Radio shack blue big stick antenna

[rogodee]

Im wondering if I could add heavier wire and a heavier cap to the coil and what it would do. I did notice the blue RS big stick tuned differently when I replaced the rg 8x with rg 213u. I just like messing with antennas .

 

[BC Coyote]

Im wondering if I could add heavier wire and a heavier cap to the coil and what it would do. I did notice the blue RS big stick tuned differently when I replaced the rg 8x with rg 213u. I just like messing with antennas .

Adding heavier wire will slightly increase the bandwidth of the antenna, so long as the wire is the same length as the original. You can put a beefier cap with a higher voltage rating in as long as it's the same capacitance. So if there is, for example, a 500 pF cap there now, the replacement will also need to be 500 pF. It's a critical tuning component.......

 

[AudioShockwav]

Also now I know the secret of the Sirio fiberglass coaxial half wave is the coaxial RF choke at the bottom, which gives it great frequency range and isolates the feed line very well.

The Gainmaster is a 5/8ths wave center feed antenna.
I made this mistake as well years ago and at first I disregarded it as another a99 clone.
After some education, Thank you @bob85 , The DB, Marconi and others, I came to understand where the actual feed point is on the antenna.
If you search a bit here on the forum there's several threads in the CB antenna section about the Gainmaster, including a couple about building your own.

73
Jeff

 

[SuperLid]

Im wondering if I could add heavier wire and a heavier cap to the coil and what it would do. I did notice the blue RS big stick tuned differently when I replaced the rg 8x with rg 213u. I just like messing with antennas .

This is precisely why I asked for better photos of the matching network. I have one of these, that the matching network is trashed, that I want to rebuild, bigger and better.

The one I have also has a completely corroded to nothing bonding wire at the top of the bottom section, which is what they used to connect the aluminum tube to the thread that the top connects to.

SL