10m and 6m Ringo Ranger base station antennas

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W8UU

Pilot of the Airwaves
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Anyone have any real world experience with the Ringo Ranger base antennas for 10 meters and 6 meters. Good antennas? Any issues? Install tips? Thanks in advance.
 

prcguy

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I think those would be referred to as just a Ringo, the Ranger had a second half wave element with a 1/4 wave phasing thing in the middle. These are half wave end fed antennas and work similar to other end fed half wave antennas like a J-pole and they can light up the coax with RF due to poor decoupling.

The Ringos have an aluminum SO-239 that loves to corrode into white dust and those need a lot of weather proofing otherwise parts of the antenna will turn to junk in an area like I live in near the coast. I had a Ringo on CB in the 1970s and also had a heavy duty 6m version but recently dumped it in favor of a 6m KRECO 1/2 wave coaxial skirt I picked up cheap. On the coaxial skirt you can use an extra long mast and put ground radials 1/4 wave down from the bottom edge of the skirt for a little more gain. A version of the Ring Ranger also did this.

If you are still shopping for something on 6m I would highly recommend this over a Ringo, its got a little more gain and will last longer and its probably cheaper than a RIngo. Sirio Tornado 50-60 Mhz Omni-Directional 6M Vertical Base Antenn [tornado6m] - $89.00 : Sirio Antenna, High Performance Antenna Made in Italy

Anyone have any real world experience with the Ringo Ranger base antennas for 10 meters and 6 meters. Good antennas? Any issues? Install tips? Thanks in advance.
 
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I have several Ringo's- 70 cm, 2 and 6 metre models- and once one for 10--- and have used them for many years.

The six metre one-- of interest here, has performed flawlessly ever since it was put up.
Once it was assembled everything was then coated in a marine varnish, which has it looking as pristine today as when it came out of the box.
(Now granted- I'm in a dry cool climate where things just don't rust or corrode, but we do have long arctic winters that take their tolls in many other ways.)

During this last ARRL June VHF contest I talked to over two dozen stations on 6 ------> an Icom 575 transceiver at 10 watts into the Ringo on a mast 10 feet high*, 40 feet of Belden 8213 coax**--- I had a virtual 'pipe-line to the west coast for most of the little part of the event I participated in. What was great was that with only two or three exceptions, every station I called answered on the first go...... of course that is the nature of Six-- but it still speaks highly of a modest QRP radio into that 5/8 wave vertical.

I would recommend one any day :giggle:


Lauri

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* Up here anything stuck tantalizing-ly into the air becomes a tease for lightning. The Ringo is at DC ground potential which seems to dissapate the St. Elmo's Fire we often see about other metallic objects. Its not much of an assurance but I like that this lightning rod is semi ground'd.

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**(I know, this is 75 Ohm line, but it works fine and whose counting? :rolleyes:)
 
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