I max 2000

[The Collector]

My Thunderpole was just above the apex of the roof so not stupidly high. It got out really well and was probably 3 times better than the crappy Invader it replaced.

The neighbouring kids used to try and hit it with snowballs when it snowed and rockets when it was Bonfire Night, so I think my dad probably thought it best that this new "bloody massive" aerial as he called it, was best stuck on the garage in the back garden where it couldn't be shot at.

I lost about 15ft in height though base to base, but the tips were about the same overall when I took the Thunderpole down. It'd been hit by lightning twice too and had a hole in it that was covered in insulation tape, so that was another reason for my dad's insistance that the new aerial was mounted elsewhere.

[43Echo695]

I find my Imax 2000 a good antenna & like the ease of assembly/disassembly which is handy as I do a lot
of field work.

Have spray painted mine 'stealth' black so it doesn't stand out as much when used at home!

Are they still being made??

Agreed on issues with high winds, have thought of reinforcing mine with cable ties & some dowel, but
haven't tried this yet.

Would be handy if Solarcon made a 4-section variant, with a stronger middle & a shorter tip, would also
be a shorter package to box & ship.

The Imax 3000 perhaps????

73's

[108EH002]

The 4 section Solarcon 2000 dx.......far less whip keeping your vertical Solarcon straighter in the strongest/highest winds

[The Collector]

Wrap Bacofoil around your guttering's downpipe (obviously trim for SWR ), clip on a crocodile clip at the bottom and voila! You have a stealth antenna. Just attach a tumble dryer etc. for a groundplane.

It's dual-purpose too, as if you've run out of foil for your turkey at Christmas, you can unwrap it and use it for that

[108EH002]

^^Take it you finally cracked collector after all they years of having to hide your "twigs" inside bushes,and thought enoughs enough = can't kid a kidder ^^

Make sure the downpipe isn't metal as its better if you put a vertical dipole onto plastic pipes,as you'd connect the live that is already running to the GROUND,so my CB bible says

[jkb]

Thanks all. I’m looking for something a bit more stealthy than my 827 later in the year! I may add some layers of lacquer before it goes up.

[The Collector]

I wonder how much it would cost to anodise something like that? It wouldn't corrode as easily then and would be ideal if very near the sea.

I remember the "Blue Laser/Lazer" Silver Rod- type aerial from the 80's was anodised (blue obviously) and I saw one last year on ebay and it still looked really good.

[NightProwler]

I remember those blue rods, A mate had one on his chimney and it looked weird.

[The Collector]

I've bought a year-old Imax for £40 on ebay and I'm picking it up on Friday not too far away.

Does anyone know if the single-piece 9ft tankwhip is parallel or tapered, or if it's better to have the two-piece version? I don't want it whipping about too much in the air if possible. Might look at getting a 7ft Firestik otherwise, but it might take a bit more swr'ing in (have got a Zetagi swr/matcher box though).

[The Collector]

Well I've bitten the bullet and ordered a single-piece 108" whip, so one of the days when I've got time to myself (rare nowadays) I'll get it all sorted.

[The Collector]

Thought I'd add further to this as it's a relevent post regarding reliability.

I gave my newly-bought-off-ebay Imax a quick rub-down with some rough wet&dry paper prior to blasting over it with brown and green spray paint to camoflage it (It'll live up inside some conifers like my camo'd Antron A99 does currently), when I noticed a thin black line forming. It turns out it had got a 7ft linear crack line down the middle section!

So, out came the dremel, 3 small abrasive discs were attached and a nice 2mm channel grooved out where the crack was. It was then filled with fibre-glass resin and left to set. A quick sand, a thin coat of car filler over the top to smooth out any imperfections, another quick sand and then on with the paint.

What a palaver. This aerial was supposedly only a year old, so either that wasn't true, or the manufacturers are churning off poorer quality ones nowadays. You can buy each section separately I found, but I'm buggered if I'm forking out £45 plus postage for a new centre-section! My Antron/A99's the best part of 25 years old and it's not gone like this has.

I've attached a few pic's so it may help anyone else out in the future.

I'd have conta ted the seller, but being as I could fix it, plus I got the aerial plus £50's worth of 213 co-ax for £40, I mustn't grumble too much and the seller might not have noticed when taking it down. The co-ax also had no continuity on the outer braid (bet he struggled to get out well) and water ingress for a good foot too.

[ch25]

Connector was wrong mounted, that's why.
Chris

[The Collector]

Yeah, looks like someone had either cut all the braid off whilst screwing on the connector, or perhaps the water had helped to corrode the copper filaments of the braid and they snapped off bit by bit as the co-ax moved in the wind through metal fatigue. Either way, only the centre of the co-ax was connected. The cheap connector's insulation piece melted within 3 seconds of me putting a 25watt soldering iron on it too.

[ch25]

Braid as well as centre conductor must be soldered. Not just screwed in.
Chris

[The Collector]

Braid as well as centre conductor must be soldered. Not just screwed in.
Chris

Is that by soldering through the holes on the side of the connector Chris? I've never done it that way myself (and never had one fail), but when I got my first CB at 14 and my dad fitted up my Invader aerial on the roof for me, I always remember that he did that...although it took ages for the connector to get hot enough for the solder to flow into it.