Maco V5000 vs. Solarcon A-99, vs. Sirio Gain Master

[ModuMaster]

Maco V5000 vs. Solarcon A-99, vs. Sirio Gain Master
for talking to trucks passing by my station...
Which antenna of these am I better off with???
most staions will be with in 20 miles anyway.
Express ways form a square around me my house is in the middle

[The DB]

In order, Gainmaster, Maco, Solarcon...


The DB

[ModuMaster]

In order, Gainmaster, Maco, Solarcon...


The DB

thank you for the help

[str8stroke]

I have all 3. After years of use. The Maco & A-99 are retired to the garage and will not be going up unless something happens to the Gainmaster. End of story.

[Z-MAN]

I use a Sirio Tornado, built much better than a Maco......$88 shipped.

[MDYoungblood]

Hello ModuMaster,
Welcome to the forum. Again there is a couple of questions before making a decision. Plan to run some power (amp)? Want something easy to install? How long do you want it to stay up? In your location I would go with a ground plane.
If you plan to run some heat the A99 and the Gain Master are very limited but the are both easy to install. The Maco is to me the better choice but going with a ground plane antenna I would choose a HyGain Penetrator 500, it is a better antenna and about same price. There are also other omni antennas on the market, more expensive and high quality.

3's

Greg

[Sporty Mike]

I have all 3. After years of use. The Maco & A-99 are retired to the garage and will not be going up unless something happens to the Gainmaster. End of story.

Hey Str8, how much power do you run through the Gainmaster? I've heard they're only rated for 500 but I have heard of people running much more through them.
Was just curious since you seem to be quite pleased with yours.


Mike

Sent from Sporty Mike's phone.

[The DB]

If you don't mind some soldering there is a fix for the limited power handling of the Gainmaster antennas... It has to do with replacing a small piece of coax between the lower and upper portions of the antenna that acts like a capacitor...


The DB

[str8stroke]

If you don't mind some soldering there is a fix for the limited power handling of the Gainmaster antennas... It has to do with replacing a small piece of coax between the lower and upper portions of the antenna that acts like a capacitor...


The DB

Thats what I did. I did the same thing with my Maco 5/8's, to make it a Maco "5000"v. I only run 4 watts. So I just did it for emergency use.

[ogdoa]

Maco V5000 vs. Solarcon A-99, vs. Sirio Gain Master
for talking to trucks passing by my station...
Which antenna of these am I better off with???
most staions will be with in 20 miles anyway.
Express ways form a square around me my house is in the middle

I'm Running the V5000 and have been happy with it. It has been through some nasty storms and the only thing that has gone out was the coax. lol. I had the solarcon and another fiberglass bleed stick but every time I turned on the big box my neighbors would hear voices through their baby monitors.

[Buzzweiser]

You have to do the same "wire" mod to the new penetrators as well. They come with an 18ga. wire on the inside and are only rated to 1500watts. It's about 3 inches long. Just need to use a heavier wire and a bigger lug to increase the power rating.

[Deleted User 14541]

The v5000s weak spot seems to be the insulator between the base and the vertical element. The bolt that passes through there helps the RF find a place to arc.

Im not bashing the 5000...I currently use one and its a good performer. Out of the box they will handle legal limit and then some just fine.

[ogdoa]

The v5000s weak spot seems to be the insulator between the base and the vertical element. The bolt that passes through there helps the RF find a place to arc.

Im not bashing the 5000...I currently use one and its a good performer. Out of the box they will handle legal limit and then some just fine.

This may be something I need to look in to. What type of symptoms will I see if this happens?

[The DB]

The v5000s weak spot seems to be the insulator between the base and the vertical element. The bolt that passes through there helps the RF find a place to arc.

Im not bashing the 5000...I currently use one and its a good performer. Out of the box they will handle legal limit and then some just fine.

When I had one up I had between 1500 and 2000 watts run through it with no problems. I agree, it was a great performer.

This may be something I need to look in to. What type of symptoms will I see if this happens?

SWR would spike while the arc was occurring. This would happen because there would be a direct short to the RF you are trying to transmit where no RF short should exist. Note, an RF short is very different from a DC short. Unfortunately this would likely not happen on a dead key, but when you are modulating the signal. This sudden and drastic change in SWR could damage other equipment. All that being said, a lot of people dream of running that kind of power, however, few ever do, so for most it really isn't a problem.

Thats what I did. I did the same thing with my Maco 5/8's, to make it a Maco "5000"v. I only run 4 watts. So I just did it for emergency use.

Just a note, the insulator material in my friends v5/8 and my v5000 is also different. But that wire and the insulator material are the only two differences between the antennas.


The DB

[ogdoa]

The v5000s weak spot seems to be the insulator between the base and the vertical element. The bolt that passes through there helps the RF find a place to arc.

Im not bashing the 5000...I currently use one and its a good performer. Out of the box they will handle legal limit and then some just fine.

When I had one up I had between 1500 and 2000 watts run through it with no problems. I agree, it was a great performer.

This may be something I need to look in to. What type of symptoms will I see if this happens?

SWR would spike while the arc was occurring. This would happen because there would be a direct short to the RF you are trying to transmit where no RF short should exist. Note, an RF short is very different from a DC short. Unfortunately this would likely not happen on a dead key, but when you are modulating the signal. This sudden and drastic change in SWR could damage other equipment. All that being said, a lot of people dream of running that kind of power, however, few ever do, so for most it really isn't a problem.



The DB

When I try to run anything over 300 watts my swr pegs out. I was assuming it was the coax. I have to take down my tower to change the coax but now I am thinking it may not be the coax. I ran my MFJ antenna tester unit on it an it did not show any problems with the swr but that is the only test I can perform until I figure out how long the coax is. The MfJ only tests with a watt or two I think so it probably wont show the problem if it is the one you are describing? Really appreciate all the information you have given and the time you've taken to answer these questions. By the way I am running a Texas star hot plate with a TS modulator in front of it with a Saturn driving it all. If that makes any difference.

[yota167]

Where do you guys reccomend buying one of these vertical Antebnas from online? And will the shipping kill me?

[The DB]

When I try to run anything over 300 watts my swr pegs out. I was assuming it was the coax. I have to take down my tower to change the coax but now I am thinking it may not be the coax. I ran my MFJ antenna tester unit on it an it did not show any problems with the swr but that is the only test I can perform until I figure out how long the coax is. The MfJ only tests with a watt or two I think so it probably wont show the problem if it is the one you are describing? Really appreciate all the information you have given and the time you've taken to answer these questions. By the way I am running a Texas star hot plate with a TS modulator in front of it with a Saturn driving it all. If that makes any difference.

I'm not going to say that it isn't a possibility, perhaps the person that drilled the hole for the bolt mis-measured and drilled the hole a little to close to the bottom of said tube. It would have to be awfully close to be happening at 300 watts though, much closer than many people realize. More than likely you have another issue...


The DB

[Deleted User 14541]

I think you will find one of your amps is breaking into oscillation. Running at different power levels will sometimes make the problem go away. If you have access to a scope it's easy to see. Usually once you find the not so sweet spot the watt meter and swr meter will spike simultaneously. Another symptom of parasitic oscillation would be the swr and power continuing to climb the longer you hold the key down.

It could be the antenna or coax its just not the first place I'd look. The crazy thing is changing coax lengths can hide amp issues. You may cover up another issue by just tearing into it vs troubleshooting and finding the root cause.

[ogdoa]

I think you will find one of your amps is breaking into oscillation. Running at different power levels will sometimes make the problem go away. If you have access to a scope it's easy to see. Usually once you find the not so sweet spot the watt meter and swr meter will spike simultaneously. Another symptom of parasitic oscillation would be the swr and power continuing to climb the longer you hold the key down.

It could be the antenna or coax its just not the first place I'd look. The crazy thing is changing coax lengths can hide amp issues. You may cover up another issue by just tearing into it vs troubleshooting and finding the root cause.

Went through troubleshooting as far as I could go. I hooked up a dummy load and even under full power there was little change in SWR. Hooked the antenna back up and it sky rocketed. Switched out the hotplate and modulator for a dx 400v and had the same problem. When I tried to run it on high the SWR pegged out but it ran fine on low with the antenna. No SWR problem at all with the dummy load though. Anything over about 250 watts and the SWR starts to climb dramatically on the antenna. At 325 watts it is pegged out. I have checked it with 3 different meters. When the dummy load is hooked up instead of the antenna I have no problems. By the way, this is not a new install. This problem just popped up one day. I did notice that my antenna spun in the wind, like it is not tightened down. I just noticed this a few minutes ago when I was outside. It spun a full 360. Maybe that is the problem.

[The DB]

Unfortunately, the lack of a swr issue when using a dummy load really doesn't tell you anything. A dummy load will accept all frequencies, your antenna won't. To many people (I'm not saying you are one of them) think that just because something works fine into a dummy load means that they have an antenna problem, and 99% of the time they are also wrong. A dummy load actually acts very different than an antenna.


The DB

[Deleted User 14541]

You may have it figured out but I will leave you with this. When an amp goes into parasitic oscillation the harmonics it produces will show a very high swr when connected to an antenna because the antenna is not tuned for those frequencies. A dummy load is just a 50 ohm non reactive load and will show low swr almost anywhere. If nothing else has changed and both amps worked right before you may very well have a coax or antenna issue. Buy a scope when you can. Mine cost around $50 from the auction site. It was one of the best radio purchases I've made.

[LadyMermaid]

I love my Maco V5000. If I had 4000 watts, I would run it through this antenna. Years ago, I loved the Starduster because I could run anything on it and no worries.

Once I get my beam up, 2016 I will graduate to higher wattage -- maybe.

What I have going on now is working just fine.

I dont understand anyony needing more than 2-3KW.

[Lost Ram]

I run the Imax 2000 and have only had high wind damage and break the top section off at the threaded area. I have always liked the longer .64 antennas. The first one I had was the Radio shack Cross Bow one more then a couple decades ago. I seem to have no problem getting 10M out of it as thats where its adjusted to. The auto tuner tunes 12M just fine.
How would you folks rate the Imax into this deal, it might be an option for this user.

[1206FL]

You may have a bad connector or have damaged the coax if the antenna has spun 360 degrees. The issue may not show up with no power, but once some power is applied it happens. Checks all your coax and connections. JMO.