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"The Great Antenna Test of 2025"

k4vin

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not sure what will be the best Antenna in the test.... I wish I could get the Sirio 5000 to sit flat..... it's very strange just putting my arm on the roof brings the SWR down to almost perfect...... so I'm afraid it won't be too fair to the Sirio... but my roof just isn't wide enough....

I have a feeling this antenna will beat the Sirio
Have you tried this 10 inch Cobra mag mount yet? I just bought one and haven't tested it yet. I am hoping to get 4-6 miles.
 
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slowmover

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I am still working on making the "Great Antenna Test of 2025" video... I REALLY hate video editing. takes me forever!

I needed a break so I thought I would make a quick video of WX2Watch and myself doing a range test on his way home.

we got 38.61 miles on LSB... I'm happy with that.


Maybe you’ve already figured this:

Air Miles and Driving Miles will differ.

A). The fuel retailer I use is (12) Air Miles and (14) Driving Miles.

B). Another errands address is (32) Air Miles and (41) Driving Miles.

— Will want to check for correction. If I have the address in phone or in GARMIN GPS it’ll give me the Air Miles prior to my asking it to route me.

Truck driving I’d sometimes have to search and pull up an address physically close from the satellite view to get me ballpark close.

As this is also part of learning to re-route one’s self (established basic route already), having a waypoint was the easy method to get underway.

As y’all have used that route 2X then drop a marker or six to keep in address book.

Example: from where I park the Interstate is roughly 12-miles N. From W to E are (4) major truck stops and a Blue Beacon at (3) exits. Driving distance is up to (17) miles while Air Miles is not above (15).

Terrain is more of a problem for RX on my end to make those distances challenging (with the Mobile I can rarely hear much except Skip until I’m 5-7/miles south heading North) so each mile matters more than if I were out in the Permian Basin.

When I don’t know the correction I deduct what seems fair and maybe a little more. Discuss the problem as a heads-up for others.

Nice to have seen you hit the big lights of Broadway


.
 
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niceguy71

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Have you tried this 10 inch Cobra mag mount yet? I just bought one and haven't tested it yet. I am hoping to get 4-6 miles.
I have one and it's on my list to make a video with... it will work like a walkie talkie .. maybe it will get two miles??? give it a shot, and let us know how far you get
 

niceguy71

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Terrain is more of a problem for RX on my end to make those distances challenging (with the Mobile I can rarely hear much except Skip until I’m 5-7/miles south heading North) so each mile matters more than if I were out in the Permian Basin.

When I don’t know the correction I deduct what seems fair and maybe a little more. Discuss the problem as a heads-up for others.

Nice to have seen you hit the big lights of Broadway


.
WOW I made it to "Home of the Wizard" !!!!!!

I always watch his channel.. very smart guy.

I use google maps and I know driving distance and google as the crow flies are different... we used google maps and all my distances are as the crow flies.

we had 4 antennas on our Great Antenna test do over 9 miles mobile to mobile going through dense forests..... and a couple do less than 5 miles and one do less than 3.5 miles. so it was a very useful test and did actually tell us what antennas did good and what didn't do very good.

SlowMover.... how the devil did you find that????
 

slowmover

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WOW I made it to "Home of the Wizard" !!!!!!

I always watch his channel.. very smart guy.

I use google maps and I know driving distance and google as the crow flies are different... we used google maps and all my distances are as the crow flies.

we had 4 antennas on our Great Antenna test do over 9 miles mobile to mobile going through dense forests..... and a couple do less than 5 miles and one do less than 3.5 miles. so it was a very useful test and did actually tell us what antennas did good and what didn't do very good.

SlowMover.... how the devil did you find that????

Good. Just wanted to cross the “t”and dot the “i”. Driving distance can get rapidly different.

Online link.


.
 

niceguy71

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I'm working on the video..... I have an intro and an exit video... I have antenna height measurements video .. I have swr videos for each antenna and I have the antennas going in and out of my garage video..... I just finished the first test we did.... I started with the smallest antenna and worked our way up by height...
well it's 6 minutes of edited footage from my truck and 6 minutes of edited footage from WX2Watch's truck.... so just this one of 7 antenna videos is 12 minutes!!!!! this is going to be a 3 hour video!!!!! I'm really not sure how I'll trim it down..... I'll share this teaser clip with you tonight and delete it later.

the little Wilson, we were able to talk back and forth at 4.35 miles.... 4 of the other antennas we were able to hear each other and understand each other past 9 miles just plainly talking back and forth.

now for something very strange!
I checked all my antennas SWR with my Rig-Expert AA54 and most of the test I had my little Chinese SWR meter/ SWR warning meter turned on.... ( I forgot on this first video ) both had about the same readings. and all the antennas worked ok.....
watching the test the QT-60 showed over a 3.5 on the SWR... but never gave me a high SWR message..... in many of my videos you can see my Chinese meter showing an SWR of 1.1 to 1.6 and the QT-60 showing over 3.5????
it did that for all the antennas???? I was driving so I never looked at it..... and didn't notice it until I looked at WX2Watch 5555 NII... his SWR meter showed 1.1 ... but mine was always over 3.... I am going with my Rig-Expert and inline Chinese SWR meter ....and not going to worry about what the QT-60 says
the Tram 3500 I keep on my roof , I check every month or so... and it's always 1.2... and that's what I got before I went out on the test.... but the video of the Tram 3500 also shows 3.5 SWR???? so all the footage of the QT-60 was always showing terrible SWR's

that is very strange and I'm not too happy about it.. I like things to work....... I had this radio on my base for the last 6 months before moving it into my pick-up truck... and the SWR was always 1.2 ( I think... I never look at it to be honest, but I would have thought I'd notice it.)
maybe I'll have to bring it back into my Base Station for a test.

when I transmit near the Space Force Base they seem to come out and follow me.???? maybe it's my imagination???? .. so I try not to transmit near the base

here is a sample of my Great CB Antenna Test of 2025... watch it if you feel like it or not... it's not very entertaining at all ...but I enjoy doing them.

 
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niceguy71

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I'm working on the video..... I have an intro and an exit video... I have antenna height measurements video .. I have swr videos for each antenna and I have the antennas going in and out of my garage video..... I just finished the first test we did.... I started with the smallest antenna and worked our way up by height...
well it's 6 minutes of edited footage from my truck and 6 minutes of edited footage from WX2Watch's truck.... so just this one of 7 antenna videos is 12 minutes!!!!! this is going to be a 3 hour video!!!!! I'm really not sure how I'll trim it down..... I'll share this teaser clip with you tonight and delete it later.

the little Wilson, we were able to talk back and forth at 4.35 miles.... 4 of the other antennas we were able to hear each other and understand each other past 9 miles just plainly talking back and forth.

now for something very strange!
I checked all my antennas SWR with my Rig-Expert AA54 and most of the test I had my little Chinese SWR meter/ SWR warning meter turned on.... ( I forgot on this first video ) both had about the same readings. and all the antennas worked ok.....
watching the test the QT-60 showed over a 3.5 on the SWR... but never gave me a high SWR message..... in many of my videos you can see my Chinese meter showing an SWR of 1.1 to 1.6 and the QT-60 showing over 3.5????
it did that for all the antennas???? I was driving so I never looked at it..... and didn't notice it until I looked at WX2Watch 5555 NII... his SWR meter showed 1.1 ... but mine was always over 3.... I am going with my Rig-Expert and inline Chinese SWR meter ....and not going to worry about what the QT-60 says
the Tram 3500 I keep on my roof , I check every month or so... and it's always 1.2... and that's what I got before I went out on the test.... but the video of the Tram 3500 also shows 3.5 SWR???? so all the footage of the QT-60 was always showing terrible SWR's

that is very strange and I'm not too happy about it.. I like things to work....... I had this radio on my base for the last 6 months before moving it into my pick-up truck... and the SWR was always 1.2 ( I think... I never look at it to be honest, but I would have thought I'd notice it.)
maybe I'll have to bring it back into my Base Station for a test.

when I transmit near the Space Force Base they seem to come out and follow me.???? maybe it's my imagination???? .. so I try not to transmit near the base

here is a sample of my Great CB Antenna Test of 2025... watch it if you feel like it or not... it's not very entertaining at all ...but I enjoy doing them.


I talked on the truck radio today... it was perfect.. 1.3 SWR....... then on the way home it was bad again??? so I took a quick video... the QT-60 shows a bad SWR and the little Chinese meter reads 1.3??????? can they both be right?

I pulled and twisted my coax cables in the truck and found the coax from the QT-60 to the Chinese meter which has a 90 degree bend built into the coax seemed to start working when I wiggled it... I have tried several of these 90 degree coax's and they are all junk.

in my Great Antenna Test Video the SWR was always bad... I don't know how that effected the test... but we were able to talk over 9 miles mobile to mobile... so I think it still told us what we wanted to know..

 

niceguy71

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off topic

I went in to the Doctor's office today to see about getting a new knee..... ... we flipped the book open and I saw Stryker SR-A10 CB antenna????? the doctor said no not that... he flipped the page and showed me the Stryker Knee he likes to use?????

I asked if they have good stuff??? he flipped a few more pages past a CB radio and came up on Stryker replacement hips?????

really????

so I snapped a few pictures.... I think I'll get the Stryker Knee
 

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prcguy

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off topic

I went in to the Doctor's office today to see about getting a new knee..... ... we flipped the book open and I saw Stryker SR-A10 CB antenna????? the doctor said no not that... he flipped the page and showed me the Stryker Knee he likes to use?????

I asked if they have good stuff??? he flipped a few more pages past a CB radio and came up on Stryker replacement hips?????

really????

so I snapped a few pictures.... I think I'll get the Stryker Knee
Make sure you check the SWR before installing, its a b*tch to tune after. And get the same length whip as the other leg so you don't walk funny.
 

niceguy71

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niceguy71

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Don't know what brand those are, and I don't know what brands I used, but -every- time I've used a 90º UHF adapter, I've had issues.
the QT-60 sits in a different spot than my old President Grant... so I think I can just screw in a 2 foot coax cable... ... my Grand was just about on the floor.
and the price is right

I know what I'll be doing tomorrow... I may try to take my K-40 for a test drive mobile to mobile.... my K-40 was shorted out during the GAT ( Great Antenna Test) but I now have a new K40 Coax and magnet.

I was so incredibly disappointed with the Larsen NMO27... I may even take that for a ride and see if it does better now that I'll fix the SWR....

we shall see
 

niceguy71

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here is the Larsen part of the GAT ( "Great Antenna Test of 2025" )

all antennas had a 5 inch magnetic base... including this Larsen ( LiL Wil was 3" and the Sirio was 6" ) but the good antennas had a 5 inch magnetic base

WX2 thought the Wilson LiL Wil was the worst antenna we tested.... but I think this was the worst.... I could not hear him good enough to talk after 4 miles.

now that I watch the test it looks like my SWR was off??? but all antennas had the same issue and most did fantastic... but not this Larsen!.... I know it should be mounted in a hole... but it was still sitting on the same size magnet as all the other good antennas... so I'm very disappointed with the Larsen NMO27

your mileage may very... but this is what it did for us... I can't fake it

don't shoot the messenger

my Chinese SWR meter shows 1.5 SWR

 
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Davidbt

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off topic

I went in to the Doctor's office today to see about getting a new knee..... ... we flipped the book open and I saw Stryker SR-A10 CB antenna????? the doctor said no not that... he flipped the page and showed me the Stryker Knee he likes to use?????

I asked if they have good stuff??? he flipped a few more pages past a CB radio and came up on Stryker replacement hips?????

really????

so I snapped a few pictures.... I think I'll get the Stryker Knee
Wow, I wonder what brand revision I got last year 😳
 
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