Can a Shakespear 393 HF SSB marine antenna with a tuner be used for regular ham base antenna? Specs say 2-30 mhz. Marine band is in the so called ham bands. Would it work for a fixed base station install? This ought to be a good topic.
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Shakespear 393 HF SSB marine antenna for reqular ham use???
- Thread starter P25Radio
- Start date
Yes but you need a good ground plane or counterpoise. The 393 and similar antennas are just a length of straight wire encased in fiberglass, if you string up about 23ft of wire and attach to the tuner it will work the same. For home use you might mount the antenna at the peak of your roof and lay down a length of 4ft wide chicken wire under it from eaves to eaves as a ground plane, or run lots of wire radials like a dozen or more as long as your roof will allow. Or ground mount it with lots of radials or chicken wire under it. However, it wont work as well as a tuned resonant vertical of the same length.
It sounds like a dipole antenna would be much better choice
Verticals have their place. I ran a 43ft ground mounted vertical with 30 something ground radials and auto tuner at the base and it kicked butt on 160 through 20m. Since there was already another antenna on the property that covered 80 through 10 I shortened the vertical to about 22ft and use it now on 17 through 10m.
It looks like I'll be picking up a Icom M803 HF SSB radio with a Icom AT-140 antenna tuner, antenna and cabling for $1200.00. equipment is 2 yrs old pristine condition. Seller went with Star link so they do not need the HF SSB equipment. Seems like a good deal. Radios are $2600.00 new and tuner around $400... that is why I was asking about the 393 antenna. Looks like the Kenwood TS830s is going to get another antenna.
They are fine for HF use istalled on a boat. Usulally there is a metalic patch on the hull that serves as a ground for the tuner.
Something like fixed base, you need a counterpoise or good ground. Not the greatest performer on 80 meters, but do well 40 and down.
Something like fixed base, you need a counterpoise or good ground. Not the greatest performer on 80 meters, but do well 40 and down.
M803 is a 2 part radio, good performer on HF. I use an AT-140 with my long wire, decent on 160 meters, better on 40 and down.
I run my TS-440 with that, and have a Barrett 180 marine counterpart.
These are technically a 23 foot whip intended to be used with a tuner. Properly tuned vertical, they do a good job.
Good question, great answers. Have used verticals many years, love 'em and they work great, at least for me. Most require radials to perform better. A tuner will also be needed if you want full band transmit coverage.
I do have a 40ft Rohn tower, 4ea 8ft copper rods driven into the ground and grounded to the tower. All 1/2 heliax goes to a copper grounding plate on the tower and ground wires from that connect to the rods via another copper grounding plate. Think the grounding is covered. I am going to go with the 393 antenna. 23 ft long shoud not be a problem.
Grounding and ground plane are two very different things.
2 ways this could be configured, one is ground everything from the tuner and on. A good earth ground with rods close to the tuner as possible.
two would be counterpoises extending from the tuner, tuned and more is better. At ground level, a chicken wire layer under topsoil works.
Don't knock vertical performance.
Get a HyGain HY-tower, install as directed, you will be heard.
two would be counterpoises extending from the tuner, tuned and more is better. At ground level, a chicken wire layer under topsoil works.
Don't knock vertical performance.
Get a HyGain HY-tower, install as directed, you will be heard.
K6GBW
Member
Please come back and let us know how this works out. I'm very curious.
The radio equipment I picked up did have a counterpoise ground radial so to speack of. Waiting for some Times microwave LMR400 and silver PL259s to come in, so we are still in the works. Mast will be mounted on concrete with a 8ft grounding rod right next to the pole. Running radials might be a problem. I have about 15 before I hit dirt from where the mast will be mounted. Going to drill a hole in the concrete for the ground rod.
Do what you can with counterpoise radials, more is better, also locate the tuner on th pole just below the antenna and see it is grounded to your rod and radials.
A buddy had problems with long radials, he bored a hole under walkways with PVC pipe and water then left the PVC for radials, it worked.
This is what I have so far. 8ft ground rod welded to a 5x5 1/4 steel plate. YES I said welded. Ground cable is connected 7" below base plate and ground wire comes up to a clamp to the mast pipe. Counterpoise is 6" below ground and buried. AT140 mounted on mast under the patio roof, ran Ancor GTX 50 high voltage cable to antenna. Waiting for rubber boots for the coax connectors on antenna and tuner. AT 140 and Counterpoise grounded to same lug on pipe and tuner. LMR 400 came in today, waiting for silver tinned connectors to come in.more pictures coming. Thoughts so far good or bad. That's how we learn.
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I'm a little confused here. Do I see a Shakespeare HF whip mounted to the top of a mast with coax center conductor going to the Shakespeare whip stud and maybe the coax shield to the mast? If so that will get you nowhere and its not how that antenna is designed to work. The Shakespeare 393 is intended to have a tuner within a foot or two of the whip and a ground plane or counterpoise right at the base of the 393 whip. I'm not seeing any ground plane wires in the picture going from the base of the whip outwards and the mast is not a counterpoise and will do nothing to help the 393 whip work. A tall mast bonded to a ground rod is not a ground plane and will not make the antenna work as intended.
Can you elaborate on any ground plane or ground radials that I'm not seeing?
Can you elaborate on any ground plane or ground radials that I'm not seeing?
The cable only has 1 wire no shield, that goes to the stud on the antenna. The other end goes to the Icom AT140. There is a wire from a KISS counterpoise running from ground on the 140 and the rest.of that is burried 6 inches under ground horizontally. I tried to load more pictures but the file was to big. Check out the GTO 50 high voltage ancor cable. That will show you what it is. If you look closer in the first picture you can see the AT140 TUNER
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Ok, I think I see the tuner way down the mast from the antenna. Not good. As I mentioned before the 393 is just a random length of wire encased in fiberglass. Any wire from the tuner to the stud on the 393 is just part of the same wire inside the 393 and your have a long wire from the tuner output running parallel with the mast then connecting to the 393. That won't work well and its not how the antenna and tuner should be used. Plus the ground radials on the ground will not do much of anything, they need to be at the base of the antenna going outward horizontal from the tuner which needs to be mounted right at the base of the antenna. What you have will probably tune and give a good match at most HF frequencies but it won't radiate worth a darn and its a waste of an antenna and tuner the way its installed.
In my opinion the mast and antenna can stay but the tuner needs to move up right under the antenna and you need a lot and I mean a lot of ground radials connected to the ground side of the tuner and going out sideways to various parts of the roof or angled down to the ground. Any ground radials on or in the ground will do nothing for this antenna mounted way up high. I if you were to get anyone on the air with this setup and have them give you a signal report, then if you could disconnect the ground mounted radials, there would be no change. If you were to do the same signal report with what you have now then magically move the tuner and ground radials up to the base of the antenna they would think you just turned on an amplifier. That's the difference between a random bunch of stuff hooked up vs a proper installation of a vertical whip, tuner and counterpoise/ground plane.
