I MAX 2000 vs Homemade CB Radio Base Antenna
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- Опубликовано: 18 мар 2020
- 6 mile test with a 5 watt Uniden Washington. Testing an IMax 2000, and a Homemade ground plane antenna. Comparison test for range and quality.
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Just realized your Boston accent! I watched all of these twice: great fun 151!
Thanks Russ, My Boston accent really makes Me stand out, in the South. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
Nice job on that home brew mower. When cycle 25 kicks in we’re definitely going to hear each other.
73 from 567 northern Minnesota.
Copy that 576, I look forward to the contact! 73's from 151 SC.
You did a pretty good job with your antenna test and you mentioned that the IMax appeared to give you a better or cleaner receive signal. This is what I tried a few years back: I had a IMax 2000 up that was struck by lightning and all that was left was pieces the size of toothpicks... Thousands of toothpicks! I decided to try what you did here since I was doing a replacement. My first test was using a new "M400 10/11 Meter 1/4 wave vertical with the 3 drooping reflectors. That antenna has a great SWR reading across the band from 26.000 Mhz up to 28.000 Mhz. (I have it as my back-up antenna and I also can use it as a quick portable base antenna in an emergency) My second antenna was my new replacement IMax 2000. I used the same mass for both antennas. The mass is 50 foot off of the ground. I did the base to mobile test along with a friend on his base who was 15 miles away. The same base station was used in both test at my location. Now for me I couldn't tell much difference until I got out around 10 miles away from the house but what I did notice was the IMax was cleaner sounding on the receive and I did have a better signal from the mobile on the IMax at the 10 mile test point. It was funny to hear you say that about a better receive with the IMax because the M400 sounded fine but it was a bit grainier sounding compared to the IMax if that makes sense... Where I did see the difference was about 10 miles out where the IMax had a better TX signal to the mobile and the same applied to the base having better ears. My friend noticed the difference on signal and sound quality on his end too and that was base to base. Going back to antennas for a moment, my first fiberglass antenna was a Antron 99 and when I traded that out for a MACO 5/8 the first thing I noticed was a much better ears with the MACO. There really isn't much difference performance-wise between a 1/4 wave and a 1/2 wave but there is when you compare them against a 5/8 wave which is what the IMax is. Once again. great video.
The Imax2000 works well without a tuner on the 15 meter band. The tuner on my IC-7300 radio can go down to the 17 meter band.
Since the sunspots are increasing, I am making it to Australia and New Zealand most of the afternoon and early evening using WSPR beacon.
The M2000 I used was flat on 15, below 2.1 on 12, and just above 2.1 on 17 but as you mentioned easily tuned with an internal tuner. The G90 20 wattt internal tuner easily tuned 20 meters but with a slight drop in rceive, no idea about transmit because 20 is the power band.
Great job. Its good to see a head to head comparison.
Thanks 👍
I had a Macco and a Imax and both were great. I been using the shockwave antenna for 5 years now and OMG best groundplane antenna ever. Out performed my maaco and Imax 1000 times. Clear audio and awesome receive. We did a test 30 miles away between the Maaco and shockwave and Maaco was giving them 3-5 S Units. Shockwave was easily doing 7 solid s units. Shockwave is all airplane aluminum but does have a heavy price to get one and there made by order
Thanks for sharing. I looked up the specs for that shockwave antenna, Wow! that is a very well built antenna! I can easily see how it would out perform the other 2 antennas You had.
Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
I'm going to look up that shockwave antenna. Like you I've used the Maco and right now I'm running the IMax. Thanks for that info.
UPDATE: I just looked at the Shockwave. Here's something technical I can tell you about this antenna. It's an electrical aluminum equivalent to the IMax but better because it's all aluminum. The hairpin matcher is a null coil or better yet, a cancelling coil that reduces reactance compared to a standard loading or matching coil which gives you two things: Better RX and TX bandwidth along with less RX noise. That's the secret to this antenna and that's also what makes the IMax a good antenna. The only reason the IMAX performs as well as it does is due to the special loading coil I described but the coil is tiny compared to the hairpin matcher in the Shockwave so that alone helps in losses. With the Shockwave being all aluminum coupled with a giant hairpin matching coil I have no doubt this will outperform the IMax hands down. I seen one of these antennas when they first hit the market but I couldn't remember the name of it. After learning how they were set up I was actually going to convert an old MACO over to one of these antennas which wouldn't be too difficult to do but I wound up donating the MACO to a friend in need years ago so it never happened.
I had an Imax 2000 where I replaced the top fiberglass whip with a 102" steel whip. It was an excellent performer and became very broad banded. Great swr on 10, 11 and 12m. 15, 17 and 20m worked with a tuner of course.
Very cool, I love antenna experimenting.
Had the IMAX 2000 25 years still working great, worked Italy from Birmingham uk 5-7 report 5 watts with my FT817 👍
Nice! The Imax is a very good antenna, It's good to hear Yours is still working, even after 25 years. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
That’s the thing with fiberglass antennas. The transmit wire is buried under fiberglass. Makes it sound cleaner on receive although slight weaker and less transmit
Awesome video thanks! I am going to try and make one of those antennas for sure
That's awesome! I'm here, if You need any advise during the build.
@@MowerJunkie wow that is such a kind offer thank you! Thanks for all your great videos. Awesome to see you enjoying the hobby. It is great fun
I'm curious how does the homemade antenna do for talking Skip
DC grounded yeah. Also were the two coaxes the same
type and length?
Question trying to figure out why i had to drop my A-99 4ft just so the swr is 1.4 had it set on the roof 1.1 to 1.2 on higher up ch then i hook up the coax that comes in the house now its 1.2 ch1 and a 1.4 ch 40 does that sound like bad coax.
I was a bit confused when you first started describing how you were going to conduct the test ?
But it soon became clear . I think doing tests like this is great fun . Sometimes with unexpected results ? Only there is so many variables its difficult to be conclusive if the results are close ? Coax type and quality on one ant might be a longer run or old and degraded? Your car might give a few db difference just a few feet away ? None the less that was an interesting experiment. I think your 1/4 wave gp is a fine aerial. On a side note me and a pal did experiment 20+years ago with cb mobile aerials from one car to another about 20 miles sea path , both cars parked one car used the same aerial, the other car tried i think 8 or 9 different aerials, firestick, wilson , k49 , sirio 2000 and a few others , the astonishing thing was the winner was not even a cb aerial! It was a aerial for 2 metre vhf ? No don't laugh it was a 5/8 over 5/8 on vhf , just so happens that is spot on as a 1/4 on cb (near enough) the aerial in question is called a Dimond nr 22 L . Not sure if they still make them , but it definitely was not marketed as cb . We were both flabbergasted, and still to this day it is a well kept secret . Anyway keep on the good work and greetings from Scotland.
You should do a video about grounding your ( homemade )antenna with what you have and not store bought grounding kit!. Just my opinion.
Great and informative video love it keep it up
Thanks, will do!
Yo, junkie, if I got 1.25 mast and put it inside 1.50 PC pipe at 15 feet do you think I can get away from anchor wires? Solarcon a99 w gp kit.
I have an imax on a wall and I have this inverted v wannabe in a tree...(looks like a basket case)... but she gets out. Thanks for fanning the Cb flame! You are an ambassador of the hobbie welcoming, pleasant and educational. Steve in Suffolk VA said so
I curse a lot but I would love to see a lil more professionalism in the hobbie esp the side bands and make it inviting to the yl and xyl instead of the constant sausage fest.
I keep it pg on the radio and working on the swearing now that I am out of the service.
Thank You Steve! I wish they allowed pictures here, because I would love to see that inverted v wannabe. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
I agree, a little more professionalism would be nice. a few bad words are okay, But I wish We could stop the music and noise toys.
This is what I tell hams all the time. You cannot buy a better transmitting/receiving antenna than you can build yourself if you are willing to put in the work and experiment with it. Before I was a ham in the late 70's the guys I talked to on the CB all built their own yagi beam antennas as well as ground planes. Using the correct literature you could set the antenna up for maximum gain or maximum rejection or even somewhere in the middle. Max Gain rarely if ever coincided with max rejection and boom length was much longer per element on those max gain antennas too. We had a lot of fun experimenting (just like you are) and I later turned those antennas into my 10 meter cw antennas and worked the world on 100 watt cw. They were killer. 73 de no9n
umm... to get an accurate antenna vs antenna test you need to take both antennas to the same fixed transmit location AND read your signal strength from the same remote receive fixed location. All gear on both sides except the antenna needs to remain constant... even the coax. The best test would require you to take down the first antenna after getting a remote reading and mount the second antenna in its exact same spot\location on the mast, same mast same coax same radio same power output same tone from the transmitter, ONLY the antenna different. While your remote receiving location needs to be exact as well, if in a mobile even down to being parked in the exact same spot facing the exact same direction... A remote base station where nothing changes is even better... Moving not only radios back and forth but also the remote location back and forth really isn't going to tell you what you want to know. Also S6/S7 signals are pretty strong signals. If you were to move your remote station (the car in this case) to a far more fringe location where signals were S1/S2 and swapped Antennas on the base station side you would get a more accurate idea of which antenna provides better coverage.
Thanks for the comment Nick. Everything You stated is exactly the way I did My last 2 antenna tests. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
Exactly correct.
The RUclips channel Logo is Beautiful too ...
I'am Your Newest Subscriber Great Videos. I Have 3 Washingtons Too
John.... was this home made antenna the vertical dipole that you did in PVC and hung up on the end of the house?
this homemade uses PVC, but it's not a dipole. it's my $15 base ground plane antenna. 73's
good video im gonna watch the other video on the 15 dollar base antenna....im wanting to build one keep up the good work ......#155 southwestern ky .........73s
Thanks 155, I'm here if You need any help with The build. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
Any blueprints for the home made ant........😉
IMAX did not have the ground plane kit
That AM hiss sounds real nice, just the way I remember it in the UK all the radio over here now has lots of interference.
it is getting harder to find quiet areas, there's so much electrical noise these days. Thanks for watching.
Great job on this video. I built the 1/4 wave ground plane antenna with 2 radials that you made. 27 ft from ground to tip. Talking 15 km or like 24 miles for my American friends, barefoot on a Bear Cat 980 with Astatic 636. I thought today wonder how it would compare to an I max. Sitting here you tubing. Tuned in to Mower Junkie and buddy your doing the test. No way!! Watched 3 times and smiled. Keep the camera rolling and the videos coming. 73's from Southern Ontario
Thanks Andrew, that's awesome that You built this kind of antenna, and that it's working well.
Keep up the good work. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
Since when did 15km equal 24 miles? Maybe 24 kilometers is 15 miles? Sounds more reasonable to me?
Be interesting to see this from about 20 miles out.
A fiberglass antenna statically load up and the receive is affected. Try a metal commercially made antenna. The maco v5/8 and v-5000 are pretty good. If you can find a super penetrater or golden penetrater they are a great antenna or a Sigma 4. They made a Avanti I believe that had a huge round plane that was switchable polarity and it was purported to be one of the best ever made. Pretty rare antenna though.
I agree. That fiberglass antenna is on My buddy's house. I'm running the homemade on My house, and I love it! I have super quiet receive, and I can get out about 50 -60 miles with it.
Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
I believe that would be the Avanti Saturn dual polarity antenna. I am 57 and have seen exactly 2.
Ive run an imax for about 8 years now. But i hbe purchased a Sirio 2016 i have'nt put up yep
Cool! Good luck with the install.
That is interesting.
I’m on a tight budget and wanting to use a Wilson 2000 as a temporary base antenna I got it put up and can’t get the swrs lower then 2.5 across the board lol please help
Try adding 2 or more 102" wires to the top of Your mast pipe, and run them down at a 45 degree angle. a mobile antenna needs the counterpoise that the car supplies.
@@MowerJunkie will do n will let you know how it turns out does it matter what kind of wire ? I can use 10/2 wire ?
@@junior53329 It won't matter the wire size, even 30 gauge will work - up to a certain amount of power. Use 103.25".
How did you make your home antenna?
I've built a couple of these antennas. check out these videos to see how they were built. ruclips.net/video/6DNIpUZvI2k/видео.html and this one. ruclips.net/video/MM3T88RGZnE/видео.html
I have no problems getting out on my IMAX. I'm 40' off the ground.
I think this Imax needs to be higher. It should do a lot better when We get it higher. Thanks for watching, 73's
If you didn't have your vehicle pointed relatively the same toward or away from each station - then the results may be skewed.
Did you have your vehicle pointed in the same direction?
I moved the car a couple of times, until I had the best signal from each antenna. I achieved the best signal facing away from the antennas.
@@MowerJunkie Most would not take their vehicles position or oreintation into consideration. Even an omni-directional base antenna can display different transmit/receive strengths by just being turned. Your homemade antenna has ground plane radials (2 I think) and that is better than a manufactured antenna without ground plane radials. The performance you achieved from a considerably shorter center conductor than the Imax 2000 shows your ingenuity. Good for you.
Trying to get my stuff together when I do I’m going to holler atcha. Central FL.
Copy that! I'll be on the side and listening. 73's from 151 SC.
good video if you're into building and you know what the radiation pattern is on a quarter wave ovary 3/4 wave that's why the quarter wave works so good so I better radiation pattern alright 73 from an old ham operator
Thanks Ron, 73's from 151 SC.
I keep hearing people say the Imax 2000 is just an A-99 re packaged. What do you think about it?
The A-99 and the I-max are very different antennas. the I-max is a 5/8 wave with a small Gamma match inside the middle section. the A-99 is an end fed 1/2 wave with a 1/4 wave shunt coil at the base.
@@MowerJunkie Thanks. I don't know much about Imax 2000 now I do. Does the Imax 2000 compare with the MaCo 5/8 wave antenna? I hear good reviews on those.
Nice video. If you want big ears and big mouth in one, you have to use an antenna Home made by me, an End Feed JS20. 7351. That Antenna works better than a Solarcon A99.
How much for your antenna???
Thanks a lot for such experiment
This is not a Shack , it's a Museum , Many beautiful things and Radios , By the way what is the type and Brand of that beautiful Mic ? ((i mean The 2nd one hanged on the wooden shelf ... counting from left to right))
Thanks, I'm glad You enjoyed it, it was a fun experiment. The Mic You asked about is a stock Royce Mic. it came with My Royce 1-621 base radio. Thanks for watching.
2:50 Keep her, Barbara's a peach!
I couldn't agree more! Thanks for watching.
I discovered when I made quad loop copper was "louder" than steel alloy wire probly same with home made copper very vers pre made store antenna using steel alloy joints.
Well the hardness between the materials is different making copper much more resonant at vocal frequencies & sets up much better harmonics than steel - lol 😉
Actually the distance was not appropriate for this test, I explain: antennas have, depending on their design, a different take-off angle, and not sure a short distance would show that. However going far away at the maximum of the range with barely readable signal on 1 antenna would have better shown the difference between both -maybe- as the goal is to have the antenna with the better range ie. the one which has the lowest take-off angle (for your location requirements, on the country side).
It's kinda funny that You should bring this up. Just yesterday I was thinking of doing a more in depth test between these two antennas. A test that would be at greater distances. Thanks for the comment, Take care.
@@MowerJunkie If you could do that test with and with oud radials on the M2000 it would be helpful because of the debate about radials being used on the m2000. I do think, just MY thought the radials will be of effect locally as well as VER far away skip. I don;t know if you still have that G90 you played with that time, if so try just listening around with a fully open rf gain, slow AGC, and noise filters on and pre-amp on. I was listening on 27,385 a few days ago and could hear several conversations by locals in NY City talking to each other, same from Origan and Nevada with some other skip QSOs and there among these various folks was an Australian, call CQ , yet no one even tried to answer him. Some later another Australian did the same, same result. My G90 is under warranty so the broadband is still close so I couldn't try. These seemingly hidden signals are beginning to come in, we need to be ready to hear and speak to them. My 1C7300 is opened up so I may unbox it and try the same with it. The number of folks on the air is about where it needs to be with folks to talk to but not so many no one can reach anyone. I suspect more will be turning their rigs back on shortly which before long finding a quiet place to talk will get harder to find on the 40 channels.
The M2000 has a fairly high level of takeoff meaning it goes more into or straight up when it doesn't have the radial kit. Since you are using it just on CB and not 10 meters or 12, 17, and 15 meter Ham bands the radials would make more of the signal go straight in front and not up. That clean-sounding signal IS the 1.5 DB gain the IMAX 000 gives of receive. I am assuming the homemade antenna is a 1/4 wave or 102 Inch whip-like antenna with some kind of radials? I love your comparison tests, CB at its best makes the fun of the Hobby more real. You are doing about everything in the hobby and those watching and following your channel get a good fun look at the CB radio hobby. I can't explain how much these videos bring back memories of my youth with my now deceased brother and friends. Radio for some of us is a big part of life. Thank you for all your efforts, these tests, etc matter?
If you actually model the antenna you will see that adding radials does not lower the takeoff angle.
@@philipacovington I seriously doubt your software has any idea of the tuning section used by the M2000 which is an end-fed .64 wave vertical The writers of that software would like to laugh at anyone using a M2000, certainly so on the ham bands. Most modeling software can;t accurately predict how an end-fed 1/2 wave will perform because of the transformer be it a 49/1,64/1 0r even a 9/1 more random length.. Software is a nice place to start but field tests are the only real way of seeing if an antenna works. I used an A99 with and without radials and found the skip performance better for very far away stations better, but because I use it on 17-10 meters the radials prevent it natively being resonate on other than the tuned for one single band. Cal from DX Commander did an article on the M2000 it is on his web page hidden in several antenna articles.
your audio is alot stronger and clearer on the Imax
I agree, the Imax did sound a little stronger. Thanks for watching, 73's from 151 SC.
Hi folks im getting ready to get back on air since 80,z in uk
Ive got a crt ss9900 a small luitton 80 channel cb and an albrecht ae 2990 afs handheld cb am fm ssb and a quick mod it can b used for ham im hoping to take my foundation radio amateurs licence got an 18ft half wave thunderpole
And 2 t2lt wire aerials my healths poor but got a lot of help
So just.got to get a.guy to set it all up i cant darn wait
That's awesome! I hope You can get it all set up soon.
@@MowerJunkie i got my first cb on holiday in milwaukee in july 81
We went to see my mums freind were she lived fir a few yrs so i went
Into jc penneys and bought a realistic hand held 40 channel very good i actually met my wife on a blind date on cb so 33 yrs maŕried 2 grown up kids cb is good
I was talking to a guy whose got state side ssb on 12 watts
The crt ss9900 pushes 60 watts on side band this is plenty it may b 80 watts
Im looking forward im just very poorly might crank the albrect up handheld on ssb tomorrow if im well it only pushess 4 watts on ssb but will get a lot further than just the.4 wattz fm
Plus its good to have comms if shit hits the fan
Take care god bless you all
I thought the home made was a vertical dipole?
The antenna tested is a ground plane antenna. It has an active element straight up, and 2 ground radials down at an angle. 73's and thanks for watching.
Mower Junkie ok sorry about that. I enjoy the videos. Art
Need to try that at 10 miles 20 miles and 30 miles.
Maybe someday. Thanks for watching, 73's
Thats why I don't like fiberglass antennas..
Nothing like aluminum 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣😆
Try that about 15 miles away.
Astrobeam Big Ears .. Astroplane Big Mouth .. :) 73!!
imax is dc grounded thats why its quieter
I max 2000 needs gp kit
If you can’t hear them you can’t talk to them.
Sometimes you can hear them but they can't hear you that's known as hearing further than you can talk.
I think I MAX has low noise level. Good Day ! 25Div
I think it depends on what radio is hooked up to it.
My Washington showed little noise....But a Stryker 955 has 3-5 db of noise on the I Max.
your hommade antenna working verry great but myn frend the radio are to de same but not 1 tranciever greethings koenraad
I used the same radio for both antennas, and the 1 mobile for the test.
thanks for watching, 73's
Nope 15 Km =9.3 Miles 73's
, WOODSTOCK , CH 25 HOLLYWOOD FLA.
Copy that Woodstock! 151 SC. waving a hand. Thanks for watching.
Edward Quimby do remember ch17 on am back in hollywood florida back in 1993-1997 i was mr weather man back in the day it was very active local channel in hollywood florida back during time i use lived to in lake forest area near Hallandale area west i 95 not very far dade and boward county line back when i use to lived there off 40th ave area from 1993-1998.
Real world exp beats out scopes, analysers, silly formulas, bla bla bla. Also you wont see much difference until you go out several miles.
I may try this test again, from a further away location. maybe 15-20 miles out, and see how they perform from there.
Thanks for watching, 73's
@@MowerJunkie I made an indoor dipole once when I was with a lady in a m hoa. It worked ok. I put it in the attic.
@@ericzerkle5214 I have a dipole setup in My attic, It works great when skip is rolling. Thanks for watching, 73's
@@MowerJunkie I later snuck up a vertical dipole in one of her pine trees. Afaik it's still there, lol.
Imax is junk now
it does set up quick though.......Thanks for watching
@@MowerJunkie what was the swr?
@@1112223333111 1.2 on the homemade, and 1.3 on the I Max.
Interesting, Doing a little catching up. 73/88 mike DX21