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2SF2696
| | Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2001 - 10:43 am: | 
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I was driving along and stopped at a truckstop. As usual, I walked over the the antenna section. I notice the antenna that advertised that it worked in 10,11,and weather bands. They were fairly cheap, around the normal price of a fiberglass antenna. I purchased a 2ft, and a 4ft just for kicks. Here is what I did to test them.
The first one I tried was the 4 footer. This antenna was a little more flexable than the Wilson FGT. I noticed on the package that this antenna is made in Moline, IL. Sounds familiar. This antenna did not have a tuneable tip, so I just verified the SWR and went on. As advertised, I was able to get a good match from 26.800 through 10 meter band. Ther reception was about average with other similar antennas. On transmit, the first thing I noticed is how many people told me that I was way over modulated. After doing some field tests with another car, I noticed that my transmit performance was not as good as the Wilson FGT, or the Firestik2. I had to use more power that I did with other FG antenna.
Then I tried the 2 foot model. The 2 footer did not have as wide of a band width as the 4 footer, but it still beat out the band width on the FGT. The first thing I noticed is when I tested the SWR with my map, it just would not happen. Work fine with out power. It had better input and output gain than the 4 footer.
All in all not the best Antenna I have tried. however this seems to be a good alternative for those Export radios. Dont even think aobut putting much power through then. Their ads say they are rated for the watts, but I would not trust it too much. The flexability really helpout when I tried the 4 footer on a magnet mount. Up to 65mph plus a head wind and it just flexed back.
I would rate it about a 6 out of 10.
Phineas
2SF2696 |
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