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goofy antenna

wx2watch

Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2006
Messages
61
Location
Merrimack River Valley, MA
P.S. on that Stryker ... I have heard they get water inside them quite often.... and you need to put a little silicone around something??? my Stryker is still in the box waiting for me to range test it / play with it.... but before I permeant mount it I'll silicone the heck out of everything... as I can see where water could get in where the stupid lights are.
Hmm, I had not noticed those lights before - I don't see anything in the foldup half page "instruction manual" that came with my SR-A10 mentioning them. How do I get rid of them? For that matter, can you elaborate on your proposed silicon fix (I guess you mean the RTV gel and not spray.)

I'm not sure I would have purchased the antenna if I knew it was gonna make people think I'm a LEO wanna be with intermittent blue lights. :cool:

(P.S. I'm still getting ready for my 12 hour drive to Virginia in two weeks but haven't had time to test my new toy to any great extent before the trip!!)
 

FPR1981

Active Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2021
Messages
621
AWESOME DEAL!
you were in the right place at the right time I guess!

it's funny every review of the Stryker AR 10 say's the same thing that they didn't have to adjust the SWR as it was perfect out of the box.

I also LOVE my Tram 3500, I've never had a better antenna and am totally amazed how well it works... I bought mine after watching Erik from Far Point Farms do a 18.5 miles range test with a 4 watt radio to his base station... I've chatted with Erik and he has had his Tram 3500 for 7 years and not a bit of trouble ... but he bought a new Stryker AR 10 for another vehicle and said it's better than the Tram 3500... he didn't do a range test but feels it's a much better antenna.... I plan to do a range test of my Tram 3500 and my Stryker AR 10 ( some day )

sounds like you got two fantastic antenna's

at first I was wondering
how on earth are you using the magnetic tram 3500 as a base station antenna??... the magnetic mounts, on a big flat piece of metal of the car gives it the Ground plane.... so I'm guessing the three 4 foot fiberglass radials are being used for a ground plane? but you still only have a 5 foot antenna... but I guess if you get it up high enough????....
interesting.... never heard of anyone doing that.. if it works it works!
certainly didn't cost you much!

why would someone buy two nice pieces of equipment and then sell them for next to nothing?

P.S. on that Stryker ... I have heard they get water inside them quite often.... and you need to put a little silicone around something??? my Stryker is still in the box waiting for me to range test it / play with it.... but before I permeant mount it I'll silicone the heck out of everything... as I can see where water could get in where the stupid lights are.
The length of the mast/whip is irrelevant to the application. All that matters is that it is a 1/4-wavelength antenna. What makes it different than a 102-inch steel whip is that the steel whip and spring are the true physical length of a 1/4-wavelength. The Stryker and any other mobile antenna that is shorter than 102/104/106 inches (depends who you ask) makes up the length inside the coil.

The coil windings make up the difference. In the case of a fiberglass antenna, the "102" inches are helical windings around the fiberglass mast.

What mobile antennas that are shorter than a 102 are known as would be "compromise" antennas. They achieve the proper SWR by means of their "electrical" length, and the vehicle then serving as a ground plane.

Sure, you lose some performance over the 102, by compromise. But they still can perform very well, particularly because your mounting location to accommodate a 102 often costs you performance.

In the case of my home made Tram ground plane, I used three 4-foot fiberglass Tram antennas as ground plane radials, no differently arranged than the true sized radials on an Starduster. The downward radials are the ground plane, and it works beautifully.

Let me see if I can find you a picture of this home brew of mine.
 

niceguy71

Active Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2023
Messages
689
Location
Massachusetts
Hmm, I had not noticed those lights before - I don't see anything in the foldup half page "instruction manual" that came with my SR-A10 mentioning them. How do I get rid of them? For that matter, can you elaborate on your proposed silicon fix (I guess you mean the RTV gel and not spray.)

I'm not sure I would have purchased the antenna if I knew it was gonna make people think I'm a LEO wanna be with intermittent blue lights. :cool:

(P.S. I'm still getting ready for my 12 hour drive to Virginia in two weeks but haven't had time to test my new toy to any great extent before the trip!!)
put that Stryker AR-10 on the roof of your vehicle and key the mic at night... you'll see those blue lights! ... my Stryker is also still in the box waiting for me to do a range test so I have not seen them either... but I am told they are small and no police officer would give you a hard time about them.
as for the Silicone I buy 100% Silicone for a caulking gun... I get the one that say it has UV protection so the sun won't dry it out.... after you have the SWR set.... I would put on a rubber glove and run a small bead around where the whip goes into the top of the antenna.. and I would also put a little around anything that I thought could let water it.
I just looked at youtube... not sure I'm going to like those lights either blue lights. ..............
another youtube video of blue light
 

FPR1981

Active Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2021
Messages
621
Here you go, niceguy71. Here are pictures of my hillbilly Starduster, comprised of a Tram 3500 with fiberglass antennas as radials.
 

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FPR1981

Active Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2021
Messages
621
looks great!
and if it works like the A-99 you sure got back

looks great!
and if it works like the A-99 you sure got it right!
I knew someone who had a K40 magnet mount in the center of their attic on a large metal pan, and spanning outward from each pan were runs of thick industrial tin foil that they used as makeshift radials.

He achieved an acceptable SWR and it didn't do too badly on the performance end for being indoors.

Likewise, I have used two 3 or 4 foot fiberglass antenna masts to make a half-wavelength dipole in places where an antenna was not permitted.

They work very well, albeit they're a bit narrower-banded with the shorter whips, but they can be tuned and finessed a bit.

There are all sorts of ways to creatively make mobile antennas perform as base antennas.
 

FPR1981

Active Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2021
Messages
621
Sort of looks like my Wilson 1000M stuck on a plate with radials. Don't laugh, it works great.

The Tram 3500 could be considered a knock off, somewhere between the Wilson 1000 and 5000. Very similar antenna.

Elsewhere in the product lineup, the Tram 300, which is no slouch, is virtually the same antenna as the Little Wil. Honestly, that Tram 300, placed center-of-roof on my old Accord, played almost as well as any larger magnetic mount antenna I owned. One evening, with that antenna, I used my President Taylor and a 100-watt amplifier and talked from the Perry/Licking County, Ohio line to a man who lived down the street from my house in Knox County.

According to Google maps, it was approximately 30 miles distance.

The Perry/Licking County line on State Route 13 is a very high elevation. There were closer distances along the ride home that I was unable to continue the conversation, but there was a couple mile stretch where we were talking just fine.
 

slowmover

Active Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2020
Messages
2,885
Location
Fort Worth
IMG_6582.jpeg

9’ whip on a ball spring. Mounted on a Tyrannosaurus Rex which could be then be radar-directed to its prey.

Coming over a ridge at high speed and seeing his brake lights come off and start the pursuit . . .


That was an antenna would make you goofy.

.
 

K6GBW

Member
Joined
May 29, 2016
Messages
676
Location
Montebello, CA
View attachment 171374

9’ whip on a ball spring. Mounted on a Tyrannosaurus Rex which could be then be radar-directed to its prey.

Coming over a ridge at high speed and seeing his brake lights come off and start the pursuit . . .


That was an antenna would make you goofy.

.
Loved those old cars, but the whip was 5.5 feet and the CHP didn't use radar until the late 1990's. But yeah, great cars. I never got to drive them myself. I started with the 1989 Chevy Caprice.
 

slowmover

Active Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2020
Messages
2,885
Location
Fort Worth
Loved those old cars, but the whip was 5.5 feet and the CHP didn't use radar until the late 1990's. But yeah, great cars. I never got to drive them myself. I started with the 1989 Chevy Caprice.

I had a version of that old car. About all I had to do in the era of Caprice/Crown Vic/Diplomat was step into it to ensure the 2-3/shift came in at 92-MPH. Because from there to 120+ the road became mine again.

Texas was more fun. They’d get laughed at if they used radio to reveal they’d lost.

Dodge Charger changed that, but by then I was old, tired and cranky.

The day of the T-Rex was awesome.

At rest that whip would quiver with cam overlap. High Idle engaged for A/C while last of paperwork done. You’d be intimidated just walking past it into the Dairy Queen.

Goofy to not take that beast seriously.


The men I knew were TX or California Highway Patrol in the 1960s definitely had the best stories.

Stone-face story-tellers. Black humor the whole night long. Why this song still cracks me up.


Last of the breed. Excellent read:


One of the features of the 1970s now missing in CB was that drivers would hear WHO was coming in regions where men were few and miles grew exponentially. They’d get off the road. And use radio to send it flying miles ahead. Experienced that several times.

Carrier catapult take-off or K-9 off the leash ain’t got **** on that kind of momentum. The Anointed One.

That’s practically the opening chapter to set the pace for what follows in this auto-bio. (Meaning that you feel that musical overture throughout as it ain’t rollicking fun. Controlled tension, aptly drawn).

.
 
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slowmover

Active Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2020
Messages
2,885
Location
Fort Worth

Last movie I watched, so that’s been awhile. Glad I didn’t miss it. I believe I knew every character in it so well was it done. (The cussing grandma was the exception). Nothing surprising in actions taken. There’s still a Texas . . out there.

Jackson a consultant.

Think on CB as watched.

.
 
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jcrmadden

Member
Joined
May 10, 2024
Messages
182
KIMG2738.JPG

I spied this in the parking lot...

Can someone help me understand what I'm looking at?

What are the individual components and what do they do?
 

mmckenna

I ♥ Ø
Joined
Jul 27, 2005
Messages
25,526
Location
United States
Can someone help me understand what I'm looking at?

Amateur radio HF mobile antenna. Tunable via an internal motor. Different length whips help with resonance on specific amateur radio bands.

As goofy as that looks, I can go one better (don't have a photo, though), I worked with a ham that put one of those on top of his Mini Cooper. Was riding with him once, talking to Japan on 20 meters. Looked like a freakin' bumper car with the tall antenna.
 

mmckenna

I ♥ Ø
Joined
Jul 27, 2005
Messages
25,526
Location
United States
Why the radials? Why would only one have a corona ball?

They are not radials, radials are the ground plane under an antenna. Those are part of the radiating element and being they are different lengths, probably has to do with tuning on specific bands.

Probably only one has a corona ball because all the others fell off.
 

db_gain

Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2014
Messages
114
In my ceebeedweebee days I rolled with a 250w kicker behind a 148gtl on a 79 Monte, the ant was a Francis "Wheeler Dealer", a 109 inch fibreglas affair that was actually three quarter waves in series linearly loaded, awesome low angle of radiation. It was strapped to the rear bumper. Anyway the whip made the car look like a radio controlled toy, only much larger. I remember stopping at a light once and looking at the car behind me in the rear view, there was a young couple in the car and as they watched my antenna sway from side to side they swayed their heads in unison, making me smile. This setup easily set off business alarm systems from the road.

Apparently I ruined someone's car stereo by keying up the mic to work some dx on the way to a friends place for dinner, he was ahead of me leading the way and when we got to his place he jumped out and ran over to me all excited and said hey did you see those guys that were trying to run you off the road? I was like ummm no, who where they and what was their deal? He said all he knows is looking in his rear view there were two guys in a car next to me and he saw me key up the mic on the cb and smoke started to come out the windows of the car next to me. They were held back by traffic but tried to get up to me several times and were very aggressive about it but traffic kept thwarting whatever it was they were gonna do to me. I never even knew.

Wich reminds me of a story read in a HAM mag. There was a well known cb enthusiast who would park his car atop a hill next to said HAMs house. His cb was very wide, splattering into 10m and beyond but he chatted away for hours at times. The HAM came out and kindly asked him to remove thence as he was causing 10m interference and the cber said to go stuff himself. HAM said please consider another environ to tx from and the cber ignored HAMs pleas.

Well, next time cber showed up HAM waited till cber got settled in and started broadcasting and HAM got his point across. I left out the part where HAM had a 5 element or longer 10m beam, and a US mil surplus hf amp that would do over 5kw easily. He never ran it at 5kw in the ham bands but knew it was good to go in any hf band, so he aligned his 10m beam on target, fed his exciter to bespoke amplifier on the same channel the cber was operating on, and during a pause in bespoke cbers broadcast he keyed the exciter and sent over 5kw into bespoke 10m beam and counted to ten.

When he walked across the room and looked out the window bespoke cber was exiting his vehicle while a cloud of black smoke rolled out of the open door and windows, shortly after driving away to who knows where. The cber never came back.
 
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