M400 STARDUSTER OWNERS: Poll & Info please.

[cominatyalive]

Hey all,

Now up until a short time ago, I wouldn't give two thoughts about
a Starduster CB Antenna. In the 70's I laughed and cursed when I saw one of them on someone's house. Well, I was only 13 or 14 years old, what did I know.

I knew they were only 1/4 wave & for years I wouldn't give you a dime for one.
Now, and just like the Astroplane, There are re-issues of these old antennas of yesteryear for sale again claiming 1/2 wave for both with the M400 Starduster coming in at around $48.00 and the Astroplane at about $136.00 or so.

What I would like to know is; how many of you out there have a M400 Starduster CB Re-issue antenna? How does it perform for you? Do you use it for 10 meters? Are you satisfied with it? How far have you talked on it? etc.....

I'm curious and might buy one of these for fun.

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

i haven't had a real or copycat star duster , but i did make a copy of one with 12 gauge speaker wire and pvc pipe last year and it talked local ok and i talked skip from Florida to Canada and as far west as Alaska . my 5/8 did much much better locally .

 

[cominatyalive]

Thanks Booty,

There's a lot to be said of your effort at least to go as far as to make something similar. And to get decent results too. That's exactly what I mean, You take a simple, lowly starduster, yet they can be attested to perform. I was also surprised to see that no-one but you has bothered to comment. That's ok, after all, it is a Friday & people are busy.

What amazes me is the fact that one can take the one antenna that no-one will buy these days and for $48.00 you can have a base system up & running. I bet they do have a good receive & perform fairly well locally.

Well, I was hoping to also hear different things from people. Maybe perhaps this subject is not that appealing? Well, we are certaintly not talking about a vertical v dipole here, but there's just something here with the M400 that is just down to earth simple. Simple in design, the lowest costing antenna ever, but yet performs well for what it is.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not trying to boost it's image here, but yet, I'm very intrigued into buying one. Just for Sh_ts.

Anyone have any different or interseting experiences with the Starduster?
C'mon all you big dogs, you guys had to have started somewhere.


????? Anyone?

 

[Shockwave]

To make a long story short, the Starduster is a simple, economical antenna that works. It has no gain like a 5/8 wave or Vector 4000 but still performs decent. For the few extra dollars the Workman 5/8 wave or Maco V58 will cost you, I'd go for one of them if space permits. Either of them will outperform the Starduster on TX, RX, local, and DX.

 

[jazzsinger]

As shockwave says,simple economical antenna that performs very well,especially for short hop propagation,as its slightly higher angle radiation than a 5/8 wave lends itself nicely to that type of propagation.were very common here in the uk for mainly inter uk qso and western european qso's.

One huge plus is it has no matching coils etc to burn open/go faulty/get saturated by water ingress,is approx 50 ohms by design so is easily fed by coaxial cable.its slim profile gives it a hardiness that belies its looks,although in seriously high winds damage can occur.wind loading is nowhere near what a hefty 5/8 would be.

Would i use one? definately,it is what it is,just don't expect miracle performance or A99 type gain

 

[Marconi]

Hey J, I have a very high regard for the original Starduster design. As long as I can get my antennas close to the same height at their current maximums the SD'r talks about as good as any other antenna I have, and it is remarkably quieter when conditions are quiet.

Sometimes I could even hear stations that my neighbors could not. Even if the SD'r did not make quite as strong a signal, with it up about 40' feet to the hub I never missed a contact that any of my local buddies was able to make, excepting maybe when they're using a beam.

Maybe you won't see quite the signal that a larger antenna will show, but I don't think it will ever be enough to stop you from making 98% of the contacts that you'll ever hear. So, for me when conditions are quiet, the SD'r just plain hears better, and nobody can argue that's not an advantage.

Click on my Album and check out my signal reports #8 thru #10 below: http://www.worldwidedx.com/members/marconi-albums-marconi-s-signal-reports-may-august-2009.html

Do you remember why you laughed, and cursed the SD'r when you were just 13?

 

[mackmobile43]

The 1/4 I built from wire worked fairly well even with the base of it only 10' or so off the ground, talked some skip with it and had decent reports.

 

[cominatyalive]

Thanks guys! a lot of good information here on the Starduster.
No coils to burn up, better ears, low cost, easy to assemble. And a couple bad points as far as I can tell, low gain, easier to obtain wind damage, etc.

I'd like to mount one of these on my garage.

Gramps, yes, I did go back in my mind to recall what I didn't like about the SD when I was young. And the truth comes out, I was ignorant, I also thought because it was a cheap priced antenna, that it was indeed a piece of crap.

And you know how it is when an item becomes the butt end of a joke right? :bdh: Us kids made fun of the SD just because we thought we were better because we had a better antenna. But that does not mean we knew anything about them, or had the maturity to say anything decent about them. We made fun of anyone who had one period. I guess that's a part of growing up.

If we only knew then, what we could or do know now. Over the years, I have learned that more, is not always best. Sometimes, less is more.


Depends on which way you look at things.
BTW, this little antenna is growing on me. I'm gonna get one.

 

[DXman]

I use to run one of the old Stardusters in the 70's. But I didn't like it, replaced it with a "Super Mag" with the ground radials. Much better antenna!!

Would never buy a Starduster again, would never use a Starduster again. The Maco 5/8, I10K are much better, so no need for me to try one again.

 

[jazzsinger]

I use to run one of the old Stardusters in the 70's. But I didn't like it, replaced it with a "Super Mag" with the ground radials. Much better antenna!!

Would never buy a Starduster again, would never use a Starduster again. The Maco 5/8, I10K are much better, so no need for me to try one again.

fair comments but neither cost less than $50 like a starduster.for what it costs it does very well,but its no world beater by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[packrat]

One of my favorite antennas back then was a 1/4 wave gp they used to call a "droopy drawers" for the way the radials drooped, but it was stone simple, pretty much bullet proof, stood up to ANY weather conditions, and worked fairly well to boot. Not a world beater, sorta like a AP or SD, very reliable and could be assembled in like 10 minutes and took up very little room. Talked to a lot of those "BASIC" antennas over the years.

 

[cominatyalive]

I use to run one of the old Stardusters in the 70's. But I didn't like it, replaced it with a "Super Mag" with the ground radials. Much better antenna!!

Would never buy a Starduster again, would never use a Starduster again. The Maco 5/8, I10K are much better, so no need for me to try one again.

Say DX, for the Maco 5/8, Hows the receive compared
to the Imax. I'm betting it's got to be better. Is it quieter?


J.

 

[DXman]

Say DX, for the Maco 5/8, Hows the receive compared
to the Imax. I'm betting it's got to be better. Is it quieter?


J.

In my case the receive did improve over the Imax, that was with both antenna's tested at the same height. It was about 1 "s" unit quieter. That was at 32'.

 

[GI0ZGB]

M400 Starduster

I had the original Avanti Starduster and later on the Antenna Specialist version, both worked well enough in good dx conditions, but for local dx work were seriously outclassed by the likes of my .64wl Golden Penetrator, 5/8wl Avanti Sigma II, 3/4wl Avanti Sigma IV, 7/8wl Ham International Big Mac, and the more recent .64wl I-Max 2000, 7/8wl Saliut 27(Vector 4000 LW-150) including the "new improved" version. All said, they are a good reliable little antenna for local chat up to the horizon plus a few miles, depending on the terrain!

 

[1342]

i owned a starduster for years and would never own one again.the starduster was a great local performer but has nothing on in dx land on a 5/8 wave.i think there is a newer version astroplane that is 6 feet longer then the old avanti 101 and cost a little more.my old avanti 101 was better than the starduster i had up.comparing antennas with the tips the same height makes no sense to me,what would be the point.a starduster will probably out perform a asstron 99 but i would never own one of those shit sticks again either.the best performance for the buck would be the workman 5/8 and can be had for about 63 bucks palco electronics i think,or an imax 2000 .64 wave can be had for 90 or so plus shipping.good luck on your choice.