I zapped my first nanoVNA by connecting it directly to a run of RG-8u without grounding the coax first. A charge had built up because of wind over the fiberglass antenna radome, stored nicely in a 60 ft run of coax acting as a capacitor. I learned the definition of transient current first hand that day but just shorting the center conductor to the shield will discharge it before connecting the instrument.
Given the number of people on YT who have gotten good SWR from 27 to 29 MHz, I would think that either the antenna or the coax is bad. It would be nice to have done the actual vector analysis (that is why it is called a Vector Network Analyzer) to show the impedance vs frequency.
I can agree. I used 100ft instead of the recommended 50ft. Some have had better reports more than others. It just didn't work in my senerio, but some have had great results. I would like to hear someone using it for DX. I have it around here somewhere - I may give it a shot with a 50ft coax and see. I have to use the vector section - you are correct for better results ! Thanks for watching!
You have to use 50ft of rg8x. Seen this so many times. Ppl try to get it to work well without following the instructions. You use use 18 for ok and 50ft for best. 100ft will NOT work well with this antenna.
When I left my previous comment, I hadn't watched the first video in this series. I didn't know that you had painted the antenna white. What brand and type of paint did you use? The problem is many paints use metal for the pigment. Commonly used white pigments include Zinc White, Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Sulfide, Lithopone, Alumina Hydrate, Calcium Carbonate, Blanc Fixe, Barytes, talc, silica, and China Clay. Using a paint with a metal pigment would be akin to wrapping your antenna in aluminum foil. It would sure ruin the SWR and prevent the antenna from working very well. Now, the paint layer and pigment is not as continuous as foil so the antenna might work to some extent.
Interesting to know about different paint pigments... I used a bargain basement paint so I am sure it was made the cheapest way possible for coloring. Do you know of any name brands that do not use this for coloring? I also think the SWR was off due to using 100ft of coax instead of the recommended 50ft to act as the ground plane. OF course some have had better luck with this antenna and some even bought two and one worked better than the other. Thanks for watching and the info !
@@EricTechstuffs Sorry, I don't have the info on what different brands use for pigment. I wish I did because I have a Comet dual band antenna where the coating is starting to get pin holes in it and I'd like to paint it. As for the coax length, adding length should improve the SWR as it adds loss both in the forward and reverse directions. I just bought the Workman version of this antenna and plan to try it with different length of coax and see what I results I get.
Seems even the few people that get this antenna tuned perfect are lucky to get 4 - 5 miles range from it. I am happy with my Antron 99. It gets out to around 13.5 miles easy and a bit farther under the right conditions.
I agree ! I was looking for a cheap stealth antenna due to HOA but I did get what I paid for. Antron 99 is still one of the best Omni base antennas that has held up to the same standards over the years. Thanks for watching ! I miss my old CLR II
@@MrJaz8088 How wide is the 2:1 SWR bandwidth on the A99? I understand that you can tune over a decent range, but can I do 11 and 10 meters without retuning it?
18ft is half a wave length on the CB Band, so what they are really saying is to keep 50ohms then use multiples or equal fractions of the 11 meter wave, ie: One full wavelength is 11 meters/ 36 ft, Half a wave is 5.5m or 18ft, Quarter wave is 2.75m or 9ft, so the Coax should match any multiples of those numbers in length, for TX Transmitting, Receive can be done on a long wire 39.84mtr
Thank you. I saw it was set for optimal of 50 ft ? What length of coax did you end up using and how well does it perform? I know for the price I did not expect much. People have had mixed results but the coax length makes sense for the groundpane. Thanks for watching !
@@EricTechstuffs I used 11meters the SWR is 1.0 - 1.1 its mounted to a 7 meter galvised pole and works ok, good enough for 15-20 klm radius unless the station is hitting you with heaps of power, will test the limit soon
I tried 3 different coax setups...different mounts and grounding wire...it was only resonant at 25mhz...of course I bought it at xmas and put it up this spring...no returns. So I put it onto an autotuner and it works pretty good. With 12 watts i did 20 miles on ssb transmit. Received local contacts who were 40 miles away running 200w on Imax. This was at 34 feet. I will try 84ft eventually, on my concrete silo on the farm.
I have heard that the results vary from antenna to antenna as well. Seems some have great SWR and some do not. However for a cheap antenna, it is what it is. It is great you are having some luck with it! I did forget to mention that an antenna tuner could help bring it into range, as it worked in your application. It would be nice if they had a screw or something like the firestick mobile antennas to do some adjustments. Thanks for watching ! Keep me updated on how yours turns out ! Hope to catch you on the air ! ~ 1200
Coax length is critical for this little guy To keep 50ohms then use multiples or equal fractions of the 11 meter wave, ie: One full wavelength is 11 meters/ 36 ft, Half a wave is 5.5m or 18ft, Quarter wave is 2.75m or 9ft, so the Coax should match any multiples of those numbers in length, for TX Transmitting.
@@tf7274 If your not willing to cut the coax, then make a new lead, i would just cut the coax, as the length you have is not right, so why keep it that way ?
@@MrJaz8088 simple...$148 lmr 400 vs $40 antenna...i'd rather lengthen or cut the element inside the antenna then cut a new cable. Or I can sell the antenna. .
@@EricTechstuffs Ok Great! Would be KooL if you could do a 3 or 4 part build vid on them so others can learn how to build the kits. There are no build vids for these Rocketbox kits! Thanks ET.
hola Saludos....esa antena en un fracaso, La instale con 15 metros de cable, a 15 metros de altura del suelo y la roe es 3.0 en todos los canales.Tiene alguna idea para ajustar?...Gracias.
Hola ! He fallado con esta antena. Algunos han tenido mucha suerte. Algunos compraron dos y uno funcionó y uno no. ¡Creo que un dipolo es la mejor opción! ¡Gracias por ver!
I zapped my first nanoVNA by connecting it directly to a run of RG-8u without grounding the coax first. A charge had built up because of wind over the fiberglass antenna radome, stored nicely in a 60 ft run of coax acting as a capacitor. I learned the definition of transient current first hand that day but just shorting the center conductor to the shield will discharge it before connecting the instrument.
Thank you for for the tip ! This is really good information ! I will be doing that in the future anytime before I use it !
Great SDR reciever antenna...
Yes ! This antenna does have usages !
Cb, 10m, 6m, 88-108, air band, 2m, murs, marine vhf, 220, 440, gmrs and 900 mhz ham and wifi dx...lol...what a nifty stick.
It sure had an interesting results ! I didn't keep it up long !
@@EricTechstuffs Yep, swr is a big deal. Most people do not detune their radio to lower wattage, to make it handle more backwash on tx.
Given the number of people on YT who have gotten good SWR from 27 to 29 MHz, I would think that either the antenna or the coax is bad. It would be nice to have done the actual vector analysis (that is why it is called a Vector Network Analyzer) to show the impedance vs frequency.
I can agree. I used 100ft instead of the recommended 50ft. Some have had better reports more than others. It just didn't work in my senerio, but some have had great results. I would like to hear someone using it for DX. I have it around here somewhere - I may give it a shot with a 50ft coax and see. I have to use the vector section - you are correct for better results ! Thanks for watching!
You have to use 50ft of rg8x. Seen this so many times. Ppl try to get it to work well without following the instructions. You use use 18 for ok and 50ft for best. 100ft will NOT work well with this antenna.
When I left my previous comment, I hadn't watched the first video in this series. I didn't know that you had painted the antenna white. What brand and type of paint did you use? The problem is many paints use metal for the pigment. Commonly used white pigments include Zinc White, Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Sulfide, Lithopone, Alumina Hydrate, Calcium Carbonate, Blanc Fixe, Barytes, talc, silica, and China Clay. Using a paint with a metal pigment would be akin to wrapping your antenna in aluminum foil. It would sure ruin the SWR and prevent the antenna from working very well. Now, the paint layer and pigment is not as continuous as foil so the antenna might work to some extent.
Interesting to know about different paint pigments... I used a bargain basement paint so I am sure it was made the cheapest way possible for coloring. Do you know of any name brands that do not use this for coloring? I also think the SWR was off due to using 100ft of coax instead of the recommended 50ft to act as the ground plane. OF course some have had better luck with this antenna and some even bought two and one worked better than the other. Thanks for watching and the info !
@@EricTechstuffs Sorry, I don't have the info on what different brands use for pigment. I wish I did because I have a Comet dual band antenna where the coating is starting to get pin holes in it and I'd like to paint it.
As for the coax length, adding length should improve the SWR as it adds loss both in the forward and reverse directions. I just bought the Workman version of this antenna and plan to try it with different length of coax and see what I results I get.
@@BryanTorok please let me know how it works out. I still have it in storage so I am interested to see what length coax works best
@@EricTechstuffs I'm not sure when I'm going to get to it, but I'll try to come back and post my results.
This just kinda ruined the movie...lol
Let us know what paint turned it into a legit discone!
Seems even the few people that get this antenna tuned perfect are lucky to get 4 - 5 miles range from it.
I am happy with my Antron 99.
It gets out to around 13.5 miles easy and a bit farther under the right conditions.
I agree ! I was looking for a cheap stealth antenna due to HOA but I did get what I paid for. Antron 99 is still one of the best Omni base antennas that has held up to the same standards over the years. Thanks for watching ! I miss my old CLR II
@@EricTechstuffs A99 also covers over bands if your a Ham
@@MrJaz8088 How wide is the 2:1 SWR bandwidth on the A99? I understand that you can tune over a decent range, but can I do 11 and 10 meters without retuning it?
@@BryanTorok Nope its one or the other, not both
18ft is half a wave length on the CB Band, so what they are really saying is to keep 50ohms then use multiples or equal fractions of the 11 meter wave, ie: One full wavelength is 11 meters/ 36 ft, Half a wave is 5.5m or 18ft, Quarter wave is 2.75m or 9ft, so the Coax should match any multiples of those numbers in length, for TX Transmitting, Receive can be done on a long wire 39.84mtr
Its all in the ARL Handbook and it does work, thats my method for perfect 1.0-1.1 Swr at 50ohms, Zero reflectance
Thank you. I saw it was set for optimal of 50 ft ? What length of coax did you end up using and how well does it perform? I know for the price I did not expect much. People have had mixed results but the coax length makes sense for the groundpane. Thanks for watching !
@@EricTechstuffs I used 11meters the SWR is 1.0 - 1.1 its mounted to a 7 meter galvised pole and works ok, good enough for 15-20 klm radius unless the station is hitting you with heaps of power, will test the limit soon
Thank you for the info ! Please let me know how DX works. I have a Stryker SR-10MM that gets me all my contacts.
@@EricTechstuffs No worries the week-end is coming up, the weather is nice so i will re-test it, with locals
I tried 3 different coax setups...different mounts and grounding wire...it was only resonant at 25mhz...of course I bought it at xmas and put it up this spring...no returns. So I put it onto an autotuner and it works pretty good. With 12 watts i did 20 miles on ssb transmit. Received local contacts who were 40 miles away running 200w on Imax. This was at 34 feet. I will try 84ft eventually, on my concrete silo on the farm.
I have heard that the results vary from antenna to antenna as well. Seems some have great SWR and some do not. However for a cheap antenna, it is what it is. It is great you are having some luck with it! I did forget to mention that an antenna tuner could help bring it into range, as it worked in your application. It would be nice if they had a screw or something like the firestick mobile antennas to do some adjustments. Thanks for watching ! Keep me updated on how yours turns out ! Hope to catch you on the air ! ~ 1200
Coax length is critical for this little guy
To keep 50ohms then use multiples or equal fractions of the 11 meter wave, ie: One full wavelength is 11 meters/ 36 ft, Half a wave is 5.5m or 18ft, Quarter wave is 2.75m or 9ft, so the Coax should match any multiples of those numbers in length, for TX Transmitting.
@@MrJaz8088 Hard to cut brand new coax with new ends on it...I have a mfj-269c...but I know 10% of what it can actually tell me.
@@tf7274 If your not willing to cut the coax, then make a new lead, i would just cut the coax, as the length you have is not right, so why keep it that way ?
@@MrJaz8088 simple...$148 lmr 400 vs $40 antenna...i'd rather lengthen or cut the element inside the antenna then cut a new cable. Or I can sell the antenna. .
Any plans on the Rocketbox builds?
Yes, I have gotten Sidetracked but they are here !
@@EricTechstuffs Ok Great! Would be KooL if you could do a 3 or 4 part build vid on them so others can learn how to build the kits. There are no build vids for these Rocketbox kits! Thanks ET.
hola Saludos....esa antena en un fracaso, La instale con 15 metros de cable, a 15 metros de altura del suelo y la roe es 3.0 en todos los canales.Tiene alguna idea para ajustar?...Gracias.
Hola ! He fallado con esta antena. Algunos han tenido mucha suerte. Algunos compraron dos y uno funcionó y uno no. ¡Creo que un dipolo es la mejor opción! ¡Gracias por ver!