Nice installation and explanation of the mods. Now that you’ve had it up for a few months, did it meet your expectations? You must have been receiving tons of DX with this beast. I’ve only ever heard good things about this antenna.
Hey buddy, thanks.. yes, mods definitely needed to “beef” it up! I am very happy with its performance. Noise level is low, great to receive, easy to build and mount. I have it only mounted to a 5’ foot mast which sits into a 3’ roof mounted tripod. The winds and gust we’ve been experiencing over the last 2 days is a great test and all seems A-OK! 😊
Did Maco buy Wilson? I've just built a copy but I am waiting for one last piece. I made the hop ring from one piece of copper tubing. The radials are stainless 5.6M telescopic and could be set to 2.70M Or a full half wavelength! If to be installed permanently they could be aluminium tubing. I built the collar from the radials from thick aluminium rings that clamp to the lower section, also the copper ring is held at both ends by similar thick aluminium rings with grub screws but could be soldered at a later date. The insulation for the last section is teflon tube, I actually used 3mm I think thick walled and it's spiralled around and around the lowest point of the 1st section to form the spacer (this is also a variable capacitor, Maco does not mention the tuning potential here. The full top section is from a Sirio 5/8 GPE. I rebuilt the GPE with one of the 5.6M telescopics so it can be used as a portable antenna. Tuning is possible by top section length, the position on the wire to the induction ring, the amount of top section slid inside the lower section and the length of the radials. Quite a few variables to play with. I left some of the details out but If anyone is interested I can try to reply to comments from time to time. I'm currently waiting on a copper bar to make the SO239 mount and the rest is done. Also. Today I found a Grazioli G-max for sale I'm trying to find a way to pick it up as it's 12 hrs drive from me. Whats the antenna in the centre of your tower? Looks similar to my Sirio 2016. One Antenna I'm still waiting to see a video on is the Ham international Big Mac. A very illusive antenna!
Very nice project build you have going on there. Yes, the center antenna on the top of the tower is in fact a Sirio 2016.
Best, Len N2LEN
Nice installation and explanation of the mods. Now that you’ve had it up for a few months, did it meet your expectations? You must have been receiving tons of DX with this beast. I’ve only ever heard good things about this antenna.
Hey buddy, thanks.. yes, mods definitely needed to “beef” it up! I am very happy with its performance. Noise level is low, great to receive, easy to build and mount. I have it only mounted to a 5’ foot mast which sits into a 3’ roof mounted tripod. The winds and gust we’ve been experiencing over the last 2 days is a great test and all seems A-OK! 😊
Did Maco buy Wilson? I've just built a copy but I am waiting for one last piece. I made the hop ring from one piece of copper tubing. The radials are stainless 5.6M telescopic and could be set to 2.70M Or a full half wavelength! If to be installed permanently they could be aluminium tubing. I built the collar from the radials from thick aluminium rings that clamp to the lower section, also the copper ring is held at both ends by similar thick aluminium rings with grub screws but could be soldered at a later date. The insulation for the last section is teflon tube, I actually used 3mm I think thick walled and it's spiralled around and around the lowest point of the 1st section to form the spacer (this is also a variable capacitor, Maco does not mention the tuning potential here. The full top section is from a Sirio 5/8 GPE. I rebuilt the GPE with one of the 5.6M telescopics so it can be used as a portable antenna. Tuning is possible by top section length, the position on the wire to the induction ring, the amount of top section slid inside the lower section and the length of the radials. Quite a few variables to play with. I left some of the details out but If anyone is interested I can try to reply to comments from time to time. I'm currently waiting on a copper bar to make the SO239 mount and the rest is done.
Also. Today I found a Grazioli G-max for sale I'm trying to find a way to pick it up as it's 12 hrs drive from me.
Whats the antenna in the centre of your tower? Looks similar to my Sirio 2016.
One Antenna I'm still waiting to see a video on is the Ham international Big Mac. A very illusive antenna!