Mono Band Mobile Whips - any experiences?

[StoatTB]

Hi folks,

Last year I was given a 40m mono band whip by a friend, until recently
I hadn't used it.  In the last month or so, I've used it at work on a
mag mount base onto a steel portacabin roof and have been very
impressed with it (don't mention the rf burn to my mic hand LOL).

I've had some cracking contacts during the late evening Inter G with
some very strong signals back and forth. During a recent contest, I
worked into the US and Brazil with it just using 100W.

This aerial is about 7 feet long with a helically wound loading coil,
shrink wrapped over a fibreglass former that's about 4 feet long. I
didn't think it would be must use being cheap, low Q, etc. but I'm
very surprised. I think it cost the original owner about £20'ish from
Lamco...

Has anyone else have experiences of working with these type of
aerials?  I'm thinking of getting one for 80m, but know the losses
against an 80m dipole are going to be huge!

[26sd021]

i have 3 of these type aerials mine are the ampros made by moonraker , i have the 40m , 20m and 15m ones and find they work very well indeed particularly for the higher bands my friend had the 80m version and it worked ok as well , i managed to work all over the pacific from my mobile with these aerials from a local beach !!!

[northern35s]

These things work.

Bang for buck, nothing competes with the higher frequency versions, I've got quite a few, some left as they are, others converted into large coil multibanders, they make a great blank for experimentation, but will work very well just as they are.

Expect high losses and narrow bandwidth the lower in frequency you go

[Yeti]

I had an 80m one and a 20m one. The first 20m was on the roof of the car as we were driving and was hit by a seagull - it snapped right at the bottom!

I sold the 80m one at the Magnum and got another 20m recently. I had been impressed with the 20m on - had some contacts to the US last summer from Ayr beach on the FT847.

[northern35s]

I had an 80m one and a 20m one. The first 20m was on the roof of the car as we were driving and was hit by a seagull - it snapped right at the bottom!

I sold the 80m one at the Magnum and got another 20m recently. I had been impressed with the 20m on - had some contacts to the US last summer from Ayr beach on the FT847.

If you make your way to the beach around 06:00 tomorrow then you'll probably be working W6, KH, KL and VK, Pacific is very strong in the morning and a beach side location with 20m pro am / am pro is all you'll need, not forgetting the FT847 of course

[26sd021]

yeah just like northern 35 i used to go down to the beach in west cumbria and work all over the pacific and compete and sometimes out do the big guns never ceases to amaze me the amount of gain you get from being near or above salt water !! i'll be on the local pier activating a lighthouse this weekend so expecting to work some pacific early sat morning !!

[StoatTB]

Expect high losses and narrow bandwidth the lower in frequency you go

Yeah, that's what I would expect. But still worth a try for the price, I would think.

[GW0DIV]

I tried my SRC8010 last night at the Aberkenfig club, I was blown away by how good it was! It was equal to the G5RV at roof hight when it was on a magmount attatched to an upturned metal table inside the building. I bought it to use with a "man-pack" set up for SOTA, but I think some more testing/experimenting is in order.

[Yeti]

I had an 80m one and a 20m one. The first 20m was on the roof of the car as we were driving and was hit by a seagull - it snapped right at the bottom!

I sold the 80m one at the Magnum and got another 20m recently. I had been impressed with the 20m on - had some contacts to the US last summer from Ayr beach on the FT847.

If you make your way to the beach around 06:00 tomorrow then you'll probably be working W6, KH, KL and VK, Pacific is very strong in the morning and a beach side location with 20m pro am / am pro is all you'll need, not forgetting the FT847 of course

6am... no chance I'll be making my way ANYWHERE at 6am!

Although I do have a permanent beach-side location with a HyGain TH-6 anyway....

[M6NPR]

6am... no chance I'll be making my way ANYWHERE at 6am!

I agree with this philosophy. The only journey I'll make before 08:00 must result in me boarding an aeroplane.

[G0TVJ]

I've used quite a few of these antennas over the years but only at home, not mobile. I've used 40m, 20m and 10m ones mounted vertically on the rear wall of the house, with a single tuned counterpoise wire. I've also used them in pairs with an adapter so they can be used as a horizontal loaded dipole in the loft.

As you would expect, the 20m and 10m ones work very well, the 40m ones less well, although I found a 40m horizontal dipole made with two of them was quite useful around the UK in the winter daytime.

I have tried the 80m version but found it pretty useless.

There are also topband versions available but they are truly monstrous contraptions . I found two of these, used as a vertical dipole with an ATU, worked very well indeed across the whole band but I took it down as it was a big, heavy, scary looking thing and I didn't think it would survive the winter gales .

Neil

[g0slq]

I would agree with pretty much all said, Ampro, Pro-am, Watson, etc. 6/10/11/12/15/17&20m versions all work very well. 40m can be a bit hit and miss - especially with a magmount (might need one of them monster 3-way mounts) I used mine for WAB with mixed results - excellent and then arcing etc. - 80m ok for listening - never even tried one for top band as could guess the outcome!

[StoatTB]

I tried my SRC8010 last night at the Aberkenfig club, I was blown away by how good it was! It was equal to the G5RV at roof hight when it was on a magmount attatched to an upturned metal table inside the building. I bought it to use with a "man-pack" set up for SOTA, but I think some more testing/experimenting is in order.

That antenna looks remarkably like a Sirio CB antenna, are SRC converting CB antennas for use on amateur radio? Good on them if they are.

[GW0DIV]

It is so I'm told manufactured by Sirio under licence. I can't wait to try it with a proper ground.

[northern35s]

That antenna looks remarkably like a Sirio CB antenna, are SRC converting CB antennas for use on amateur radio? Good on them if they are.

I've already got one, its called a Sirio S3000 and cost a lot less