New TACSAT Antenna, Trivec AV-2011

[PACNWDude]

After becoming frustrated at the lack of gain in my smaller AV-2040 antennas, I finally found an AV-2011 antenna in good condition.

The seller said it was "just the antenna and no box". Well I was pleasantly surprised when the antenna arrived with the box and all accessories. When asked the seller said "no box" meant no "cardboard" shipping box.

Well now I can monitor the milsats and get a decent signal. I am in the north, and have lots of trees and obstructions where I am at, so this will help a lot.

After almost building my own, using information found around here and other sites, this fell into my lap for less than the cost of a couple Diamond discone antennas.

So for those that want a true military antenna, they are out there. This particular vendor had several for sale out of Temecula, CA.

So now my question for the forum, does anyone know where I can find a surplus AV-2090 X-wing antenna that has not been broken into 2 or 3 pieces?

 

[prcguy]

A friend just got one of the same in the mid $200 range and that's quite a good price. I have the D&M equivalent and a prototype from another company that's a little bigger and they really pull in the signals.

I also got two new AV-2090 mag mounts off Ebay, one for $35 and the other for $75. I sold one so I have nothing to offer you but they are fun to use for mobile satcom reception if you ever find one.
prcguy

 

[PACNWDude]

AV-2090 X-Wing wanted.

I would go for a new one too at those prices. Will keep looking.

The last one I happened across on eBay was broken and the guy still wanted $150 for it.

The "Airsoft" crowd has started to pick them up in my area to look cool driving around town. I actually want to put it to use. (Closer look shows that these have had their wings broken off and the glue them together just for looks.)

 

[pointman1177]

i cant even find one under $400 lol

 

[PACNWDude]

They can be found.

Keep watching eBay and military surplus sites.

They can be found. Often they are the smaller AV-2040-X series of antennas. I was looking for an AV-2011 for about 6 months when several were found on eBay and some surplus sites.

The government classified these as "expendable,throw away items", so often times working antennas can be made with components from a couple of broken ones. Trivec listed them as repairable, and I repaired about 100 of the AV-20XX-X series antennas over the years.

Now I'm looking for an AV-2090 X-Wing for mobile use. Not broken, not $400, preferred.

I told myself when I was using these for the military, that I would not spend over $250 for a new antenna. The AV-2011 was almost that, and the others were a lot cheaper. But then that was several years ago too.

Once Harris bought Trivec, the prices went up. Now they own Cobham too.

 

[prcguy]

To my knowledge Harris never owned Trivec or Cobham. Trivec Avant was purchased by Cobham along with Chelton Antennas, Atlantic Microwave, Chu & Associates and some other military antenna mfrs.

The X-wing antennas go for all kinds of prices, some out of the UK went in the $75 range on Ebay, mine were very cheap on Ebay and I sold one for a LOT of money at a time when they were very hard to come by.

Other types of satcom antennas are out there and I've had nice D&M satcom antenna on the RR swap forum for a very good price for months and am surprised nobody has snapped it up yet.
prcguy

Keep watching eBay and military surplus sites.

They can be found. Often they are the smaller AV-2040-X series of antennas. I was looking for an AV-2011 for about 6 months when several were found on eBay and some surplus sites.

The government classified these as "expendable,throw away items", so often times working antennas can be made with components from a couple of broken ones. Trivec listed them as repairable, and I repaired about 100 of the AV-20XX-X series antennas over the years.

Now I'm looking for an AV-2090 X-Wing for mobile use. Not broken, not $400, preferred.

I told myself when I was using these for the military, that I would not spend over $250 for a new antenna. The AV-2011 was almost that, and the others were a lot cheaper. But then that was several years ago too.

Once Harris bought Trivec, the prices went up. Now they own Cobham too.

 

[mancow]

The 2011s sure do pull in the signals. Mine must have been on a roof on the equator. The anodization is gone. It's totally silver but it still works great. I don't even have a preamp on it.

 

[prcguy]

I suspect your antenna came from a collector and the anodizing is gone from the previous owner lovingly caressing the antenna. I've been known to do that.
prcguy

The 2011s sure do pull in the signals. Mine must have been on a roof on the equator. The anodization is gone. It's totally silver but it still works great. I don't even have a preamp on it.

 

[mancow]

I suspect your antenna came from a collector and the anodizing is gone from the previous owner lovingly caressing the antenna. I've been known to do that.
prcguy

Seems probable

 

[PACNWDude]

Ah, you are right, was getting vendors mixed up.....have dealt with way too many company mergers. The Harris, Cobham, Trivec.....Caprock, Thrane and Thrane, etc.

No pre-amp needed on my 2011, and why I wanted that over an AV-2040. I have been doing some testing/playing around and the 2040's I have needed pre-amps. I am just too far north and have a lot of obstructions.

One of my AV-2040-2 antennas is purple and silver. Although it was made from parts collected from 2004-2007 Afghanistan. Scrap or throw away items, that I pieced together. I put about 60 of those back into service with some repair.

My biggest problem was the TACP's and CCT guys using the AV-2090 X-wings in their backpacks. They would go into a building and break two of the wings off, and bring the parts back, expecting me to solder it all back together. I should have taken a picture, they always look ridiculous wearing this black X on their back. Some had tan ones later on.

They equated this to me mounting an AV-2040-3 on the hood of a HMMWV in the top radiator grill, secured with bungee and parachute cord on a previous trip. (Or the toilet seat I mounted on a HMMWV brush guard, for "other reasons".)

 

[prcguy]

Did the AV-2090s in backpacks have any ground plane under them? I found a lot of users don't know how they work and that they require a ground plane right at the base. One example of a screw up is an elevated adapter from ABP that puts the X-wing way up high on a vehicle but with no ground plane, or the vehicle ground plane is now several feet lower than it should be. Those don't work so good if at all.

The problem is the satellite is expecting a ground station to uplink an RHCP signal. The dipole elements and pol producing circuit inside these antennas create a LHCP signal but the pol reverses when bounced off anything, like the satcom antenna reflector.

An X-wing like the AV-2090 is a LHCP antenna in free space and relies on a conductive ground plane under it to reflect a RHCP signal up to the satellite. No ground plane and you have LHCP unlink with little or no signal into the satellite.

Another historic problem was a custom antenna made for the Rutan Voyager around the world flight where they accidentally made a LHCP antenna embedded into the aircraft skin I believe. Anyway, when on the ground the antenna had some ground bounce and produced a RHCP signal and made satcom contacts. When the plane took off the satcom didn't work because it was pure LHCP with no reflection and pol reversal. They ended up using a Trivec 2040 antenna inside the plane during its historic flight.
prcguy

Ah, you are right, was getting vendors mixed up.....have dealt with way too many company mergers. The Harris, Cobham, Trivec.....Caprock, Thrane and Thrane, etc.

No pre-amp needed on my 2011, and why I wanted that over an AV-2040. I have been doing some testing/playing around and the 2040's I have needed pre-amps. I am just too far north and have a lot of obstructions.

One of my AV-2040-2 antennas is purple and silver. Although it was made from parts collected from 2004-2007 Afghanistan. Scrap or throw away items, that I pieced together. I put about 60 of those back into service with some repair.

My biggest problem was the TACP's and CCT guys using the AV-2090 X-wings in their backpacks. They would go into a building and break two of the wings off, and bring the parts back, expecting me to solder it all back together. I should have taken a picture, they always look ridiculous wearing this black X on their back. Some had tan ones later on.

They equated this to me mounting an AV-2040-3 on the hood of a HMMWV in the top radiator grill, secured with bungee and parachute cord on a previous trip. (Or the toilet seat I mounted on a HMMWV brush guard, for "other reasons".)

 

[PACNWDude]

In the weeds.

That question came up when I began to see this in the field as well.

AV-2090 X-Wing antenna. No ground plane was used, only when the antenna was taken from the backpack and placed back onto the roof of the Toyota Hilux trucks were they used with a ground plane.

They did work, usually pinging at 70 plus on a PRC-117F radio. (Out off a maximum of 100) With a ground plane they would have worked better. However compared to the "donkey dick" LOS antenna, they worked better.

When they needed to operate in satcom mode, foot mobile, they did work.

I knew about the antenna on the Voyager flight. And during Harris factory training, they mentioned all the limitations of their radio, then Trivec went over their antennas. Even so, what works real world is often not perfect, or what the engineers envisioned. (Also why I used the term "In the weeds". The engineers said that X-Wing anteenas wouldn't work that way. They worked well enough that many operators broke them in the field using them that way.

We were operating on dedicated channels and not DAMA also, that makes everything easier.

 

[xemod]

Where to buy?

After becoming frustrated at the lack of gain in my smaller AV-2040 antennas, I finally found an AV-2011 antenna in good condition......

I'm looking antenna Trivec AV-2011 in very good condition. Can you please advise me where can I buy it? Thank you.