Niljon

[E-Man]

I have not heard anything recent about this antenna, so I thought I would bring it up.

For those of you not fimilar, I am referring to this antenna:

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/scanants/2063.html

I purchased this antenna several years ago, not long after it came out I believe, after reading glowing reviews, notabley from Rich Wells at SS and I believe Bob Grove.

As with any purchase I try to do my homework, their website (which is down, and I am not sure if the company is even in business anymore?) claimed that this antenna was state of the art, new technology etc. that could penetrate through trees and foliage, and could bring in weak signals like no other.

Living in the forest, I thought I had found the ultimate antenna. Well after my non professional tests and comparisons, it is my opinion that I have been douped. IMO this $100.00 antenna is no better than my $20.00 20-176.

For those of you that have had this antenna, I am curious as to what your thoughts are?

 

[af5rn]

Ya know, Grove still raves about that thing. And I too have wondered how accurate all the hype was. Now I'm not above paying $100 bucks for an antenna. My base antenna cost nearly three times that. But I dunno, it just sounded too good to be true. And the mobile version is just too ugly to put on any vehicle I would actually be seen driving.

I am currently buying up one of every commonly available mobile scanner antenna on the market so I can do some quantitative analysis of their performance for the Wiki. I keep going back and considering getting a NilJon for the test, but man... $80 bucks for basically three quarter-wave whips stuck to an NMO mount is just something I can't bring myself to do in good conscience. Especially since I have never, ever seen anybody who actually had one of these things. I'm betting you would get better performance cheaper by simply combining three quarter-wave whips into one feed yourself.

 

[WouffHong]

Description Inaccuracies..

There is no way ANY antenna can override the laws of physics and the fact that organic items like trees with an inherent fluid content in the vegetation can attenuate UHF signals.. -- To plow through that, the antenna would need to have a built-in ray-gun blaster. (ROTFL)

Antenna height or a "clear shot" towards the site(s) you monitor is the answer to to vegetative attenuation, especially in the higher frequency ranges. Of course, a Beam will HELP..

Yup - sounds like hyped advertising, which is surprising from those folks!!

Rat-Shack has a small $25.99 discone kinda thing that I use on 2 meters and 440 Mhz, and it works great for under 30 bux.. -- I even use it on the scanners and durn thing does pretty well up into the 460+ mhz region (we have no 800 Mhz stuff up here in the stix. )

Got a second one of them sitting on a Mag mount on a steel shelf in the cellar I use when lightning is flashing about these hills..

Product # Model: 20-176

73

Tom
also in the Forest - of N. GA
http://rettysnitch.org

I have not heard anything recent about this antenna, so I thought I would bring it up.

For those of you not fimilar, I am referring to this antenna:

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/scanants/2063.html

I purchased this antenna several years ago, not long after it came out I believe, after reading glowing reviews, notabley from Rich Wells at SS and I believe Bob Grove.

As with any purchase I try to do my homework, their website (which is down, and I am not sure if the company is even in business anymore?) claimed that this antenna was state of the art, new technology etc. that could penetrate through trees and foliage, and could bring in weak signals like no other.

Living in the forest, I thought I had found the ultimate antenna. Well after my non professional tests and comparisons, it is my opinion that I have been douped. IMO this $100.00 antenna is no better than my $20.00 20-176.

For those of you that have had this antenna, I am curious as to what your thoughts are?

 

[K8PBX]

I have two of the Niljon Super-M antennas (with the ground plane kits) up on my tower at about 35' and remain pleased with their performance. I use one for FM radio (whole house feed) and the other into a multicoupler/DA with outputs to various scanners. As a comparison, I find the performance pretty much equal to my Diamond DJ130 discone. I've had the Super-M's up for better than 5 years now, and although initially concerned about their durability, they've held up really well through numerous ice storms and heavy winds. Perhaps a bit pricey, but for their size, in my opinion they're a good performer.

Pics of how I have them installed are on my humble website. Link below.

 

[WouffHong]

Amazing

That is an AMAZING setup - With all that distribution gear downstairs, you must HAVE a full-blown PBX (as in W8PBX) there!
Nice work!!
Tom

I have two of the Niljon Super-M antennas (with the ground plane kits) up on my tower at about 35' and remain pleased with their performance. I use one for FM radio (whole house feed) and the other into a multicoupler/DA with outputs to various scanners. As a comparison, I find the performance pretty much equal to my Diamond DJ130 discone. I've had the Super-M's up for better than 5 years now, and although initially concerned about their durability, they've held up really well through numerous ice storms and heavy winds. Perhaps a bit pricey, but for their size, in my opinion they're a good performer.

Pics of how I have them installed are on my humble website. Link below.

 

[E-Man]

Ya know, Grove still raves about that thing. And I too have wondered how accurate all the hype was. Now I'm not above paying $100 bucks for an antenna. My base antenna cost nearly three times that. But I dunno, it just sounded too good to be true. And the mobile version is just too ugly to put on any vehicle I would actually be seen driving.

I am currently buying up one of every commonly available mobile scanner antenna on the market so I can do some quantitative analysis of their performance for the Wiki. I keep going back and considering getting a NilJon for the test, but man... $80 bucks for basically three quarter-wave whips stuck to an NMO mount is just something I can't bring myself to do in good conscience. Especially since I have never, ever seen anybody who actually had one of these things. I'm betting you would get better performance cheaper by simply combining three quarter-wave whips into one feed yourself.

Thats awesome, I look forward to reading about your comparison results, what are you using for a base antenna?

 

[E-Man]

I have two of the Niljon Super-M antennas (with the ground plane kits) up on my tower at about 35' and remain pleased with their performance. I use one for FM radio (whole house feed) and the other into a multicoupler/DA with outputs to various scanners. As a comparison, I find the performance pretty much equal to my Diamond DJ130 discone. I've had the Super-M's up for better than 5 years now, and although initially concerned about their durability, they've held up really well through numerous ice storms and heavy winds. Perhaps a bit pricey, but for their size, in my opinion they're a good performer.

Pics of how I have them installed are on my humble website. Link below.

Thanks for your input, Steve that is the most professional install I have seen!

 

[af5rn]

Thats awesome, I look forward to reading about your comparison results, what are you using for a base antenna?

Thanks. I still have two or three more antennas coming in the mail. Then I have to steal a service monitor from somewhere and start testing. It won't be a short process, but it will be a thorough and objective one. I'll be testing about a dozen common scanner antennae, the ones available at the major suppliers and often discussed here.

I use an Austin Ferret for my base omni, which thankfully works a lot better than the Austin Spectra.

 

[prcguy]

af5rn,
I see So. Cal listed in your Avatar. If your ever near the LA CA area, I have lots of antenna measuring equipment, reference dipoles and piles of mobile and base antennas to compare also.
prcguy

Thanks. I still have two or three more antennas coming in the mail. Then I have to steal a service monitor from somewhere and start testing. It won't be a short process, but it will be a thorough and objective one. I'll be testing about a dozen common scanner antennae, the ones available at the major suppliers and often discussed here.

I use an Austin Ferret for my base omni, which thankfully works a lot better than the Austin Spectra.

 

[af5rn]

If your ever near the LA CA area, I have lots of antenna measuring equipment, reference dipoles and piles of mobile and base antennas to compare also.

Ah, man! That would be awesome! Unfortunately, I have all this stuff at my Dallas area home, where I spend most of my time. I used to work at a radio shop up on a hill, out in the middle of nowhere. I'm hoping that they'll let me come in some night and use their service monitor and spectrum analyser for this project. Usually, a case of beer will get you lots of good will there. :lol:

 

[stevolene]

Thanks. I still have two or three more antennas coming in the mail. Then I have to steal a service monitor from somewhere and start testing. It won't be a short process, but it will be a thorough and objective one. I'll be testing about a dozen common scanner antennae, the ones available at the major suppliers and often discussed here.

I use an Austin Ferret for my base omni, which thankfully works a lot better than the Austin Spectra.

hehehe, man you sound like me, Ive went crazy buying different antennas lately, I have 2 scantenna's, one in the box one laying in the backyard, several different kinds a mobile antennas (which so far work as good or better than the scantenna's) at the same altitude of course. I guess Im gonna have to buy one of those sputnik rat shack antenna's, the scantenna isnt working due to the large size, and unfortunately, I cant have a permanent antenna in the air right now, when Im outside on days off Ill grab my portable 20 foot mast and run an antenna in the air for awhile, the scantenna is just too bulky, Ive had good luck with a mobile mag on a pie plate