got a 102” whip I stick on my truck in the yard sometimes and it always talks and receives a little better than what’s on it normally and I’ve always thought it was a 1/4 wave. So I raised this base antenna up another 4 feet still have the steel mast clamped to it so it’s around about 27 feet to the base of it where the coax screws on. I drove north for 11 miles and was talking to the wife with her on the 99N1 in the living room and she said I sounded like I was a mile away the whole time and she was loud and clear on my end. The swr actually dropped .1 on both ends after I raised it too but it was always below 1.5 so I guess that would t be noticeable. I’ve got a 99N4 in my personal truck with a Wilson 2000 on a triple mag mount in the center of the roof that performs really well. I’m working south of here so I’ll test it out that direction from my work truck in the morning, it’s got a 99N2 in it with the same mount on the roof but with a Hustler hq27 on it and it’s always done really good too. I haven’t checked it going north of the house till today so hopefully raising it did the trick and I don’t find out in the morning it’s directional.

 

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Antenna should be insulated from mast. We don't want it to be a part of antenna system, so the coax. That's why we use choke baluns under antenna feed point.
Mike

@ sp5it ...... I do agree with you about the choke balun.

On the Sirio site in the "Product Manual" (a PDF) it states that the mast should be grounded, not the antenna (the transmitting part).

STARDUSTER M-400

1/4 λ ground plane, Omnidirectional, 26.5 ... 30 MHz Tunable, Systems: 10m-HAM

www.sirioantenne.it

 

[Duckodb]

@ sp5it ...... I do agree with you about the choke balun.

On the Sirio site in the "Product Manual" (a PDF) it states that the mast should be grounded, not the antenna (the transmitting part).

STARDUSTER M-400

1/4 λ ground plane, Omnidirectional, 26.5 ... 30 MHz Tunable, Systems: 10m-HAM

www.sirioantenne.it

Since I raised it I’m probably gonna end up moving it to the end of the house so I can get a strap across it at the highest point possible at the peak of the roof. Right now it’s middle of the back of the house so the straps are down low at the bottom of the roof and I can tell if a big wind comes it’s gonna end up bending the mast and falling over. So all I have to do is use an electrical conduit pipe to stick in the base and then clamp that to the metal mast? I don’t even know what a choke balun is.

 

[Foxhound]

Well what’s a good 5/8 wave 11 meter antenna to get? I saw a Sirio GPE 27 that says it’s 5/8 and it’s only about $95. Anybody have any experience with those? If it would get out about 20 miles just for local talking is all I really care about.

Honestly, your best bet would be to spend a little more money and get a good 5/8 wave American made antenna. Imax2000, or now it's called Max2000 would be a great base station antenna. Connect your antenna to your radio with some American made RG-213, or LMR400 coax. The antenna comes tuned for CB channels, and has tuning rings if you wish to deviate from the CB band slightly.

• 24′ Tall ( Three 8′ Sections )
• Insulated up to 14,500 Volts
• Rated up to 5000 watts of power

 

[Foxhound]

Here is some excellent quality USA coax cable.

MPD Digital I MPD-400 I Coax Cable with PL259 UHF Male Connectors (30-125 FT) | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for MPD Digital I MPD-400 I Coax Cable with PL259 UHF Male Connectors (30-125 FT) at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[AudioShockwav]

Actually they no longer come tuned for the CB channels, they have been shortened and work best on 10 meters.
It is no longer a 24' antenna, there are several threads here on the forum about the changes to the Max 2000.
For a extra $50 or so they will sell you the chunk they cut out to get it to tune properly on CB.

73
Jeff

 

[Foxhound]

Now that you mention that though, I guess it has been several years since I purchased mine. When I bought mine I remember now being told it was new old stock. Time has gotten away from me there. You are right, they did do that. I completely forgot about that. My mistake. Sorry.

 

[AudioShockwav]

Now that you mention that though, I guess it has been several years since I purchased mine. When I bought mine I remember now being told it was new old stock. Time has gotten away from me there. You are right, they did do that. I completely forgot about that. My mistake. Sorry.

No worries, and it is a shame that road pro did this.

73
Jeff

 

[Duckodb]

Now that you mention that though, I guess it has been several years since I purchased mine. When I bought mine I remember now being told it was new old stock. Time has gotten away from me there. You are right, they did do that. I completely forgot about that. My mistake.

I went ahead and bought a Solarcon imax2000 . It says 24’, it comes with the 12” piece to get it back where it needs to be for 11 meters. Height was apparently my main issue we were talking this morning as I was coming to work headed south and it was the same as when I went north last night. I’m gonna have to move it to the end of the house with it up so high so I can get a strap on it at the highest point possible or it’s gonna blow over so while it’s down I figured I’d switch to the imax 2000.

 

[Riverman]

Its poor on transmit because it is a 1/4 wave antenna. Today's standards call for at least a 5/8 wave for optimum TX take off angle. Your antenna basically transmits sideways. Sure it RX's well because of those 3 radials at the bottom.

I don’t know. I’ve had awful good luck with 1/4 wave antennas using only one radial.
This one began as a 10 meter antenna before being converted to 11 meters later in the thread. As far as local contacts go, it performed better than an Antron 99 @ 15’. (Post #23)

https://www.worldwidedx.com/threads/homebrew-1-4-wave-10-meter-ground-plane.263332/

 

[midnight special]

It’s actually 2 18’ Wilson mini 8s so 36ft
and they’re both a week old same as the antenna and mast. Best I can figure it’s about 32-33’ to the tip top of the antenna. Strange that the same radio in my truck with a Hustler hq27 55” antenna sitting in my driveway would talk at least 16 miles which is the furthest we talked but would’ve easily gone another mile or two. I thought you get a base antenna put it together tune it to a low swr and mount it as high as you could and you’d be talking further. I turned in our shop at work this morning which is 5.1 miles away and I could barely hear my wife talking on the one in the living room and she said i sounded like i was in our driveway.

2 18 ft pieces of 8x? change that coax to a 213 or 8 something bigger an better without a splice,,,

 

[Duckodb]

Well the imax 2000 is up ended up with a 1.4 swr all the way from channel 1 to 40 on 11 meters with that little 12” optimizer in there. I can already tell the reception is quieter , bad part about that is I can hear that idiot on channel 19 too clear now lol. I’m about to take a ride and see how it does talking to my truck.

 

[Duckodb]

I sledge hammered down an 8ft copper ground rod and ran a copper wire to the antenna mast. The steel mast itself is also drove into the ground a foot or so , then right before the coax goes into the house I’ve got a lightning surge protector with a copper wire going to another copper ground rod. That’s what it looks like the manual shows does that sound right or should I have done something different?