[Antennas] Mobile Antennas - which shoots best, is strongest?

Fri Jun 16 00:32:46 EDT 2006

Well, at my home (an antenna challenged neighborhood...check my picture on 
QRZ), I use a 33 foot Shakespeare 555 mil. antenna with a flag on top (for 
obvious "hide-me" reasons)...a Harris 601 tuner, and 225 full sized radials. 
Its the ultimate "one vertical for all band" antenna set-up. If you can 
find the equipment at a reasonable price... you really can go wrong.
Sincerely,
Dr. William J. Schmidt, II K9HZ
Trustee of the North American QRO - Central Division Club - K9ZC
Email: bill at wjschmidt.com
WebPage: www.wjschmidt.com
"If you drink... don't drive. Don't even putt" - Dean Martin.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David J. Ring, Jr." <n1ea at arrl.net>
To: "Dr. William J. Schmidt, II" <bill at wjschmidt.com>; 
<Antennas at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 10:46 PM
Subject: Re: [Antennas] Mobile Antennas - which shoots best, is strongest?
> Thanks Doc,
>> The rooftop antenna described on the Preditor Antenna page is a 16-1/2 
> foot
> vertical radiator with a 15 inch top hat.
>> http://kj9t.150m.com/Predator_on_Roof/index.html
>> That's a reasonable structure for the roof. 33 or 35 feet would be much
> better, but the torque would be rather large.
>> I know of one fellow who has two roofs, he mounted a Sheakespere 35 foot
> heavy duty marine whip on the lower roof, and bracketed it to the side of
> the higher side wall - I guess he had about eight feet or so of vertical
> support.
>> That is an awfully heavy antenna - on ships they were anchored to steel
> decks with a bunch of 3/16 inch stainless bolts (perhaps bigger size).
>> 73
>> David N1EA
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Dr. William J. Schmidt, II" <bill at wjschmidt.com>
> To: "David J. Ring, Jr." <n1ea at arrl.net>; <Antennas at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 11:21 PM
> Subject: Re: [Antennas] Mobile Antennas - which shoots best, is strongest?
>>> I think there are better choices than a mobile antenna for a roof-top, but
> if you want to proceed in that direction...
>> I own a variety of mobile antennas including a Bug-Catcher, a Predator, 
> some
> full-sized whips (for all bands 6-17 meters), a Hi-Q and a few others that 
> I
> can put on my vehicle at any time (all trailer-hitch mounts with excellent
> ground connection via a welding extension lead plug/pin set). We (NAQRO)
> are about to make some of our own tests with these and a few others for
> publication... but I can give you some qualitative results in advance from
> experience (so take it for what its worth at this point).
>> I've found that mobile antenna gain for transmitting is rarely a
> problem...but rather gain for receive is always THE problem. The
> Bug-Catcher seems to be the best all-around antenna for BOTH receive and
> transmit... It will tolerate a tall whip and cap hat because of its coil
> strength. It has a very large/ high-Q coil, but suffers (obviously) from
> the coil TAP syndrome. The Predator is my next choice.. not quite as much
> gain as the Bug, but doesn't suffer from the TAP syndrome. The coil is
> large again, so the coil A is good. It has good mechanical strength, so 
> an
> extended top whip and cap hat is possible. The Hi-A is my next favorite,
> but with the Predator, I rarely use it. Of course I always use the full
> sized whips whenever I can,,, they are better than any loaded antenna 
> unless
> it is mechanically longer to start (and then there is still is no 
> guarantee
> in will absolutely be). All of these antennas take my full legal limit
> mobile amp.
>> With all this said, you will find the counter poise and radial system to 
> be
> almost more important than the antenna selection. It you don't do this
> right, no matter what you do...the antenna will never work right.
>> Sincerely,
>> Dr. William J. Schmidt, II K9HZ
> Trustee of the North American QRO - Central Division Club - K9ZC
>> Email: bill at wjschmidt.com
> WebPage: www.wjschmidt.com
>> "If you drink... don't drive. Don't even putt" - Dean Martin.
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David J. Ring, Jr." <n1ea at arrl.net>
> To: <Antennas at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 11:49 AM
> Subject: [Antennas] Mobile Antennas - which shoots best, is strongest?
>>>> I've been looking at some of the beautiful mobile antennas for sale, in
>> the
>> Hi-Q, Predator, and GS antennas.
>>>> The Predator is shown here:
>> http://kj9t.150m.com/N9JMXs_Predator_1/index.html
>>>> The Hi-Q is shown here: http://www.hiqantennas.com/
>>>> The GS antennas are shown here: http://www.gs-mfg.com/pages/antdiv.html
>>>> The GS according to the "Antenna Shoot Out" results shown on their web
>> page,
>> seems to perform best, and there is one report that it is made better 
>> than
>> the Predator, however the Predator will take full legal limit.
>>>> I was thinking of using one of these mobile antennas and extending the
>> whip
>> and using a capacitive hat and installing it on my roof and using for 80
>> meters and above. If I can get the length around 22 feet, and/or use a
>> bigger top hat, I might consider 160 meters!
>>>> Could anyone offer any guidance, or point me to any web sites that might
>> have some actual "shoot out" ratings?
>>>> Thanks in advance for your help!
>>>> 73
>>>> David J. Ring, Jr., N1EA
>> =30=
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