Antron or Hy-gain?

[Scipio Kid]

Just moved and we’re still getting settled in. It’s been a nightmare. The new place is farther up the canyon from where I was, so radio signals are limited, heck, my cell phone barely works here. The good news is, higher elevation and no restrictions on antennas (and lots of room to try weird things). There’s a ham up here with a 120’ tower! If it falls over, he's toast! I’ve got a room inside the garage that’s perfect for a radio shack. The garage is up the hill from the house with a tall, pitched roof so running a mast up through the roof and getting a good antenna up on it isn’t going to be hard, or illegal, or against any HoA rules. I’ll be able to do a lot of experimenting as time goes on but for now, I need to get something up (with limited time and funds. Sheesh! Moving takes more work, time and money than kids!) And, now that I can, I’ve got to get into HAM. (I’ll be asking a lot of questions about that when I get to it.)

I went through my stuff and have two antenna options. I found a 3-piece, fiberglass, Antron A-99 I didn’t know I had (bought it with a bunch of random stuff for 5 bucks last year) and an aluminum tube, Hy-Gain, CLR-2, 5/8 wave. It's missing the top piece, but I have access to any size aluminum tubing so building it back to length won’t be hard. (I spotted it on an old garage in a little town on my way to somewhere. I stopped and asked the owner about it and he just wanted it gone and let me get up there and take it down and gave it all to me for 20 bucks, including 100 feet of heavy-duty coax.) I did a little research and found both antennas get (or got) high praise from users back in the day. I also fount there’s a ground plane kit available for the Antron.

I’ll probably go with a 10’ mast above the top of the garage, for now. That’ll put the base of the antenna at 35’.

So, my questions for you experts are:

1. Which antenna do you recommend, the Antron or the Hy-Gain?

2. Why doesn’t the Antron need a ground plane like the Hy-Gain?
a. Why, if it doesn’t need a ground plane, is there a ground plane kit available for it?

3. The strongest location to install the mast is almost directly above the radio, maybe 15 feet from the transmitter to the bottom of the antenna. Is there a problem with the antenna sitting directly above the transmitter like that? (Will I need to wear my tin-foil hat?)

4. Most importantly … Why did I sell my Washington???? Why? Why? OH WHY????

Your expertise, opinions, ideas and suggestions are most appreciated.

[Blue Ox2]

I'd start with the Antron and being where you are, possibly put the Hy-Gain at the other end a little later on.

I bet you wish you still had yer Washington, too. I have one and love it.

I am using an I-Max 2000 with the Washington and doing fairly decent. Wouldn't sweat the ground plane kits.

Save yer money and work toward the HAM ticket. THEN you'll be running some wires and using some bucks.

73 fer now, enjoy the new place, and perhaps we'll catch you in the skips......

[Scipio Kid]

Thanks Blue Ox,
Do you ever had your decisions made for you? Like trying to decide whether to have mint chocolate chip ice cream or raspberry cheesecake and then your boy walks in with a huge bowl of the raspberry and says, "well Dad, hope you like the mint stuff". What's worse is when his buddy walks in behind him (with a huge bowl full of the mint stuff) and says, "oh, that's all gone too". Decision made. Some folks like that, not the ice cream thing, no one likes not getting ice cream. But the decision thing, I hate having decisions made for me. I'd rather decide for myself and let the chips fall where they may ... usually all over me because I make a lot of bad decisions, but, at least I make them.

I was thinking along Blue Ox's line and started fixing up both antennas. Watched a vid on you tube where a guy had a 20 year old Antron and took it down because the SWR had gone nuts. He got a fist full of fiberglass slivers from the mast. So did I when I got mine. So last night I mixed up some fiberglass resin and painted all three pieces with it. Today, I ended up with half the day due to weather, so I had time and sanded everything down, cleaned up the threads, assembled the thing and was just getting ready to test it. The thing has SWR adjuster rings on the base and the guy in the video, set his up on a tripod in the middle of the yard to adjust it rather that putting it up first. I was working toward the same thing when I remembered he also checked continuity through each of the mast sections before testing. Also a good Idea, I figured, so I pulled out a multi-meter to do the same. DANG! No continuity from the coax connector to the end of the bottom section. Then, no continuity on the second section either! and, I noticed a gouge in the metal end of that connector that tells me it took a good arc. Either some lightning or someone hit a power line or ... who knows? All I know is, the thing is toast.

So I forgot about the Antron and pulled out the Hy-Gain. Already got the needed aluminum tubing so started assembly. About half way through, I bumped the multi-meter on the shelf and thought, hmmmm, I ought to run a continuity check on this thing too. First test was tip to ground. Not only did I get a reading, there was only 1 ohm resistance. The thing is dead shorted! or at least I think it is. I can't remember what's supposed to be inside the little gray, plastic housing at the bottom of the mast, but I don't think I'm supposed to be dead grounded through it.

So, for the moment, I gave up. Sheeesh. I figured I'd have a bowl of ice cream and think on it. But no, the gallon in the freezer from yesterday is now completely gone! My boy had friends over last night. I'm just going out in the truck and listen to the melee on channel 6.

[MDYoungblood]

I would go with the HyGain SPT500 or something similar, JMO.

3's

Greg

[Big blue]

I'd go with the Hy-Gain. Antron's are cheap and nothing but trouble. My 2 cents....

[BlueSolo]

all of the fiberglass antennas will give you a lot of receive noise,and placing a ground plane will not make any improvements on tx or rec. Buy the Hi-Gain Spt 500 and make sure you have a good ground. The 500 is a little tricky in getting your swr low...but...Really Is A Great Antenna, and well worth the money!