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I stay away from fiberglass antennas for one reason: years ago, I had a fiberglass antenna on a mobile cb, and the very thin metal whip in the fiberglass broke INSIDE THE FIBERGLASS, but the fiberglass itself remained intact. So the swr went off the scale without the antenna showing any outside damage. I don't know about the full 1/4 wave fiberglass antennas, but the smaller one that I had certainly had a little hair-thin whip in it. I'm not an expert, but I'm not going that route again.

The same thing could eventually happen to the 96'' whip as the copper core is softer than the fiberglass skin causing the copper to be stretched when bent in the wind and over time causing internal failure, good call on your part Steve H.
 
The same thing could eventually happen to the 96'' whip as the copper core is softer than the fiberglass skin causing the copper to be stretched when bent in the wind and over time causing internal failure, good call on your part Steve H.

Unlikely, when I popped the cap off, the core is decently thick, about 14 AWG or so?

However, copper is soft and pliable with quite a bit of give to it. I doubt it'll ever be a problem. But if it is, whoop de do da, it was $15. I'll buy another. Heck, maybe I will go with the old venerable stainless whip this time around?

However, I will never buy a Predator 10k.

1/4 wave radiator > coil loaded crap when it comes to HF.

Those external coils look tacky as hell as well. Not only that, solid shaft antennas are TOO solid. I need an antenna with quite a bit of give to it. That cheap aluminum on the predator would fold in half quite easily, versus my fiberglass whip, which you could bend into a circle if you wanted too, and it STILL produces a consistent 1.1-1.5 VSWR. I use my truck for disaster preparedness / expedition stuff. I needed durability and performance.

Plus, I can tune it up on 12-17-20 bands too! I'm rather excited, I might be getting a deal on a Yaesu FT100D, so it looks like I'll have some more mobile operating in my near future.
 
Unlikely, when I popped the cap off, the core is decently thick, about 14 AWG or so?

Steve was talking about a cheaper antenna and I explained why it failed, yours' may be the exception.

However, copper is soft and pliable with quite a bit of give to it. I doubt it'll ever be a problem. But if it is, whoop de do da, it was $15. I'll buy another. Heck, maybe I will go with the old venerable stainless whip this time around?

The steel whip is your best bet and I'm sorry you had to lose the finals in your cb/hf rig to discover that.

However, I will never buy a Predator 10k.

1/4 wave radiator > coil loaded crap when it comes to HF.

This is primarily a cb/27 mhz antenna and there are antennas more suited for hf use but none of them that will have better performance than a tuned 1/4 wave mobile antenna and showing that you're mind is closed to Steve's question about a cb antenna leads one to think that you're a typical ham snob and you should not comment anymore on this subject.


Those external coils look tacky as hell as well. Not only that, solid shaft antennas are TOO solid. I need an antenna with quite a bit of give to it. That cheap aluminum on the predator would fold in half quite easily, versus my fiberglass whip, which you could bend into a circle if you wanted too, and it STILL produces a consistent 1.1-1.5 VSWR. I use my truck for disaster preparedness / expedition stuff. I needed durability and performance.

I have had my 27'' shaft predator 10-k at speeds in excess of 100 mph and the swr was still below 1.5:1 and the shaft did not give at all but not everyone drives through the trees to get to a disaster when there are people trained to do the same thing professionally with helicopters and those tasked should be left to those individuals.

Plus, I can tune it up on 12-17-20 bands too! I'm rather excited, I might be getting a deal on a Yaesu FT100D, so it looks like I'll have some more mobile operating in my near future.

Maybe you should just buy a screw drive style antenna and do away with an external tuner.
 

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