Antron 99 - Best CB Radio Antenna for Home Base or HAMSHACK!
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- Опубликовано: 23 дек 2023
- I picked up the Antron99 from Solarcon, which is widely regarded as the best CB Radio antenna for a home or base station. Today I put it on the antenna analyzer and see what it looks like - later we will do some CB-radio reviews and work some stations over the air.
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I've used that antenna since nineteen eighty . You can listen out of tune all you want . Stands up well against stupidity but only to a point . Used them all and that antenna is as close to maintenance free you can get anywhere . Enjoy
After a major weather event in H-Town, a ham brought his own trailer with Ham, GMRS, CB. FEMA had a distribution center near the Dome. The ham arranged with Harris County EM. Along the freeway and toll road system, the dynamic signs told truckers to go to CB X Channel for info about getting to the Done.
CB is a tool in the comm toolbox.
That’s right!
great story, bro. 🤣
This was the absolute beast of a CB antenna for many years - I have one for over 20 years still fine and working and also a Gainmaster by Sirio - both are excellent and very wide banded to allow 10 and 12 also with some help. Really good quality. Merry Christmas Jason. Thanks for all you do.
Thanks for sharing
With a manual tuner i can use 6 bands on my 20 year old A99. 6/10/11/12/15/17 It still works as good as the day i opened the gift from my brother.
Those are good antennas! A lot of our locals here in Ohio use em. Your Stryker will be the goods with that antenna! The President McKinley II or the new George would be good ones to try with it too.
CB was my gateway drug into ham. Now both me and my wife are licensed. I had the A99 from the early 1990s and it's still in the sky working into Europe from SE PA all the way down to 17M (with a tuner).
I hit it with some camo paint and put it along a tree line... ya can't even tell it's there.
Need that for my HOA
Same here
I think that a tree line pole is the best for invisibility. Never thought of camo paint... A good tree brace should be effective for wind.
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE..... I tuned the A99 on 20M and hit AUSTRALIA... 100watts.
Oh man, I had one of those Mocat radios with the base station tray back in my high school days. Was able to slide it out of the tray then mount it in the car with an old K40. My dad was kind enough to put a 21' Skymaster vertical on a tripod mount bolted through the roof of our home. Spend many hours chatting and listening.
A99 is a great antenna also the IMAX 2000 is awesome as well!! Looking forward to these videos..
The IMAX 2000 also gives me a reasonable SWR on 12m and 15m. Though it’s obviously not a 5/8th wave on those bands.
The old IMAX 2000 was good but the current version (past 10 years or so) is questionable.
Great video! Love that you are exploring 11 M. I recently bought a 4o dollar eBay CB and built an end fed wire dipole from free 75 ohm coax (Horizontal polarized, pointed NE). I’m in Plano, first DX was Virginia on channel 32! 73’s KI5VFI
this good antenna i have for more the 20 years and still working.
Really good antenna. Are typically wide banded enough for all of 11m and much of 10m used to be made 15 miles from my home. Just gave mine to a local tech ham. 👍
Good cheap antenna! Damn thing works wonders!!
Thanks for the video.
Hi Jason!! Enjoy your videos... I have the 99 ground mounted in the spot where I have my Hustler 4btv vertical I simple take Hustler off the pole and place 99 on it when I want to play on 10 meters or 11 meters,, works great! Merry Christmas!! Tim
I have the Solarcon Max2000, (Antron's Brother) worked great on 10 meters, talked all over the world.
Loved the video, still have one of those antennas in the garage. Have that and a penatrator.
I had one of those with my AM / SSB in the early 90s. It was great!!!
Jason, its ironic that i purchased the Solarcon A99 just 3 days ago from Amazon and then you make a video about it...Awesome! I enjoy dabbling in CB even tho I've had my Extra ticket for 2 years now, but it's always fun to play Low-power CB sometimes. Thanks, and I always enjoy your vids man. 73's & Merry Christmas....KI5UXE Cody
Jason back when I 1st got my General I used a a99 with my Kenwood ts130 on 10 12 15 and 20 with my ldg tuner it worked well
Had a Avanti PDL 2 back in mid 70’s with a Siltronix 1011D , made more contacts on the flat side than I do now as a licensed ham
I was in Garland and then moved to Celeste in Hunt County. Haven't been on the air since May 2023 when I got sick and went into the hospital.
I ran the AT-5555n on the A-99 at about 45' to the top with 50 watts only. No X power.
In Celeste I was on a hill with no trees or anything to block my signal. Europe in the mornings and South Pacific in the evenings. A lot of local work 262 Dave in Cooper, 121 Vern in Garland, 232 in Richardson, 244 in Van Alstyne, 54 David in Garland and 121 in Grand Prairie.
Don't have a Tkt, I just love Chicken Band.
Love your videos my brother.
73's 107 The Village Idiot. No. Central Texas
Hope to get back on soon. Maybe we'll meet on the coax. 👍✌️🙏🤠
40 years ago I had a Shakespear Big Stick on the roof of my apartment. Worked great. That was back in Chicago. Now I'm in northern NV. Getting back into ham and studying for my General. However, after 30+ years of trucking, I've got a 'collection' of CBs. My fave is still the Cobra 148. I've got three of them - two of which I had the "funnies" installed. I have always had fun getting on channel 36 at night and talking skip. And sideband has always been fun as well. Now you've piqued my interest in putting up a CB antenna along with the 2M / 70cm antenna I just put up for my Yaesu FTM 500 D I just bought. Money, money, money . . . I'll be back.
Had one up 18yrs,,gales,heateaves and artic conditions in Scotland,,it took it all,,worked wel on 10mtr,11mtr and 17mtrs with Australia,india and middle east and usa worked,,,a tad expencive now but still worth the money,,always use the locking washers,,,good antenna .
maco v58 was my favorite. does well on 10, too.
I have one of these with the ground plane kit, it didnt do so well on 6m but worked well enough on 24mhz and 21mhz with 500milliwatts to around 5000 - 6000 miles and made contacts on 18mhz too with the cheap LMR400, I was impressed with it.
Oh and it does well on 28 too lol
Holy crap I had an Antron 99 on my dads roof 35 years ago give or take. that thing was crazy good.
I actually still use one of these for 11 and 10 meter ssb.. awesome antenna .. always works! has to me the bang for your buck!
Agreed
Have been using an Antron 99 for several years on HF. works great for 17-10. Sometimes will work on 20. sometimes on 6.
A99 is till a great antenna for the Chicken Band. Lots of memories before I became a HAM. 🤪🤪🤪
I have a very old A99 up at the moment with a fire up stick top section. These were a feat of engineering back in the 90’s, probably still one of the best reliable 1/2 waves out there. Obviously you can do better but they do work but hopelessly noisy especially on FM.
Never mind local contacts let’s get some overseas Schedules going…👍
One of my friends did that once he said it worked good
I’ve been using the A99 for years, works great, I use it on 20 meters occasionally with an mfj tuner, swr is 1.8.1 not too bad for a comprise on 20 ,not the strongest signal but I’m heard on the 14300 net. Yes it does work.
Yeah Jason I've got the same antenna use it for 10meters and cb.We have 10 to 12 guys local here talk about every night on the cb.Good fun when the skip is not rolling. We can all talk 40 miles or so.
Had an Antron-99 on a 50ft tower back in the mid-90s. Didn't have the groundplane kit though. Nothing but good things to say about it. Talked some crazy skip, Jamaica, Mexico, New Brunswick, Arizona, all from Detroit. But maybe that's why I can also confirm it can handle at least 1,500w pep, seeing I did have that Ameritron thingy. :awesome:
As the COAX shield becomes the second half of the antenna at least without a ground plane kit, do you think you'll need a choke at the radio?
Par endfedz ef11 is a wire only version. if you are limited to a wire antenna.
Am putting one up soon, am wondering whether to get the ground plane kit or not, so many mixed opinions out there.
Awesome antenna, run that stryker on it, you won't be disappointed at all
I'm going to try it
Great job on this review. I bought two of these over a one year period. The first one went bad after Hurricane Ian. The 2nd one started having SWR issues, probably due to its placement close to the metal mast. It is essentially an end fed antenna tipped 90 degrees. The coax is definitely used as a counterpoise and part of the antenna. I had success with it on 10, 12, and 15M. The base, when opened up, looks chincy however. It's a form of a balun but not well made. It is a sleeper antenna though, and makes a great tri-band vertical with a low SWR. You need a ferrite choke at the station however to ward off RFI since thew coax is being used as part of the antenna system. 73 de Scott W1AL
IMAX 2000 is better I proved it. Good vid thanks for sharing
One question - for at least PART of the conduit that I will run RG213 COAX through to a Solarcon a99 antenna, I will also have a Cat 6 flat ethernet cable running - this Cat6 will act as a connection for the surveillance camera system's feeds from the backhouse to a surveillance box I will have in the house. Do you think there will be any sort of 'static interference' if I run both cables in the same conduit piping? Should I run them in two separate conduits as a way to avoid any potential static interference?
I bought my A99 in 1997 it was in the air until 2003. then it lay in the shed for 20 years. and put it down again last year, and still 1 on 1.
Last March I got my ham license and in the meantime I made many connections with the a99 on the 10 meter band in ft8 mode.
it's also a great antenna.
Greetings Mike from the Netherlands
Been using this one for 10M FT8 also
Fantastic job you've been very helpful I'm going to do my antenna the same height appreciate it 73 shooting star Virginia CB radio live
Awesome
I got some a funny video I was messing around with my echo repeating itself no power no power no Tower no Tower I'm gone chow chow chow chow it's really cool I put it on my RUclips only running 50 watt radio what are the best radios ever bought iconx 3400 HP this thing is a monster it does everything where you wanted to do and it's very clean all the truck driver said it sounds top shelf can't wait to put my antenna back up I love talking skip that is so much fun I've actually met a lot of big CB radio operators like ham radio operators always been my Ally back in the day and it's actually nice to have a conversation with them I have a friend of mine his name is motor mount Morris in Southern California he'll actually key is microphone down with the studio rat gear and actually say good morning to me I am so happy when he does it I can't wait for conditions get good so I have a conversation it's so much fun on on 50 Watts when my antennas way up high I can talk from Virginia all the way to New Hampshire I'm so glad to get to my home state
I am new to ham radio and I am wanting to build my own ham shack. where do i start?
GOOD VIDEO LIKE BEING OUTSIDE THANKS FOR ALL THE INFORMATION,, BUT THAT ANTENNA AINT THE GREATEST ,A 102 inch WHIP WILL BEAT IT EASY🎄Happy Holidays
Love my Stryker 955 use yours instead of the motorala.
The a99 is a great antenna. I loved mine untie the hurricane took it away
I’ve got a IMAX 2000 in the barn it looks a lot like your 99 I wander how or if it would work on 10m? I may get it out and try it
I bet it will work great. My A99 works great on 10M FT8
I had one back in the 90s for cb... those lock washers are new... I might need a new one😂
I had that same Motorola Radio. Liked it well traded it for a favor.
Came from local State Surplus Resale from old Police Cars. Got it for like $ 10 I think🤔
What would be good would test prop on 11m FM on the newer rigs coming out.
All mode CB rigs would be a good rig to test
Maybe channel 40?
Fallowing ya
Working on getting a home setup put together just south of San Antonio
I use mine on 12 qand 17 meters with a tuner and works fine.
I got mine to tune to 15M also
I worked the world on 10 meters with this antenna.
After much thought, I recently acquired a couple of CB radios after I convinced myself that CB would be a worthwhile complement to my Ham shack. I bought a President McKinley for the shack and a Radioddity CS-47 One Hander for my truck. After watching this video, I bought the Antron 99 with the ground-plane because that antenna looks like the best option for a CB base station. I pick up a reasonable amount of CB traffic in Bastrop County and along SH 71 and SH 95, so I'll be curious to see what the McKinley and the Antron 99 add to my base station.
73
KI5KET
I bet that Italian coax will work nicely with Italian Sirio antennas.
It’s an ok antenna for the money but it’s far from the best. The best in my opinion is the Colossal 10k by ZeroFive. Heavy built 5/8 wave aluminum antenna , stand up like a champ to weather and has great send/receive. I’ve had the Antron and it did ok but am much a happier with the colossal
If you paint that antenna with a good quality paint you can avoid UV damage to the fiberglass in the future.
Yep, I will do that when the weather starts to get warm
Use paint ours with plastic coat worked good
I’ve seen Andy Kirby working CB on a MARS modded Icon 705. I’d like to see that (along with GMRS), done here in the US legally. One radio to rule them all?
I’ve talked all over the world on the A99 at on 15 feet high on 10 meters. It will work on 20 meters also with a tuner
Used to have the a99 but replaced it with a pan blizzard and that surely performed better
I haven't heard of that one, I will go look it up
Check that caps in that Motorola, good chance it needs to be recapped. My recommendation....Realistic Navaho TRC-458, TRC-490 or a Cobra 139XLR base station.
I would like to hear you compare CB AM, SSB, and the new FM. Have you thought about testing one of the President radios?
Yes I'll be testing one of those
My A-99, that I bought in the mid to late 90's, has Solarcon with a starburst near the tuning rings. It's always been Solarcon.
I bet you can turn those rings up..... making the antenna "shorter" and it will tune better on lower 10M
Jason, my Antron A99 has been airborne for quite a while now. Initially, I purchased it specifically for 10m contacts, but I've managed to make contacts on the 10, 12, and 15-meter bands as well. I think my tuning rings are adjusted to the lowest setting. DE KW4LU
I've been doing 10M FT8 on this A99 since last week...all over Europe
@@HamRadio2 Yes Sir, While I'm doing 10M FT8, I will switch to the A99 when i'm having trouble make a contact with my sloper 40-10 EFHW. Sometimes it work, sometimes not, but nice to have that option. :)
Actually, Jason , there were a few omnidirectional antennas of the past that had almost twice the gain of the A99. But they definitely weren’t as easy to put up as the A99.
I enjoyed the video and it made me think of the old days.
"of the past" - I'd like to know what else is available today
A lot of antennas still available
I think the A99 does a great job at skip propagation. I had a friend who had one up about 10 at the base on the north side of his house he did great on 11m side band.
I think the antenna is great for its size and ease of installation.
Hmmm, I bought an antenna years ago that a farmer was selling that I used for my base station antenna, I used a 10 2.5 in diameter steal post with a 2.5 in in diameter 6ft pole. The antenna itself was roughly 10ft in length with 3 directional beam poles …
I used my A99 for my portable set up on beaches and causeways with a 20 foot push-up pole. At the house for my Omni directional antenna. I ran the Avanti Sigma one it was about 25 feet tall and had it on top of a 35 foot tower. Two of my friends ran the Avanti sigma four it was around 26-27 feet tall. For a beam I had a three element Cushcraft and friends ran four and six element Jo-Gunns.
This should be fun.
I’ll have to throw an antenna up but I have a few old Radios see if you can hit the Detroit area lol
I've got a cobra 25 ltd can you post any fact based information regarding its effectiveness with the antenna setup?
I run my 25 LTD with an old Shakespeare Big Stick, similar antenna to Antron 99, it receives well and transmits well at 1.1:1 swr. If adjustable, just tune the Antron at 27.2 mhz. AM will need power to drive AM CB though.
Thanks
Will it tune 12m? 7300 with IC LDG should work
Yeah seems to
I'm in southern CA, my brother and I plus a couple family members just got handheld CB radios, plus my bro got a home-based radio. We think we need tall antennas. If you have any kind of info for us, we would sure appreciate it. Seems like CB isn't as popular as it was in 70s and 80s due to cell phones. We want CB as an option, if cell phones go south, as we expect they will. Thank You !
A tall antenna like this one or the IMAX 2000 would work very well for your needs
Put it on a push up pole about 36 foot high is what worked best for me. It got out further and hearing far better than anything lower. Back in the 70's 5/8th ground plane best all round antenna
Oh darn, can't find the post. Anyway, the 2000 seems brittle now, so I'll leave it alone. Maybe I'll hear you down here in the SATX! TNX for the info on your lat vid about HFs. Now retired, I was debating between a 7300 and a 710, but everyone suggests to stay away from Yaesu's menus and go with the old reliable Icom. Maybe before Dayton... would love to go this year, shake hands with the old HP bros and maybe shake hands with three 2.0 star celebrity. And Mike, and...😂😂
73 WP4KTF
Still have my sigma along with my tram d201 problem is the wife won’t let me put such a large antenna up anymore
What box are you using to run the coax in to go in the house?
It's a cheapy home depot box - I just ordered a KF7P Enclosure and will be installing it, once it arrives
Several radio antenna dealers are saying the ground plane kit is over priced for any gain it may give you possibly quiets your static ,all fiber glass antennas tendancies to create fry noise over aluminum copper steel
I thought it would be a good idea to have a CB radio in the shack and purchased the A99 with the ground plane kit about 1.5yrs ago and it works really well with my Uniden 980SSB 11M radio I have not yet used it for 10M but as the SWR is below 3 I imagine my Icom HF radios could tune it up with there internal ATU’s! 73 K4BBC
where can we get that hand held antenna tuner ?
It isn't a tuner, it is an Analyer. Find them here - hr2.li/gigaparts
I'm ashamed to say... I have an old A99 in my garage that I had forgotten about. It's been sitting there for about two years, and here I was thinking of making a 10 meter J-Pole.... I don't even need to do that.
...now to see if I can put it up without the XYL noticing 😅
You got a Anytone 5555n, 5555n II, or 6666? a quick mod and you are CB live!
Recommended? I’m- hmm
Legal? No
But
DAMN!
Lol. I did have one of those for a while
Sorry to question your authority, but the king of 10, 11, 12, and 15 m omnidirectional antenna is in my back yard. Shakespeare 11m big stick at 18 feet in length. Circa 1977, held together by primer and white paint. 😅😅. Merry Christmas. 73. KC3UWT
I've used those before too
@@HamRadio2 👍🏻
I have heard mixed reviews about the radioddity some good and some bad
Same
Coming from a CB background like Many other radio operators HF radio is the next step
I have one sitting on my tower now. Great ones. Prefer the sirio but hey.
can you try with a president Jackson 2 classic
I'll look
@@HamRadio2 looking forward to it
antron may be the most convenient antenna to use but a 5/8 ground plane out preforms it by far.
Reaches out miles further local and receives a lot better as well. 5/8 ground plane best ever base other than a big beam. Back in the 1970's use to build my own ground planes and beams as a hobby, and helped a many of poor boys get on the air. Bur Fox channels 3 and 11 and above 40 on the CB
You should set up a time to try some DX on AM CB (which is now legal). I'll dig out my unmolested President AR144 and give it a go.
Cool
Where are you? Am cb has always been legal here in the states
@@chrispierce2942 No. "Long distance" CB communication was against the rules in the states until 2017 when the rule was changed. Google FCC 17-57 for the document.
1.7- 1.5 - 1.7 swr through cb band tuned
I had that antenna years back in the mid to late 1980's worked great. had that ground plain kit as well. with a tuner works fine at 10 meters. even 12 meters. what i did. could not get to work 6 meters . Radio shack had one like it as well. that was blue. The ground plain helps' with bandwidth and lower take off angle. worked a lot of NY to UK on that one. both CB and 10 meters. try one of them newer 10 meter radios like the anytone or the QT60 like HRCC did a parks on the air with on battery. CB now has FM so one of the newer radios would be great. lots of skip on CB. on CH 38 SSB worked England from NY the outher day in the early AM. like 7-8 . that the tier the band open for me to UK . same on 10 and 15 meters. get a box box to mount all protectors in run ground wire to rod. look at DC commander video. use a big metal box like Cal did. pound that rod most of the way down. run stranded #6 or larger . 73's
It works good but it is not the best, I have run it with the GPK and without it, I have run it at pretty high power, the Imax 2000 works better but it flops around more because the whip is longer and more flexible, the SP500 from Hygain is better than both as far as range goes, but they require more work to assemble, the Maco V 5/8 and V 5000 work about the same as the SP500 but the V5000 will take more power, I currently run an FT-101E into an SB-220 on my SP500 and it works perfectly with RG-213 coax, thanks for the video
The best cb base antenna was the sigma 5/8 only bad thing about it was its fiberglass base that would crack in ice storms if more than 2in of ice would build up and wind would blow and the weight of the ice would crack it
I had a solarcon, it got hit by lightning!!! Went to a maco
But what happens with the test of the antenna?
What do you mean?
Nice Beanie
Remember the Shakespeare Big Stick?
yep
I have a antron 99 and I've had mine up for many years I've talked all the USA on it ground plane antennas are junk I run a rci 2950 Dx mobile I'm also a amateur radio operator and I use my antron 99 on 10 meters it does really well my antron 99 is about 50 feet up in the air
I have the IMAX 2000. A bit longer
Well i am not a fan of fiberglass antennas.I had a imax 2000 for a few years before i changed to a shockwave antenna and my noise level came down a lot and my signal went up considerably to all my contacts.
I find the Sirio gainmaster to be a far superior performer over the A-99, and to top that off, NO tuning required, I have a flat match at 27,020 mhz, oh, the. Gainmaster is also center fed which makes it transmit "In-Phase" not out of phase like the A-99, same price too!😏👍⚡️🎙
Lazyboy 160
I am all over New Mexico.
I will be listening for ya.
You’ll have to kick us your handle.
Til then
Keep on keep’in on brother
We’re 10-10 / 10-7 on the side ;)
I'll look that one up
I have the President himalaya wb antenna it don't need tuning intall it and it stands from 22.615 to 30.105 less than 1: 1.2 so for me is the himalaya the best antenna and not the antron 99 with tuning rings
Tuning rings don't make it better or worse, you should look at performance instead. But I haven't heard of this antenna, I will look it up. Thanks for the info
Please Check out SWR also on 15 meters you will be surprised. This antenna will also work on 15.
I'll check that
That antenna's biggest problem is that the company claims 9.9 dBi gain. NO WAY. I could believe 6 dBi or 4 dBd, perhaps.