gdotts
Member
Which antenna would RX better on 10 meters?
Solorcon MAX 2000 or Carolina windom
Solorcon MAX 2000 or Carolina windom
antenna battle
- Thread starter gdotts
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Two completely different antennas with different radiation patterns and uses. The Solorcon would by far be the best for most people being vertically polarized and of a reasonable size to put out a good signal on the CB band. Its also omni directional.
The Carolina Windom is a horizontally polarized antenna usually made for 80m or 40m and will work on many harmonically related bands like 10m, which is close to CB. On 10m, an 80m version will have 8 gain lobes and 8 lossy nulls. A 40m version would have 4 gain lobes and corresponding nulls if I counted the right amount of fingers.
These gain lobes probably have more gain than the Solorcon, but the polarization will be random depending on if its broadside or off the ends of the antenna. Plus you can't easily rotate a 65ft long or 133ft long wire antenna to make the best use of the gain lobes.
I do a lot of HF amateur stuff 80 through 10m and have a similar antenna to an 80m Carolina Windom. My 10m vertical, an old Radio Shack 5/8 wave vertical has always worked much better on 10m or 11m than the big wire antenna. I can't remember a contact where the wire antenna worked better than the dedicated vertical on 10m for local stuff or DX around the world.
In fact, just a few nights ago I fired up the 133ft wire antenna on CB because it was handy, and a guy about a mile away asked why I was coming so weak. If he were horizontally polarized and I could rotate my house it might have worked better.
prcguy
The Carolina Windom is a horizontally polarized antenna usually made for 80m or 40m and will work on many harmonically related bands like 10m, which is close to CB. On 10m, an 80m version will have 8 gain lobes and 8 lossy nulls. A 40m version would have 4 gain lobes and corresponding nulls if I counted the right amount of fingers.
These gain lobes probably have more gain than the Solorcon, but the polarization will be random depending on if its broadside or off the ends of the antenna. Plus you can't easily rotate a 65ft long or 133ft long wire antenna to make the best use of the gain lobes.
I do a lot of HF amateur stuff 80 through 10m and have a similar antenna to an 80m Carolina Windom. My 10m vertical, an old Radio Shack 5/8 wave vertical has always worked much better on 10m or 11m than the big wire antenna. I can't remember a contact where the wire antenna worked better than the dedicated vertical on 10m for local stuff or DX around the world.
In fact, just a few nights ago I fired up the 133ft wire antenna on CB because it was handy, and a guy about a mile away asked why I was coming so weak. If he were horizontally polarized and I could rotate my house it might have worked better.
prcguy
gdotts
Member
Would I be better off using a 10 Meter rotatable alum tube dipole? The same 10 meters as the Solorcon MAX 2000 only horizantal and rotatable.
GUNSABLAZIN
Member
Go vertical. I use an old Antron 99. Works great!
GUNSABLAZIN
Member
It's the same as the Solarcon 2000.
My Solarcon I-MAX 2000 beats the pants off of my OCF antennas whether they are inverted V or horizontal on 10 and 15 meters.
If you have never observed the pants beaten off of an OCF by a 20+ foot whip antenna, let me tell you it is a sight to behold.
As PRCGUY noted, unless rotating your property is easy for you to do...welcome to the 10m vertical omni club. You will enjoy it...once the sun plays nice again.
As to the rotate-able dipole vs the omni, I recommend reading up on up antenna height, ground wave gain, lobes and take off angle.
If you have never observed the pants beaten off of an OCF by a 20+ foot whip antenna, let me tell you it is a sight to behold.
As PRCGUY noted, unless rotating your property is easy for you to do...welcome to the 10m vertical omni club. You will enjoy it...once the sun plays nice again.
As to the rotate-able dipole vs the omni, I recommend reading up on up antenna height, ground wave gain, lobes and take off angle.
gdotts
Member
Good reply guys. Tested my rotatable 10m @ 16 feet on a RG8 cable it did barely OK...at the same time with my Solorcon MAX 2000 on top of a 30 foot push up mast on Shireen 400 cable.....MAX 2000 had big-time pings on my IC-7300 scope. I will need to try the rotatable 10 meter on top of the 30 foot push up mast and also use the Shireen 400 flex cable for a final test comparison. Thought a vertical antenna switch to horizontal type antenna for receive might get me more contacts since I believe more Hams have a hotizontal antenna setups than vertical especially big gun players. My main thing is best TX/RX antenna for a Icom 7300 but also to easily taken down for stealth HOA reasons. The 2000 is WAY ABOVE my house but thin and almost invisable a beam is huge and an eyesore even though a beam is best. Thank you for all the advise!
For line of sight (to the horizon), having the same polarization as the other station can make a noticeable difference. But for long distance, once the signal is refracted by the ionosphere, the polarization gets 'mixed up' as the signal is bent and as such isn't as important.
gdotts
Member
Just contacted South Cook Island last night...That's 5,515 miles using my Solorcon MAX 2000.
Battle over ..........WAR WON ........Solorcon MAX2000!!!....
Battle over ..........WAR WON ........Solorcon MAX2000!!!....
TheSpaceMann
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That IMAX-2000 gets very good reviews on eHam.net Home - Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) Community Site
Did you compare it side by side to something else? A DX contact or any contact is a useless way to rate an antenna.
Take for example the time I was tuning around 10m and heard an opening. I grabbed by military PRC-70 manpack and ran outside with it tuning to the same freq I heard activity on in the house. I made a contact from my yard with a battery powered HF manpack sitting on the ground to Wisconson or somewhere similar.
There is nothing earth shattering about that except I forgot to put the whip antenna on the manpack and only had about a 4" spring sticking up out of the radio. I got a fairly good report with about 25w into a 4" long antenna 2,000mi away. Or how about the time I talked from So Cal to Ireland on a hand held CB walki talki running about 6w with the attached 4ft long telescoping whip? Does that mean the walki talki whip rules the antenna world and I should trash my new Hy-Gain Penetrator and replace it with a 4ft chrome telescoping whip on my roof?
So how can you rate an antenna by just one contact when a clip lead might have also made that contact? You must compare an antenan to something else at the exact same time on the exact same frequency at the same power level. Anythign else is not an antenna test.
prcguy
Take for example the time I was tuning around 10m and heard an opening. I grabbed by military PRC-70 manpack and ran outside with it tuning to the same freq I heard activity on in the house. I made a contact from my yard with a battery powered HF manpack sitting on the ground to Wisconson or somewhere similar.
There is nothing earth shattering about that except I forgot to put the whip antenna on the manpack and only had about a 4" spring sticking up out of the radio. I got a fairly good report with about 25w into a 4" long antenna 2,000mi away. Or how about the time I talked from So Cal to Ireland on a hand held CB walki talki running about 6w with the attached 4ft long telescoping whip? Does that mean the walki talki whip rules the antenna world and I should trash my new Hy-Gain Penetrator and replace it with a 4ft chrome telescoping whip on my roof?
So how can you rate an antenna by just one contact when a clip lead might have also made that contact? You must compare an antenan to something else at the exact same time on the exact same frequency at the same power level. Anythign else is not an antenna test.
prcguy
gdotts
Member
Actually I did have an two antennas on that South Cook Island contact.
Antenna 1 Soloercon MAX 2000 onLMR 400 coax(the signal was weak to begin with and fadeing due to propapgtion but got it in).
Antenna 2 Alpha Delta DX EE ON RG8 coax ( could not hear ANYTHING)
Antenna 1 Soloercon MAX 2000 onLMR 400 coax(the signal was weak to begin with and fadeing due to propapgtion but got it in).
Antenna 2 Alpha Delta DX EE ON RG8 coax ( could not hear ANYTHING)
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