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wilson 5000 bandwidth

The Mad Scientist

The Mad Scientist

W9WDX Amateur Radio Club Member
Apr 24, 2012
761
108
38
Northeast Pa
hi all, i remember reading somewhere( memory is starting to go...lol) that someone was experementing with trying to widen the bandwidth of the wilson 5000. from what i remember they used a whip from a " big mama" antenna and had good results, i think it was an older siro product. has anyone heard or have tried this?
 

i tossed around the idea of taking the top 57" of a 102" whip and installing on my wilson 5k to work 10 meters but decided against it because that portion of the 102" where I would insert into the mast of the wilson 5k was much thicker than the original 5k whip, and I would've had to grind to get it to fit. The implanted 102 portion would've been much heavier and as suggested to me by forum members, it might have cracked the mast over time.

So any way, i continued to run my 11 meter original whip on both 10 and 11 meters for well over a year and made many contacts all over the world with sporadic e.

This spring I walked into radio shack and found a whip around 57" inches or so that was exactly like the original 5k whip only shorter. I bought it for 20 bucks(would've cost the same to mail order a 5k replacement).

I have installed it and am running it on both 10 and 11 meters to make many sporadic e contacts on both bands.

Sometimes I run 100 watts through it and sometimes i don't need it. One of these days, i'm going to check the match on it!!!!!
 
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i wonder what the swr curve is with the new whip vs. tha old one. if it fit into the mast, chances are it is roughly the same diameter as the origonal whip with the same swr curve, and swr variability.

i'm wondering if it was exactly the same, what characteristic about it made you think it would give different results?
 
at one time i thought about whether the thicker 102 whip would give a wider bandwidth but i no longer subscribe to that theory...i'll let other's with more experience talk to that.

10 and 11 meters are pretty close and I have been running them on the same antenna. I realize efficiency hurts but since I am mainly working sporadic e with it, it really does not matter.

i'm also not running gobs of power as mentioned so I'm not too concerned with it for my radio.
 
ok, so you don't beleive that a larger diamenter whip would increase the bandwidth..., so why was it changed out to the ratshack whip?

perhaps someone could chime in as to the theory to why a larger diameter whip would have no effect on bandwidth?
 
uh,ok, im talking about the width not length of the whip. im wondering about the effects of the swr curve from the resonent frequency, which is what the larger diameter whip is supposed to accomplish.
 
bandit35 said:
uh,ok, im talking about the width not length of the whip. im wondering about the effects of the swr curve from the resonent frequency, which is what the larger diameter whip is supposed to accomplish.
Click to expand...

yes,... a bigger dia radiator will increase band with,... :)

think about a caged dipole
 
hookedon6 said:
yes,... a bigger dia radiator will increase band with,... :)

think about a caged dipole
Click to expand...


If you're talking about going from 26.515 to 27.855 with any Wilson, Forget it. To achieve that, You would need a Predator 10k, Round Coil Monkey Made, ect.
I've tried this a long time ago, And could never get my SWR's to match out on this wide of a bandwidth.
 
i wasn't looking for that much of an improvement, just a little better than it is now. and knowing that the 5000 suffers from a reactance problem anyway, i would dought that i could even get that marginal improvement. perhaps the new owners of the company would make some changes as other antenna companys have and actually start producing a quality product again.......but i wont hold my breath.
 

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