Avanti AV-101 aka Avanti Astroplane omnidirectional CB antenna

[FPR1981]

We have a thread on the Astro Beam, so why not the Astroplane? Avanti had the balls to bill this as the "best omnidirectional antenna ever made," although I've not heard anyone who ever owned one give it propa like this. I've attached a page out of an old 1970s Avanti catalog so that you can see how they marketed this odd-looking antenna.

Often called a "witches hat" by CBers, the Astroplane was extremely light weight and there were many of them on towers in my hometown at one time. The last of them finally came down and was lying along someones house still mounted. By the time I stopped and asked if I could have it, it was hauled to the dump.

Did anyone here ever own one? And if so, what was your experience with it?

Avanti claimed it to be superior because the signal was allegedly able to stay concentrated to the top of the antenna and outward, thereby making it less affected by houses and terrain.

Was this antenna flop, or was it okay?

 

[toolman60]

I bought 1 from Radio Shack a few moons ago and used it for couple years. It worked good for local chatter and I remember a few DX contacts on it also. It was replaced with a set of Moonraker IV's in the mid 80's.

 

[KEWB-N1EXA]

I Had one back In 1976 Paid $27.95 for it new. Here in the pic are the lengths of each Piece.
I found it to act like a flipped J pole Antenna where it was fed in the middle to a 1/4 wave and half wave of sorts antenna.
Had a good SWR and Could get out 10 miles pretty easy and once in a while 20 miles to another station. Lets go back to 1975
when the solar cycle was dead because by 1980 the Skip ( Noise) was pretty bad.
It was kinda top heavy with the longer Steel Mast so it would really stress the Roof mount. There was no SS Hardware and it got crusty fast.
the metal clips that locked the Sections was spring steel and was just awful for rust.
It was popular at the time and there were quite a few around. When the CB craze died so did Avanti Antenna...I saw Sirio made
a Version of the antenna in the 90s the big difference was the top vertical piece.

Was it the worlds greatest antenna's --- Don't know But besides the steel mast being a load issue it did not take up to much space
like a Yagi.

Peter N1EXA / KQX9282

 

[N9JCQ]

We bought one in the early 70s paired with a Johnson Messenger 223. We didn't have another antenna on the house to compare it to, but it sure worked fine for us in suburban Chicago.

 

[prcguy]

I bought one used in about 1974/75 and it worked similar to a but just a little worse than Shakespeare Big Sitck. I had several other antennas at the time like a Hy-Gain Penetrator, Radio Shack 5/8 and some others I forget. Nothing special about this antenna except for its looks.