"The Great Antenna Test of 2025"

[EAFrizzle]

Just got a Sirio Performer 5000 (w/o green light👍) put on the car for comparison against the Stryker SR-A10 on the G90. SW reception was already good, but hopefully the extra length will help a bit there. SWR < 2:1 from 25.800 to 27.660; good enough as is with the internal tuner. Will report back.

 

[niceguy71]

Just got a Sirio Performer 5000 (w/o green light👍) put on the car for comparison against the Stryker SR-A10 on the G90. SW reception was already good, but hopefully the extra length will help a bit there. SWR < 2:1 from 25.800 to 27.660; good enough as is with the internal tuner. Will report back.

is that going to be a daily driver antenna?
I found it to be a bit long for me
( who am I kidding..... the thing was cutting the clouds in half )

 

[EAFrizzle]

Yes, daily use on a Nissan Rogue in a rural/semi-rural area, so the extra height is only a bonus for me.

 

[slowmover]

Yes, daily use on a Nissan Rogue in a rural/semi-rural area, so the extra height is only a bonus for me.

But can it reach Parker County?

6’8” or 7’ (President Texas) . . now total length and total clearance is hair-splitting.

I guess we’ll have to break out the 0/2 to power up the big iron to find out.

.

 

[K6GBW]

totally agree... nothing but a money pit

sorry for getting off the CB forum

now as for a money pit.... it does give you incredible performance when it runs ... the 2007 to 2025 Jeeps have BLD "Brake Lock Differential" differentials.... it makes the front and rear ends like having a posi... all 4 wheels have speed sensors and a computer... if one wheel spins it applies the brake to that wheel causing the opposite wheel to spin.. so it will crab walk out of anything... absolutely brilliant idea. if you watch any 4-wheeling video of 2007 and up jeeps.... you will see it is unstoppable.... also the 3.6 engine has 275 HP in a small platform ( at least in the 2 door ) meaning it has unstoppable off road capabilities and a plenty of power to make it fun.
people drive them 50% of the time and push or tow them the other 50%

but something will break on a daily basis if you get a used Jeep...... so they tell me

I know return us to a CB forum

JEEP...Just Empty Every Pocket! Ask me how I know.


B

 

[EAFrizzle]

But can it reach Parker County?

No.

It can't even reach Ellis County.

This week, I've compared the Sirio Performer 5000, a Wilson Lil Wil, and the Stryker SAR-10. Both on the car and the metal roof, the Stryker was a clear winner over the Sirio and Wilson, which were about equal. Radios were a Xiegu G90 and QT-60Pro, on skip and local traffic.

Weak SSB signals easily heard on the Stryker were gone on the other two; most noticeable was the complete disappearance of those faint voices in the distance that you can hear on an NRC radio.

Broadcast SW reception was similar on the Stryker and the Sirio; the Wilson markedly worse.

I was unimpressed with the quality of the Sirio antenna; the castings and machining are not great(or even good). Strangely, the Sirio makes more wind noise than the Stryker.

All they guys around here love their Sirio 5000s. They were surprised at the difference the Stryker made in my signal, 1-2 s-units on their RX.

Twice the price, twice the size, and about the same performance as the Lil Wil. What's not to love about the Sirio? 🤣

 

[slowmover]

No.

It can't even reach Ellis County.

This week, I've compared the Sirio Performer 5000, a Wilson Lil Wil, and the Stryker SAR-10. Both on the car and the metal roof, the Stryker was a clear winner over the Sirio and Wilson, which were about equal. Radios were a Xiegu G90 and QT-60Pro, on skip and local traffic.

Weak SSB signals easily heard on the Stryker were gone on the other two; most noticeable was the complete disappearance of those faint voices in the distance that you can hear on an NRC radio.

Broadcast SW reception was similar on the Stryker and the Sirio; the Wilson markedly worse.

I was unimpressed with the quality of the Sirio antenna; the castings and machining are not great(or even good). Strangely, the Sirio makes more wind noise than the Stryker.

All they guys around here love their Sirio 5000s. They were surprised at the difference the Stryker made in my signal, 1-2 s-units on their RX.

Twice the price, twice the size, and about the same performance as the Lil Wil. What's not to love about the Sirio? 🤣

As there are several models of the S-5000 Performer you have the manufacturer SKU for the one you own?

All of them in baseload configuration ?

WILSON 5000 (Stryker SRA) is a good antenna by design. Sounds like QC is still desirable.



What mount on that NISSAN? It have one of those huge sunroofs?

I added more bonding to the FREIGHTLINER Evolution I was in to improve the S-5000 Performer 3/8. This was after having to swap 8” (?) lower shafts for 44” SS shafts to get the coil up away from the massive A-pillar (wound up just over 8’).



The Wilson 2000’s were good (also mid-coil), but not as good. Same for top load SKIP-SHOOTER 7’.

I haven’t done back-to-back between the Texas and the S-5000.




PREDATOR 10K as well as the S-E GR45, also (open coil)

That’s a great pair of radios by which to test!

Thanks.

.

 

[niceguy71]

No.

It can't even reach Ellis County.

This week, I've compared the Sirio Performer 5000, a Wilson Lil Wil, and the Stryker SAR-10. Both on the car and the metal roof, the Stryker was a clear winner over the Sirio and Wilson, which were about equal. Radios were a Xiegu G90 and QT-60Pro, on skip and local traffic.

Weak SSB signals easily heard on the Stryker were gone on the other two; most noticeable was the complete disappearance of those faint voices in the distance that you can hear on an NRC radio.

Broadcast SW reception was similar on the Stryker and the Sirio; the Wilson markedly worse.

I was unimpressed with the quality of the Sirio antenna; the castings and machining are not great(or even good). Strangely, the Sirio makes more wind noise than the Stryker.

All they guys around here love their Sirio 5000s. They were surprised at the difference the Stryker made in my signal, 1-2 s-units on their RX.

Twice the price, twice the size, and about the same performance as the Lil Wil. What's not to love about the Sirio? 🤣

I can't believe anyone would put the Sirio 5000 and the Lil Wil in the same category.
but if that's your results, than that's your results.
curious..... were you transmitting with the little Wil or receiving with the Little Wil? ....if you were only transmitting with it... it will totally change your perspective.

in my test
the Lil Wil was much better receiving then I thought it would be ...but much worse transmitting then I could ever believe!
I took it out for my test in my truck..... and I was hearing WX2Watch pretty decently ( he was using a Stryker SR-A10 ) I "thought" we were talking fine at 3 miles and "ok" at 4 miles .... at 5 miles I could still hear him... ... but I could hear him at the 5 mile mark and I thought he could hear me... so I was thinking it wasn't so bad..... then later I watched the footage of WX2Watch's radio and I could hardly hear myself after 3 mile.... 4 miles I was lucky to hear every tenth word.... and by 5 miles WX2Watch's Anytone 5555 N II with Stryker SR-A10 could not hear me at all.... I was not even transmitting 4 miles clearly!... but if I had not seen the footage of the radio that had to listen to the Lil Wil I would have thought it was ok.

the Sirio sounded great on both radios... it was crystal clear out to 5 miles and sounded the same as the 3 other top antennas out to 9.13 miles

I'm not a Sirio 5000 lover... but it's performance was probably the best in "my" test of the 7 antennas..... I really hate it's ridiculous height... it was like driving around with a flagpole on my truck... and the 6 inch magnet was too big to fit between the grooves on my F-150 also when I hit something it bent and stayed bent??? I could manually straighten it ..... but most antennas don't easily bend like the Sirio 5000 did.....
but it's performance I would never question,
to be honest it was very difficult to tell the difference between the Stryker SR-A10, Wilson 1000, Tram 3500, and the Sirio fighter 5000.... the Sirio seemed to hear just a little better than the other three.

 

[EAFrizzle]

TX and RX in testing. Same-branded magnet mounts for each. Center of car roof and metal roof of the shack used as ground plane. Maybe the glowing ones work better or something, but this Performer 5000 PL is completely unimpressive to me. I'll use it on the shack for shortwave, maybe cut it for low band or something, but the Stryker is going back on the car. I can at least talk to Waxahachie and Red Oak with it.

 

[EAFrizzle]

...also when I hit something it bent and stayed bent??? I could manually straighten it ..... but most antennas don't easily bend like the Sirio 5000 did.....

This is from hitting 90 mph on I-45 this morning. No impact, just wind.



What a piece of garbage. Sirio just lost some other sales from this junk; I'm about to put up some base antennas and had my eye on a few Sirio models, but they just got kicked off the list.

Seriously, even Chinese Shinola is better quality!🤣🤣🤣

 

[WSAC829]

That’s a bummer. Maybe you ended up with a “Shirio” Chinese knock-off from a shoddy Amazon seller? I don’t own any of their mobile antennas, but i ordered my base antenna direct from Sirio in Italy. No issues with it yet, and it’s made it through some pretty brutal WI tornado season and winter blizzard winds. Still straight as an arrow.

 

[EAFrizzle]

I got the scratch-off/shiny thingy code to the Sirio Italian website, and it says it's real. Same with the mag mount.

I do have to say that the Sirio mag mount itself is very good; I'll probably leave it on the car and slap the Stryker on it.

 

[EAFrizzle]

I'm going with a Colossal 5/8 for the base. A friend back in Houston has one, and it's a monster. Now to decide on whether I want to buy or make some scanner beams. Might try making a 7/800 Log-Yag to point at Dallas.

 

[niceguy71]

This is from hitting 90 mph on I-45 this morning. No impact, just wind.

View attachment 193314

What a piece of garbage. Sirio just lost some other sales from this junk; I'm about to put up some base antennas and had my eye on a few Sirio models, but they just got kicked off the list.

Seriously, even Chinese Shinola is better quality!🤣🤣🤣

yup I was shocked the antenna material was like that of a coat hanger... you could hand bend it to any shape you wanted ... not the stainless steel springy material I'm used too .... but they must have had a reason for making it that way??? I just assumed that, .... that material must receive and transmit better than the other antennas on the market.... I wasn't complaining about it..... but I was very surprised.... again it did work really good.. just not worth the extra money and extra height.

 

[KB4MSZ]

I'm about to put up some base antennas and had my eye on a few Sirio models, but they just got kicked off the list.

Just keep your base station antennas under 90 mph and you should do fine.

 

[mrweather]

That's weird that it would bend that far up the whip and not at the ferule base.

I guess coat hanger steel is cheaper than spring steel.

 

[niceguy71]

all this talk about the Sirio, got me to rewatch the Sirio part of my "Great Antenna test of 2025"
I wasn't going to publish it, as I hooked a QT-60 into my truck for the test about 30 minutes before the test... and I didn't notice the two foot long jumper coax was giving me over a 10 on the SWR meter.....
so I've been debating whether to redo the test.....but I just finished the Jeep test and our results using the Stryker SR-A10 were basically the same, in the same locations as the "Great Antenna Test of 2025" so I think I'll go with my recordings of the test we did, as they seem to work just as good .. or about the same as when my SWR was 1.2 VS SWR 10

the Sirio did really good on our test... but it would be impossible to say it was any better or worse than the top 4 antennas of our test....

if I "had" to rate them.....
the Sirio Fighter 5000 would probably be in first place for Transmit and receive.

for transmit only
Sirio Fighter 5000
Tram 3500
Stryker SR-A10
K-40
Wilson 1000
Larsen NMO-27
LiL Will

for Receive only
Sirio Fighter 5000
Stryker SR-A10
Wilson 1000
K-40
Tram 3500
Lil Will
Larsen NMO-27

I had forgotten the fun we had doing the test. ...
I thought the build quality of the Sirio was pretty good... but the design didn't work for me.

 

[K9KLC]

I'm going with a Colossal 5/8 for the base.

I'd love to see an SWR plot on that when you get it tuned and up. I know it says bandwidth 600 KHz but still curious.

 

[niceguy71]

all this talk about the Sirio, got me to rewatch the Sirio part of my "Great Antenna test of 2025"
I wasn't going to publish it, as I hooked a QT-60 into my truck for the test about 30 minutes before the test... and I didn't notice the two foot long jumper coax was giving me over a 10 on the SWR meter.....
so I've been debating whether to redo the test.....but I just finished the Jeep test and our results using the Stryker SR-A10 were basically the same, in the same locations as the "Great Antenna Test of 2025" so I think I'll go with my recordings of the test we did, as they seem to work just as good .. or about the same as when my SWR was 1.2 VS SWR 10

the Sirio did really good on our test... but it would be impossible to say it was any better or worse than the top 4 antennas of our test....

if I "had" to rate them.....
the Sirio Fighter 5000 would probably be in first place for Transmit and receive.

for transmit only
Sirio Fighter 5000
Tram 3500
Stryker SR-A10
K-40
Wilson 1000
Larsen NMO-27
LiL Will

for Receive only
Sirio Fighter 5000
Stryker SR-A10
Wilson 1000
K-40
Tram 3500
Lil Will
Larsen NMO-27

I had forgotten the fun we had doing the test. ...
I thought the build quality of the Sirio was pretty good... but the design didn't work for me.

I'd like to see how WX2Watch would rate the 7 antennas???

( the K-40 had to be taken out mid test due to a broken coax but it was still doing well and we did test it until the 5 mile location ... that's when my SWR warning beeper was going off nonstop when I was transmitting )

perception is always different... what I could hear driving at 70 MPH with a small dog jumping around on my lap and no external speaker will be different for WX2Watch that was sitting stationary with the windows down on a nice calm day with only the birds singing for distraction.

 

[slowmover]

I whacked some stuff with the pair of S-5000 Performer 3/8 on the Freightliner over more than 50k miles and they’re still straight. Tapered alum Corona balls on them.

I hit 75-78/MPH a few times.
Was in high winds many times.

Mine were cut back substantially to accommodate 44” risers from original 71” whip length

The antennas now at just over 8’ from original 6’8”. Probably 53-55” of the lower portion whip remains.

You’re the first one I’ve seen have these complaints. So I also suspect counterfeit.

S5k or W2k / 5k have been no-brainer choices quite awhile.

.