Solarcon IMAX 2000

[dishwolf359]

I've heard that the Solarcon IMAX 2000 5/8 wave ground plane is a really good antenna. Best price I've found is on eBay. I'd really like to hear y'alls comments. I really appreciate it.

There is also an add-on ground plane kit with 4 - 70 inch radials that's supposed to lower the angle of radiation for improved transmission characteristics. If anyone has any experience with this, please jump in here and comment. Thanks everybody.

[mrgumby OT21]

Irun an I-MAX 2000 and I think its great there's a guy about 1/2 mile down the street from me and he runs an antron 99 and I can hear people he can't my antenna is also lower than his he is now thinking about buying one himself I have no complaints about it and i've had it up just about a year and a half it's been thru the winter and some severe wind and no problems it does bend quite a bit but its been excellent i'm not saying it's the best antenna out ther but I love it ..it;s done a great job for me both local and DX for a fiberglass antenna it is excellent..on the ground plane kit save your money i tried it and it didn't make a difference worth noticing save your money it does a fine job the way it is ..hope this helps you goodluck with your decision ...mrgumby

[Tombstone (R.I.P.)]

I have to agree, a friend of mine took down his A-99 that was not very high and mounted on a pipe just above the back porch roof. He installed the Imax at the same level and his signal to here, 4 miles away came up and he said the receive is a little better too. He also noted that the Imax looks to be pretty flimsy compared to the A-99. As far as the radial kit, it's my understanding that if the antenna is mounted at a low height it will help. An antenna mounted high in the air won't show much difference with the radials.

Tombstone

[**GRUMPY**]

If your going to spend money for a I-Max and the radial kit, why not just save a little money and go with a better antenna and go with a Maco V5/8?

[dishwolf359]

Well, I've heard nothing but good things about the IMAX. A lot of people comment about the flexibility, but everyone has finished this comment by saying that although it bends a lot, it's never broken. I have NOT, however, heard any comments about the ground plane kit other than what was mentioned here. If I buy the antenna, I'll probably pass on the kit.

I found the Maco V 5/8 wave ground plane on eBay. It's $20 more than the IMAX. But it comes with a ground plane.

I'm still in the "investigation" phase. I really appreciate the comments.

If anyone else has an IMAX or knows someone who does, please don't hesitate to jump in here with your comments on it OR the Maco V 5/8.

Thanks again guys.

[Tombstone (R.I.P.)]

The Maco 5/8 will still give better results

Tombstone

[dishwolf359]

What makes the Maco better ? Thanks...

[**GRUMPY**]

From those who have ran the I-Max to those who have changed and now running the Maco V5/8. Better transmit and much better receive (less noise). Maco is built better and will last longer!

[BlueDevil]

I had a Imax 2000 and it snapped just below the top section from the 108 mile wind and 3 torndadoes this summer. I just go9t done putting another Imax 2000 up this time it is up almost 75' instead of 60' that it was this summer so we will see how it does. It does have better recieve and more transmit than before.

[FIXR]

We had a windstorm in the area a few weeks ago with some gusts up to at least 40 MPH. A couple of Imax 2000's snapped off.

[captbarry]

Alan my Imax is almost 3 years old and has surived some winds in excess of 60 mph. I gotta tell ya I won't look at it any more in high winds cause it's just too hard on the nerves!!!!! Man does that thing ever bend and dance! Just my opnion but I think it's hard to beat a good cut alumminum antenna. My Super Penatrator 500 (HyGain) was the best ground plane I've used in the last 30 years. Have been thinking about putting up a Maco 5/8 before it gets too cold. I recentlently wrote Signel Engineering and they still make the Thunder 8. This ant. works as a ground plane or as a bi-directional beam. If anyone one the board has used one of these please, feedback would be great. Then there is the ground plane made out west in the desert by a gentleman I think his name is Dave. Sorry I'm brain dead and can't remember his company. Best 5/8 wave ground plane antenna I have seen. Folks that have 'em sware by 'em. However I'm not sure it will out preform the Maco 5/8 enough to justify the price difference. Would love to put a beam back up but for now I will put the best ground plane I can get on the tower. (which is ready to go up) Hey fixr what kind of antenna do you run on the base?
73's all

[dishwolf359]

I live in a holler between two mountains, and when the wind blows up through here from the valley, it has in the past snapped tree branches almost 2 inches in diameter. That's usually in the winter when we have ice storms and the branches are ice coated and heavy. If the IMAX became coated with ice, I guess it would become quite prone to snapping, not to mention top heavy and wobbly. And at near-zero temperatures, I guess the fiberglass would also be more prone to snapping off. Never thought of all this until now. Geez. And we've had one snow already.

[dishwolf359]

captbarry said:

Alan my Imax is almost 3 years old and has surived some winds in excess of 60 mph. I gotta tell ya I won't look at it any more in high winds cause it's just too hard on the nerves!!!!! Man does that thing ever bend and dance! Just my opnion but I think it's hard to beat a good cut alumminum antenna. My Super Penatrator 500 (HyGain) was the best ground plane I've used in the last 30 years. Have been thinking about putting up a Maco 5/8 before it gets too cold. I recentlently wrote Signel Engineering and they still make the Thunder 8. This ant. works as a ground plane or as a bi-directional beam. If anyone one the board has used one of these please, feedback would be great. Then there is the ground plane made out west in the desert by a gentleman I think his name is Dave. Sorry I'm brain dead and can't remember his company. Best 5/8 wave ground plane antenna I have seen. Folks that have 'em sware by 'em. However I'm not sure it will out preform the Maco 5/8 enough to justify the price difference. Would love to put a beam back up but for now I will put the best ground plane I can get on the tower. (which is ready to go up) Hey fixr what kind of antenna do you run on the base?
73's all

That thunder 8 reminds me of the old Super Scanner. It was either omni-directional, or the user could choose one of three beam directions. Anyone remember that one ? I can't recall who made it...?

[FIXR]

Barry,

I run an A-99 with a MACO skirt kit about 36 feet to the bottom. The radials are the same as what they use on the 5/8.

[Devildog]

I have a Imax2k you can have. I have ran a lot of antennas and as far as the fiberglass ones go it is really good. But it wasnt as good as jays I10K. I am still kicking myself for letting it go but I do like trying different antennas Right now I got a maco coming and Ill see how it compares.

[snakedr1]

I've been running my Imax 2000 for almost 2 year's, And have had no trouble at all, I'm In a hole and hear Station's from all direction's, My nieghbor Is on a hill and run's a Super Penatrator and I keep up In Transmit & Recieve with him, But I think My President Lincoln has the better recieve than his Ranger 2950, It's also real Broad Banded & Good SWR's across the Band's ! And Easy to Set Up, But everyone alway's say's Metal Is Better, But that's debateable, Take Care !

[goldhawk25]

I've ran an I-MAX 2000 for about 9-10 years. I love them, they are a great antenna for both transmit and recieve. Just for fun when I first got it I took my antron-99 down and put the I-MAX up and than I put the antron back up just as high to the bottom of the antenna as the antron and ran the coax to my switch box for both antennas with the same length of coax. Ok now I talked to a station in Flint, MI which is about 40 miles south of me, he said that the I-MAX was hitting him with 9 pounds and the antron was hitting him with 6 pounds and the recieve on the I-MAX was double. I would get one if it was me.

[narvous]

captbarry said:

Alan my Imax is almost 3 years old and has surived some winds in excess of 60 mph. I gotta tell ya I won't look at it any more in high winds cause it's just too hard on the nerves!!!!! Man does that thing ever bend and dance! Just my opnion but I think it's hard to beat a good cut alumminum antenna. My Super Penatrator 500 (HyGain) was the best ground plane I've used in the last 30 years. Have been thinking about putting up a Maco 5/8 before it gets too cold. I recentlently wrote Signel Engineering and they still make the Thunder 8. This ant. works as a ground plane or as a bi-directional beam. If anyone one the board has used one of these please, feedback would be great. Then there is the ground plane made out west in the desert by a gentleman I think his name is Dave. Sorry I'm brain dead and can't remember his company. Best 5/8 wave ground plane antenna I have seen. Folks that have 'em sware by 'em. However I'm not sure it will out preform the Maco 5/8 enough to justify the price difference. Would love to put a beam back up but for now I will put the best ground plane I can get on the tower. (which is ready to go up) Hey fixr what kind of antenna do you run on the base?
73's all

Is the Imax 2000 as good as the Penatrator?

[masterchief]

narvous said:

Is the Imax 2000 as good as the Penetrator?

No.

Is the Penetrator as good as the I-10K? NO

Is there a better groundplane than the I-10K? NO!

[narvous]

Did not ask about the I-10 ask about the Imax 2000.

[Night Ranger]

If you are mounting the antenna in a tree the straight fiberglass antenna with no radial kit is the way to go. The various sections of an aluminum antenna will come loose after a year or so of being shaken around by the tree whipping in the wind. You'll see the SWR start jumping around when the wind blows. The only cure is to take the aluminum antenna down, and tighten everything back up. Also the straight fiberglass I-Maxx 2000 will go up and down a tree alot easier than a metal ground plane with radials.
I have run Radio Shack 5/8th wave aluminum ground plane antennas, Radio Shack .64 wave aluminum ground plane antennas, Shakespear 1/2 wave Big Stick antennas, and the I-Max 2000. The Radio Shack .64 wave ground plane was probably the best performance wise, but the I-Max 2000 works almost as well and requires less maintenance when mounted in a tree than all the aluminum ground plane antennas I have owned.
Lastly fiberglass antennas are less affected by rain and ice. The SWR on most aluminum antennas will climb to 2.0 or more during a hard rain as the hollow aluminum elements fill with water. As soon as it stops raining the SWR will come back down. The SWR on fiberglass coated antennas changes very little during periods of rain or ice.
My I-Max 2000 has been sitting in the top of a pine tree at 75 feet since February of 2003 with no problems. It's low angle of radiation excels at skip at 2000+ miles or more.

-Night Ranger

[frogman]

I have heard the imax bleeds more than the maco.Is this true???

[crazybob]

I don't think that antennas bleed. ...Radios do.

[Sandbagger]

crazybob said:

I don't think that antennas bleed. ...Radios do.

Yes and no. Radios are the part that generates any spurious or harmonic content. Any antenna will obligingly radiate whatever the radio feeds it.

However, not all antennas radiate the same, and these differences can make the difference between operating with little or no RFI and being inundated with it. The biggest problem with "stick"-type fiberglass antennas is their lack of counterpoise radials. Because they lack radials, the antenna can poorly decouple the RF and what happens is the antenna will use the coaxial cable's shield as part of the counterpoise and it will radiate, often into neighboring buildings, where the concentration of near field radiation energy will often overload poorly shielded electronic devices and electrical wiring. This can happen even if the transmitter is a pure as new fallen snow.

You can offset this somewhat by raising the antenna as high as practical and using a balun at the antenna feedpoint. But often it's just easier to run a standard ground plane with the proper decoupling radials.

[crazybob]

Hi, Dave You are right that some antennas do a better job than others. And differant enviorments will yield differant results. I just feel that clipped radios, and class C amps cause much more bleed than an Imax or a Maco antenna.

The "radios bleed, not antennas", are part of some old sayings that I'm sure that you"re familar with. "The first 50 watts make more of a differance than the next thousand". Or "tune the antenna, ...not the coax". I'm trying to remember some more, but the superbowl is on.

[hotrod]

i gotta imax2k.theres things i like and things i dont like.it is very flimsy seems to pick up
alot ,more white noise rf,ect.i did beat out my a-99 though.hat makes the allumin antennas
better is the fiberglass one are nothing more than a long wire antenna.you probaly
could make the same thing out of coax.my next antenna WONT be fiberglass

[mark4]

The maco 5/8 weighs alot less than a imax 2000. A whole lot less! So you can put it up higher.
Also I have seen alot of problems with tuning. Antennas of the 99/2000 have problems with radiating the coax itself -just changing the placement of the excess coax -can change the swr. This is a tuning problem.
Antenna designs like the Maco are not affected by changing the arrangment of your coax. Solarcon I was told use to have instructions to prevent this by telling you to wrap your coax around your mast a few turns.

[**GRUMPY**]

mark4 said:

The maco 5/8 weighs alot less than a imax 2000. A whole lot less! So you can put it up higher.
Also I have seen alot of problems with tuning. Antennas of the 99/2000 have problems with radiating the coax itself -just changing the placement of the excess coax -can change the swr. This is a tuning problem.
Antenna designs like the Maco are not affected by changing the arrangment of your coax. Solarcon I was told use to have instructions to prevent this by telling you to wrap your coax around your mast a few turns.

Never.... and I mean NEVER wrap your coax around your mast, especially with using a A99 or a I-Max2000!

[**GRUMPY**]

Oh yeah... and as far as the I-Max being heavier than the V5/8, not sure without looking but I doubt that!

[2IR473]

They are suggesting that you make a coil of coax, which acts as an RF choke to prevent your coax shield from radiating, which can cause TVI.
To make the choke, coil several turns of your coax near the feedpoint. I used a piece of PVC coupling approx. 4" in diameter, to help form the coil I made for my HF vertical antenna.