Joining the dark side.....

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prcguy

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Congrats! You will not be disappointed. Someday I should post pics of my Kreco antenna collection which includes several Discones, ground planes in aluminum and brass, stacked coaxials for 2m, 220 and UHF and a beam antenna with folded coaxial driven element. I'm a big fan of Kreco.
prcguy
 

kruser

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Congrats! You will not be disappointed. Someday I should post pics of my Kreco antenna collection which includes several Discones, ground planes in aluminum and brass, stacked coaxials for 2m, 220 and UHF and a beam antenna with folded coaxial driven element. I'm a big fan of Kreco.
prcguy

No relation to Kraco I hope! Remember those guys? I think they sold cheap car radio audio amps and the like if my memory is correct.
Somewhere along the same time frame, maybe when Audiovox went to heck. Wait, I think Audiovox never needed to go to heck now that I think about it.
I think both made 8 track versions of CB receive only radios along with underdash CB converters that downconverted the CB band into the AM broadcast band.
I recall my dad having one of the underdash models so he could monitor CB 19 once. It was a small box with a huge S-Meter but you had to tune your AM car radio to make sure you were really hearing Channel 19 as it was nothing but a downconverter. The Kraco or Audiovox downconverter had an actual channel selector on it and it was easy to tune the AM car radio for the correct output as you just tuned for maximum noise indicating channel 19!

I think one of the two companies also sold one that had a fixed output frequency.

I know one of the companies also sold an actual CB transceiver or two as well.
Don't recall if that was pre 40 channel days or not though.

Please do post some pictures of some Kreco antennas though. That name just does not ring a bell in my head.
How long has Kreco been around?
 

prcguy

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Definately no relation to Kraco, which made car stereos, CBs and other stuff. I still have a bunch of Kraco 12v 20amp line filters that are good for filtering alternator whine out of car stereo and amateur radios.

Kreco antennas has been around for quite some time and I would guess 1960s or possibly earlier. I've seen their antennas in use for most of my life and I'm not that young. On the west coast I see Kreco antennas used mostly in RR, military and some very old petroleum plants. When I visit the east coast I see them everywhere.

I suspect Kreco is more of a machining operation than an antenna design company, the have sold the same antennas forever and I don't recall any new models introduced in the last 20+ years.
prcguy


No relation to Kraco I hope! Remember those guys? I think they sold cheap car radio audio amps and the like if my memory is correct.
Somewhere along the same time frame, maybe when Audiovox went to heck. Wait, I think Audiovox never needed to go to heck now that I think about it.
I think both made 8 track versions of CB receive only radios along with underdash CB converters that downconverted the CB band into the AM broadcast band.
I recall my dad having one of the underdash models so he could monitor CB 19 once. It was a small box with a huge S-Meter but you had to tune your AM car radio to make sure you were really hearing Channel 19 as it was nothing but a downconverter. The Kraco or Audiovox downconverter had an actual channel selector on it and it was easy to tune the AM car radio for the correct output as you just tuned for maximum noise indicating channel 19!

I think one of the two companies also sold one that had a fixed output frequency.

I know one of the companies also sold an actual CB transceiver or two as well.
Don't recall if that was pre 40 channel days or not though.

Please do post some pictures of some Kreco antennas though. That name just does not ring a bell in my head.
How long has Kreco been around?
 

iMONITOR

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Sep 20, 2006
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S.E. Michigan
I just sent an email to Glenn at Kreco antennas....Im finaly ordering my D-150A.


I hope you don't mind me jumping in the thread, but I'm really interested in the Kreco antennas. Do you mind me asking what the price was on the D-150A? I didn't see any prices on their web site.

Thanks
 

VE2XWA

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Montreal, Quebec
3d49e10551f0f3eff911bf30fc91fd9c.jpg
 

Wally46

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Clinton, Iowa
Just wondering what the advantage of a scanner antenna built like a tank is besides being fine after a hurricane lol
 

Boatanchor

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It certainly is built like a brick outhouse, but looking at the thickness of that center hub, I would imagine that it wouldn't do much for performance on the higher bands i.e >600Mhz. It looks nothing like the 'ideal' discone shape/configuration on those frequencies.

It's very difficult to do accurate A/B comparisons on any base antenna, but it would be interesting to note down some RSSI readings of some 800Mhz services before and after changing from a D-130 to that bulked up monster (assuming same height and coax etc).
 

prcguy

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So Cal - Richardson, TX - Tewksbury, MA
Looks like Kreco is shipping the improved version with plastic insulator to everyone now. Kreco Discones used to have a porcelin insulator and Harris requested a design change to the version you just got, although the Harris versions were black in color.
prcguy
 

gewecke

Completely Banned for the Greater Good
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Jan 29, 2006
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Illinois
Definitely an overbuilt dis-cone antenna at the least...

73,
n9zas
 

doublescan

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Aug 23, 2011
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Location
Blount Co, AL
monster antenna

Be sure to let us know how you like that super-discone. I'd be curious to know how well it works for you, and what you compare it to. Which bands, how high you placed it, etc. Never saw such a collection of metal as that!
 
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