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Post by Raccoon on Jun 20, 2020 13:11:22 GMT -5
I was just wondering what everyone's opinion is on these 2 antenna's ... All in all , which antenna is better performance wise for both transmit and receive ?
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on Jun 20, 2020 15:50:17 GMT -5
I was just wondering what everyone's opinion is on these 2 antenna's ... All in all , which antenna is better performance wise for both transmit and receive ? Well...... Conventional wisdom says that a full 5/8th wave antenna with a set of counterpoise radials is going to perform better than a radial-less stick antenna. By how much is the real question. After reading dozens of anecdotal reports, and witnessing one local who made the switch, it would appear that the 5/8th is maybe a 1/2 S unit better on transmit signal, if that. There are a lot of factors to consider too, like how high up you mount it, whether your location is on top of a hill, in a valley, or in a crater (high ASL, but surrounded by higher hills). Not everyone will see the same results. |
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Post by Raccoon on Jun 20, 2020 17:04:06 GMT -5
I have one of each , and the locals don't seem to be in favor of Maco's ... V 5/8's antenna to be specific . According to what I've been told , a few of them have had , and replaced their Maco V 5/8's with an Imax 2000 . So I was just wondering if anyone here liked Maco's V 5/8's antennas , and how their experiences with them have been .
Or ... is the Imax actually a better antenna than the V 5/8's is performance wise ?
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
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Post by Sandbagger on Jun 20, 2020 19:31:29 GMT -5
I have one of each , and the locals don't seem to be in favor of Maco's ... V 5/8's antenna to be specific . According to what I've been told , a few of them have had , and replaced their Maco V 5/8's with an Imax 2000 . So I was just wondering if anyone here liked Maco's V 5/8's antennas , and how their experiences with them have been . Or ... is the Imax actually a better antenna than the V 5/8's is performance wise ? The only issues I'm aware of with the Maco's are structural in nature (corrosion near the ring and moisture). Performance wise, they do seem to work better than the IMax, but not by much. |
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Post by 321 treeclimber on Jun 21, 2020 6:10:16 GMT -5
The maco's ears are much better. Output is close to the same and I agree, first hand, the tuning ring on the maco 58 is problematic but is still worth the effort. You cant talk to that which you cant hear. 321
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jun 22, 2020 9:02:24 GMT -5
The Maco definitely seemed to have better ears, but I've had both and prefer the Imax, which I've been using for quite some time. I prefer it because it's easy. Easy up, easy down, easy tuning and no radials to fuss with. Then there's the .64 wave thing... The-64-wavelength-secret |
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Post by ytradio on Jun 22, 2020 18:23:26 GMT -5
The Maco definitely seemed to have better ears, but I've had both and prefer the Imax, which I've been using for quite some time. I prefer it because it's easy. Easy up, easy down, easy tuning and no radials to fuss with. Then there's the .64 wave thing... The-64-wavelength-secret Informative link Monkey Man, but the author is mistaken about 2 things relating to the Super Penetrator. It has nesting aluminum tubing, so it can be adjusted to the .64 wave length on the higher frequencies, and it does not use a matching coil, it uses a form of hairpin match. |
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
Posts: 6,247
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Post by Sandbagger on Jun 22, 2020 19:13:56 GMT -5
The Maco definitely seemed to have better ears, but I've had both and prefer the Imax, which I've been using for quite some time. I prefer it because it's easy. Easy up, easy down, easy tuning and no radials to fuss with. Then there's the .64 wave thing... The-64-wavelength-secret Informative link Monkey Man, but the author is mistaken about 2 things relating to the Super Penetrator. It has nesting aluminum tubing, so it can be adjusted to the .64 wave length on the higher frequencies, and it does not use a matching coil, it uses a form of hairpin match. The Radio Shack .64 wave, which looks a lot like the Penetrator, had a loading coil. The Penetrator did not. |
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Post by peacemaker656 on Oct 30, 2020 0:02:28 GMT -5
I moved to this QTH 7 years ago. Lots of noise here. Put up the new SPT-500. Outstanding ears for about 6 months until it got weathered in. Transmitted well but it went a little deaf after getting weathered. I suspect most aluminum antennas do. Went to a Sirio 2016 after that and same result and then a storm snapped it like a twig. Put SPT back up and a storm got that so went with a cheapo Proton-99 for a bit. It did well for the price but I wanted a 5/8ths/.64 antenna for dx. Bought the IMax. No GPK. That was when we had Sunspots and DX rolled almost constantly. Worked great. Didnt realize though how noisey it was because there was almost always something on band. Took a break for a little while from radio to go skirt chasing and when I came back band was dead. Thats when I noticed just how noisey it was. So decided to get the gpk to try and quiet it down. But Im cheap and when I saw the current price on the gpk for it I bought an aftermarket gpk thinking I could modify it to work. Nope, ring was too small. Since I had it down I grabbed the old Proton out of garage to put back up. Gpk fit that. And it was pretty quiet. So I was looking over the Imax and it was pretty hairy looking. Sanded it back to smooth and clear coated it. Also did some research and found that the bottom of an Imax needed to be 10' away from anything to work proper. Only way here was to raise it up higher. So I did. Got it 13ft above my roof. Now its not as noisey. And it transmits extremely well. I still cant clear the trees here cause they are 90 to 120 foot up but just clearing the house and I think smoothing the antenna reduced the static on it. Now a guy just gave me the gpk kit for it. He had it on his and said it didnt do anything for him but Im going to try it. But his is tower mounted and 25 feet above everything. My neighborhood doesnt allow towers. I made an eve mount to put mine up. Its so heavy duty Im going to add a another 5' to mine. That will get me above the power lines behind my house. So for the record I think the aluminum antennas do work better out of the box but after a fee months of weather fall off. My opinion is those who think right off the Imax is better probably start off with it in free space and those who think aluminum is better get that notion when its new. I think they equalize in time. But like all antennas after a few years they do need maintenance. But thats just my opinion.
73's
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