Ham International " Big Mac"
Sigma 4
I am looking for any information on an antenna called a Ham International "
Big Mac". This antenna was manufactured in the early 1980's by a company
called " Jide communications " in Belgium / Netherlands
If anyone has any info i.e. Spec or dimensions, or even, in a rare
case, has one. Please reply.
Thanks
Philip de Cadanet
This same question comes up from time to time.
36' tall, had a set of guy ropes to keep it strait. A full wavelengh in
height!
Chris who lived at the Kings Norton Golf Course in Alvechurch, Worcs
used to run one in the early 80's.
I could hear him in the mobile in North London, Hornsey to be precise!
Phil / London
PS. I would dearly love to find out whatever happened to anyone who hung
out on 27.635 lsb during the pre-legalisation days. London area.
Sigma 4
Seems there are none of these antennas left. Most of them broke because
they were too large and needed to be secured with guide ropes. However, I'm
sure someone somewhere must have an instruction book hidden away in their
loft because if the dimensions of the antenna can be obtained then one can
be assembled.
"Philip de Cadanet" <ph...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Mn5bJhAi...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk...
Steve Hurley
perhaps?
Philip de Cadanet
>Seems there are none of these antennas left. Most of them broke because
>they were too large and needed to be secured with guide ropes. However, I'm
>sure someone somewhere must have an instruction book hidden away in their
>loft because if the dimensions of the antenna can be obtained then one can
>be assembled.
I really would not bother.
IMHO you're better off going for a good 5/8 wave which will offer you a
better radiation pattern than that of a full-wave.
If you want the very best, hand made 5/8 a friend in California now
makes an improved version of the original Hy-Gain Penetrator.
Here is the spiel Jay in the Californian desert recently sent me:
I had a few friends who have bad TVI (Television Interference) problems
and wanted the best 5/8 wavelength (WL), ground plane antenna, but they
weren't available in a Ham or CB antenna. The locals wanted a 5/8 WL
antenna that they could use on 12 and 10 meters after upgrading to the
Amateur Bands.
So I found a few old used Penetrator 500's on the Internet, and rebuilt
these Penetrator antennas to almost new. Adding additional aluminum so
that the antenna could be adjusted for 12 meter band, and changed the
designed so that the antenna could also be used on the 10 meter and
low-VHF bands. And noticed an increase in performance over the usual
antennas, with a significant reduction in TVI.
Well you can't always get a used 30 year old Penetrator 500. And some of
the old Penetrator 500 antennas I bought off the Internet didn't have a
straight piece in the pile of aluminium tubing. So I decided to make
some
new ones for all the locals. Well there's about ten of these New Design
Mastodon 5000 5/8 antennas out there now.
A new version is also on the drawing board, a 15 and 20 Meter band 5/8
wavelength antenna is being designed, with the use of a remote
controlled antenna tuning unit to operate on most of the Amateur HF
bands. More on this later.
A lot of testing, tuning, and walking away from the test antenna mad as
as can be, in a 2 year period, I have come up with the New Design
Mastodon 5000. I knew Radio Enthusiast wanted an antenna with all these
qualities:
1- Be able to take high power, without burning out.
2- Reduced TVI
3- Bullet proof design, construction, with the best of materials.
4- Adjustable tuning, over a wide bandwidth of frequencies.
5- Great Antenna Performance.
The introductory price of 279.95
US dollars.
has been said to be to high, by a few
people. If you look at other antennas on the market today such as the
other ham antennas that almost have the same amount of materials in
their design, the price on these antennas is $289 to $400 and more.
But as most high quality products, this antenna will last for a
lifetime, and be desired by other radio enthusiast.
I have been working hard on a New Design 5/8 Wavelength
Ground Plane Base Antenna. And here is an explanation of my
new antenna.
Introducing the New Design Mastodon 5000…. "Stomp off into Glory"
A New Design 5/8 Wavelength, High Quality Ground Plane Antenna.
· Made from Aircraft Grade Materials
· Will withstand 100 MPH + winds
· Tunes from 24.8 to 33 MHz
· Ultra Low Loss Impedance Matching System
· Designed and Tested to Handle 10 kW and More
· Reduced Interference to Neighbours Electronics
· Gain 1.2 dBd or 3.3 dBi
· Price 199.95 Plus Shipping and Handling
· Construction and Materials:
The Mastodon 5000 is manufactured from Aircraft Grade Aluminium Tubing,
6063-T8, with Reinforced Linear Tapered Construction. Lower quality
commercial grade, "Soft as butter or Lawn Chair aluminium tubing" as
seen
in low cost antennas, isn't used. The use of the high quality Aircraft
Grade Aluminium Tubing, and design techniques allows the Mastodon 5000
to
be a long lasting "Bullet Proof" product. Additional Aircraft Grade
Aluminium Tubing is placed inside the antennas elements at mechanical
stress points to reinforce the antennas structural strength. Reinforced
Linear Tapering Construction, with Aircraft Grade Aluminium Tubing is
the
way to go. Actual tests with a Mastodon 5000, mounted on top of a
Pickup Truck, with a measured air speed of 104.5 MPH proved the
Mastodon 5000 to have a superior mechanical strength.
Brackets are made from .190 and .125 inch thick 6061-T6 Aircraft Grade
Aluminium Sheet Metal. Insulators are made from tough UV resistance
ABS-Cycolac Plastic, and Dilrin. Mounting hardware is all Stainless
Steel.
Optional Stainless Steel Eye-Let Bolts are mounted on the Ground Plane
Radial Bracket, that allow guy wire attachment points to be used,
resulting in a significantly reduced mechanically stress on the mast.
The Mastodon 5000:
1- Is 22.4 Feet long, with 21.4 feet of effective antenna length.
2- Has 4 each Ground Plane Radials, 106.4 inches long.
3- Has 4 each Top Hat Radials, 10 inches long.
4- New Design Adjustable, Low Loss, with High Power handling Impedance
Matching System.
5- Accepts mast diameters from 1 to 2 inches in diameter. The
mounting bracket has special oval machined holes which allow 1" to 2"
U-Bolts to be used, allowing 1" to 2" diameter masts to be used.
· Mastodon 5000 Antenna Performance and Specifications:
Gain = 1.2 dBd or 3.3 dBi
Bandwidth = 1.2 MHz at 2 to 1 SWR points, with 50 Feet of LMR-400 coax.
Frequency Coverage = 24.8 to 33 MHz
As people are turned off with typical TV commercial hype, so are they
about the long time pie in the sky antenna gain figures. The Mastodon
5000 is a 5/8 wavelength ground plane antenna, NOT a stacked set of 8
Element Quad Beam Antennas, or a Deep Space Satellite Tracking Dish
Antenna. The Mastodon 5000 will give you the best performance of any 5/8
wavelength Ground Plane Antenna. The Mastodon 5000 was compared to the
Avanti Sigma 5/8 and the Hy-Gain Penetrator 500, 5/8 wavelength
antennas. And the Mastodon 5000 consistently showed a conservative 2 to
3 dB increase in transmitted Field Strength as compared to these other
antennas. The Avanti Sigma 5/8 and the Hy-Gain Penetrator 500 was
advertised as having 5.3 dB gain. But the advertisements did not give a
reference as to what the 5.3 dB was compared to!
We also beat the famous Sigma 4, by a few dB, in field strength, and in
noise reduction, and a significant reduction in TVI interference. The
Mastodon 5000 walked away from the A99 and Imam 2000 antennas in antenna
comparison testing, and in eliminated or reduced TVI Interference. The
Mastodon 5000 also stomped all over some of the multi band antennas.
Many operators see an increase in antenna performance when they have
switched from a ¼ or ½ wavelength antenna to a 5/8 wavelength antenna.
This increase is not from increased antenna gain , but from a lower
angle of radiation, that the 5/8 antennas have. This why a 5/8
wavelength type antennas are used in many commercial and military
antenna installations.
Our Field Strength tests show the Mastodon 5000 to have a 2 to 3 dB and
more increase in field strength, as compared to the other mentioned 5/8
antennas, this increased field strength is NOT from a better antenna,
but from a better designed and built impedance matching system. The New
Design Tuneable, Low Loss, High Power Handling Impedance Matching
"Inductive L" System allows much more energy to reach the antenna to be
transmitted, and received. Because less energy is wasted at the
Impedance Matching System.
Static noise is attenuated by 4 each, 10 inch long Top - Hat Radials
mounted at the top of the antenna. Lighting Protection is enhanced by
all the Mastodon 5000 parts being at DC Ground.
Comments and suggestions are welcome. E-mail me at jay...@qnet.com
Jay in the Mojave
PS> If you're interested in following this up do ask Jay to e-mail you
the jpg's of this new antenna. It is a seriously good looking antenna.
(((73)))
Phil / London
Philip de Cadanet
>Would the antenna described in the "What's this Twig" post below be one
>perhaps?
Any antenna with traps or inductors in it would burn up at Jay's tried
and tested 10kw!
Phil
Sigma 4
Are you on about a Telex - Hi Gain Golden Penetrator? - it's very similar to
a Sigma 2 isn't it . has nine foot radials sticking out the bottom. I
prefer the Sigma 4 myself. However, they both kick arse.
"Philip de Cadanet" <ph...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote in message
news:LDFaAKAT...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk...
> Introducing the New Design Mastodon 5000.. "Stomp off into Glory"
Philip de Cadanet
>Are you on about a Telex - Hi Gain Golden Penetrator?
Yes, Telex bought out Hy-Gain years back. They had two similar antennas
if you remember, the CLR-2 with three radials and the Golden (anodised)
Penetrator 500. I believe that was it's correct designation.
> - it's very similar to
>a Sigma 2 isn't it . has nine foot radials sticking out the bottom. I
>prefer the Sigma 4 myself.
Shame it was never able to withstand high winds.
You have undoubtedly been around 11m some while as few know of the
Penetrator.
It was a well kept secret by those that knew how well it worked. The
Italians in their infinite wisdom decided to concentrate on very wide-
band antennas and IMO degraded the overall performance.
Narrow bandwidth normally means higher efficiency or Q.
> However, they both kick arse.
Very true.
Good luck searching out a Big Mac but I wouldn't hold youyr breath.
Do drop Jay an e-mail. His antenna really is 'serious'.
Rgds
Phil / London
ADVANSPEC
aquired last year by MFJ Enterprises of Mississippi. MFJ now produces the
Hy-Gain Amateur antenna & Rotors in their own plant, & includes them in their
latest MFJ catalog........
http://advancedspec.freeyellow.com
Sigma 4
Thanks for the info Phil.
Sounds good that someone is making an antenna that really works well again.
"Philip de Cadanet" <ph...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote in message
news:FqgJaHAb...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk...
Philip de Cadanet
Yes, I should of mentioned this fact.
Mr MFJ is a shrewd cookie when it comes to business but I am aware he
uses cheap labour sources!
Phil / London
Paul
nominally 9.945m high and each of the six radials was 2.67m long. It
was in fact 5/8 over 1/4 and as stated made in Belgium. It was rated
at 2KW max input and SWR was 1.6 for 80 channels. It was an odd
looking beast, 6 radials at the bottom, two turn alumium coil above
them then some form of phasing system with three vertical radials, all
three being joined top and bottom to the main radiator, above this
lot was another 3.5 turn coil then lots more vertical radiator. Gain
was supposedly 7dB (over what who knows)?
I had both a Sigma2 and Sigma 4, the 2 seemed to produce far less tvi
than the 4, the 4 had a crap arrangement connecting the SO239 to the
gamma match with, IIRC a crimp, toal shite and I replaced it with a
homebrew clamp which stopped the SWR/high wind flick so common to (my)
CB aerials! Having said that, it was THE antenna to have.
/memory lane
I'm running a Ham multimode 2 and an Avanti Sigma 4....
//memory lane
mmmmmmm.....happy days.
Paul
Philip de Cadanet
>The Big Mac wasn't a full wave but a 7/8 wavelength antenna, it was
>nominally 9.945m high and each of the six radials was 2.67m long.
I stand corrected.
You have a good memory or an very old catalogue to hand:-)
(((73)))
Phil / London
Paul
<ph...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Phil,
I wish it was from memory LOL. It is in fact from a looseleaf Ham
International catalogue and contains lovely's such as the Multimode 2
and 3, the Concorde 2 and 3, Jumbo 2 and 3, an 80 channel AM/FM hand
portable, amps, antennna's, the mic's including my old faithful
friend, the Big Puncher and a mic processor. Can't remember where the
catalogue came from or even when, but as you say its pretty old!
Wouldn't dream of throwing it out now of course, it reminds me of the
days when CB was the dogs B's down here and the old Sigma4 used to
glint in the sun :)
Seeya
Paul
Philip de Cadanet
>I wish it was from memory LOL. It is in fact from a looseleaf Ham
>International catalogue and contains lovely's such as the Multimode 2
>and 3, the Concorde 2 and 3, Jumbo 2 and 3, an 80 channel AM/FM hand
>portable, amps, antennna's, the mic's including my old faithful
>friend, the Big Puncher and a mic processor.
I remember probably the original importer of Ham International equipment
from Belguim.
I believe it was a young Greek fella, who's name I forget. He was based
in Finchley, N. London where I at the time hung out. thios was of course
pre-legalisation days around 78 and also pre Mura Wholesale. Do you
remember any of these gentlemen?
Personally I could never get on with those Ham International rigs. I
made do with a smuggled in Cobra 148 GTL, a 40ch sidebander and not to
be confused with the 148 GTL DX, a totally different rig and afaik not
yet out in 78. I used it with a Redco Digiscan which offered frequency
readout, 5KHz steps from 26-28MHz or thereabouts. Remember them?
Another US import was the Turner range of mics, both base and mobile.
> Can't remember where the
>catalogue came from or even when, but as you say its pretty old!
>Wouldn't dream of throwing it out now of course, it reminds me of the
>days when CB was the dogs B's down here and the old Sigma4 used to
>glint in the sun :)
I totally agree. I made some terrific friends and thought nothing of
driving 50 miles + after a contact to meet up with the face behind the
mic. I kind of took that to extremes via my early ssb contacts to meet
and stay with several US, and Canadian stations.
I'd be interested in any of your earliest stories from down memory lane.
I could write a book.
Phil / London
Porky
It later got ported to a Stalker (forgot the number), big mistake, it was
better on the HyGain. The Sigma IV was on top of the Hall of Residence
building (Aston in Bham) until those that be realised what it was being used
for, when it was moved to my parents garden and retired.
If any of you Bham guys read this newsgroup drop me a line , Honey Monster,
Big Ben, M&B, Night Owl etc...
Happy days indeed
Tim (aka Streetburner then with rig on mbike)
"Philip de Cadanet" <ph...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote in message
news:fgDvoTAT...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk...
cobra148
Porky <T...@nospam.5by9.co.uk> wrote in message
news:eZjd6.6435$cD2.2...@news2-win.server.ntlworld.com...
Don't recall the Redco, I had a UFO Digiscan on a President Grant. I had a
Siggy 4 too, only mine was mounted at an incredibly high 6".....yep, only 6
inches off the ground, a heck of a lot quieter on rx. It was quite effective
at that height too :o)
73
Bob
Paul
coast near Brighton so we had 625 aerials. I got my own CB months
before L day in 81 so only had a colt 210 and 120channel AM/FM thing
by 82. I do however remember a huge craze at our school for 49MHz
handsets before CB though. The only radio guy in London back then that
I know of was Bernie but he was into amateur stuff when I knew of him.
I only ever saw one digiscan, it was connected to a Madison, I could
never really get into the President stuff though. ISTR a company used
to advertise the digiscans in Breaker On The Side magazine (later On
The Side), now that was a good little mag, seemed pro SSB, it was A5
format, I've still got half a dozen of them in a box somewhere. Did
you say Turner?? My Expander 500 is sitting next to this keyboard
plugged into a Yaesu, gets used everyday and is still the dogs on SSB.
Funny memories from the CB days.....the best one happened a few times.
We used to take a rig, a B300 and the Sigma 4/20 ft pole on top of the
South Downs near to Lewes. Tell person on the other end where we were
and wait for the reaction, every 'yeah, right! you winding me up?' etc
etc got a match stuck in a box......oh well, simple things LOL. Being
to young to drive we done most of the usual mad things, the best set
up I had was the multimode 2 jubileed onto the handle bars, Bremi 70
taped to the car battery on the rack and a 7ft Firestick fixed to the
back of it. Also had an 18ft Shakespeare bolted to a rucksack with the
rig slung of the belt and probably the maddest of them all, a complete
1/2 wave dipole complete with wooden pole on a rucksack on a bike (and
it wasn't me!). I can also remember many an afternoon being spent in
Halfords using the chipped Stalker 9 they had on display!
One out of town CB'er that comes to mind was Pete, Loner. I'm not sure
what he had in his car but from down here on the coast I could hear
him driving down the Purley Way, which as you can imagine is not bad
going!
I used to have loads of fun from CB, funny to think that there were
120+ people on within 2 miles of me in its hay day, all that with no
keyers or tossers too! During the day it was onto CH 37 for a net and
see who was on top of what hill.
Carry on like this and I'll be getting my old Multimode out from the
loft!
Paul
Mr Blue Sky <<and its been a VERY long time since I've used that!
Philip de Cadanet
Snip
> The only radio guy in London back then that
>I know of was Bernie but he was into amateur stuff when I knew of him.
Yes, that name rings a bell.
Let me tell you. Back around 72/3 after moving from pirate radio on the
medium wave (we had qso's on there in the old days!) to CB frequencies,
I, at the time lived for a short while in Rotherhithe in SE London. I
had some cheapo walkie talkies, single channel AM units rocked up on
27.125, the old 14. All I could hear were Italians! I could not find a
CB or amateur transceiver so a friend and I much modified a home-brew MW
rig with an 807 in the output using different Pi-Tank components and
the crystal from one of the walkie talkies. A Trio communications
receiver was the other half of the station.
So there I was, 25w of AM with a single channel tx. Home made wire
dipole hung over the side of a twelve story tower block next to the R.
Thames. From up there one could not only cover London, I could pretty
much see it all. During the day, what sounded like an Italian hornets
nest would reply to cq calls but my first night time call had a Croydon
based station come back to say that I was only the fourth station he had
ever heard. from memory he had brought back a CB set from a vacation to
the US.
within a few years London was buzzing with most of the sets smuggled in
from europe but I'm sure you remember all this.
>I only ever saw one digiscan, it was connected to a Madison, I could
>never really get into the President stuff though. ISTR a company used
>to advertise the digiscans in Breaker On The Side magazine (later On
>The Side), now that was a good little mag, seemed pro SSB, it was A5
>format, I've still got half a dozen of them in a box somewhere.
God, you're going back, though maybe not quite as far.
I have a copy of the US magazine called S9 from around 1981.
> Did
>you say Turner?? My Expander 500 is sitting next to this keyboard
>plugged into a Yaesu, gets used everyday and is still the dogs on SSB.
I mainly stuck to several of the mobile models as I was out on the road
most days as a service engineer. Yaesu and amp underneath the seat
hiding behind my, at that time G8 call when the Met police used to pull
anyone over with a 'dodgy' looking antenna!
I quickly upgraded from a Cb set to an amateur set as this together with
my license enabled one to run a legally imported set! You may remember
that many early amateur transceivers came with 11m installed from the
factory. I started off with a Ft301S, which was the 10w version of the
100w model. this allowed me to drive a much bigger linear. My first was
an early 8-pill Varmint which Ged (a different Ged) imported from Abe
Brewer in Oklahoma, USA. It ran around 600-800w peak out after I
upgraded my charging system. It previously used to send morse code with
the headlamps due to the horrendous current drain on speech peaks.
I did not have a problem being heard.
Zetagi, eat your heart out.
>Funny memories from the CB days.....the best one happened a few times.
>We used to take a rig, a B300 and the Sigma 4/20 ft pole on top of the
>South Downs near to Lewes. Tell person on the other end where we were
>and wait for the reaction, every 'yeah, right! you winding me up?' etc
>etc got a match stuck in a box......oh well, simple things LOL.
Yes, been there, done that.
The problem was trying not to become a channel hogg or master. Stronger
than normal signals had the unfortunate result in bringing everyone out
of their boxes wanting to work you. Most stations could not hear one
another and therefor had the impression that you were not acknowledging
them.
I had many a bad experience though always tried to be respectful and
patient with the real weak or distant stations. In fact I made a point
of trying to pull the weak stations out of the weeds and at the same
time passing on my experience with regards improving ones antenna system
etc.
With several other stations having experienced this same minor problem a
group of us started the 276.635 late night sideband net. Right from the
off we would state that we were all pro-power/large, high antennas and
that we would not, could not acknowledge 'penny whistle sounding
stations. This way we would not upset anybody. A few people initially
tried to cause interference, but when they realised this was damn near
impossible due to the whole nature of the net they then left us alone.
this net built up a huge following, of listeners too. Many a time,
'other' stations used to call in once stations were closing down just to
say how much they enjoyed the tech chat.
in no way did we wish to put ourselves up on a pedastal (like some DX
clubs, no names, no pack drill) but we were all, both male and one
female, just intwerested in running the 'biggest, baddest' station that
we could put together. Jackie in Crystal Palace ran 1kw!
> Being
>to young to drive we done most of the usual mad things, the best set
>up I had was the multimode 2 jubileed onto the handle bars, Bremi 70
>taped to the car battery on the rack and a 7ft Firestick fixed to the
>back of it. Also had an 18ft Shakespeare bolted to a rucksack with the
>rig slung of the belt and probably the maddest of them all, a complete
>1/2 wave dipole complete with wooden pole on a rucksack on a bike (and
>it wasn't me!). I can also remember many an afternoon being spent in
>Halfords using the chipped Stalker 9 they had on display!
I beat that. At age 16, I put a 10w, solid state VFO controlled medium
wave transmitter, car battery and Phillips cassette recorder on a Honda
C50 moped and carted this pile up to Saffren Green, near Borehamwood in
Hertfordshire. Now this is where Capital Radio and LBC's MW transmitters
are located. You can see their combined four tower directional array
when driving north up the A1. At the time, Capital was transmitting from
Lotts Road Power Station in Chelsea. However, I digress. up at Saffren
Green the towers were up, the radial system had been ploughed in but the
transmitter s still had not been installed.
Phil thought he'd better do a little test transmission!
Late one night (with friend in local telephone box to take any calls) I
unhooked the earth clamp taking static off the tower down to earth. i
hooked this to my chassis and used small crocodile clips from the
antenna socket to the base of the tower and switched on with two hours
of a pre-recorded show. 10w into a 200ft tower with a brand new
commercial grade ground system gave the best call from Lymington in
Hampshire.
Booming in.
Kind of christened that tower!
>One out of town CB'er that comes to mind was Pete, Loner. I'm not sure
>what he had in his car but from down here on the coast I could hear
>him driving down the Purley Way, which as you can imagine is not bad
>going!
The Purley Way is kind of nice, flat and open.
>I used to have loads of fun from CB, funny to think that there were
>120+ people on within 2 miles of me in its hay day, all that with no
>keyers or tossers too!
Yes, that's right.
> During the day it was onto CH 37 for a net and
>see who was on top of what hill.
>
>Carry on like this and I'll be getting my old Multimode out from the
>loft!
Don't, I just hated the bleeps that emanated from some of those black
boxes. Or am I getting confused with the Hy-Gain 5's?
>Paul
>
>Mr Blue Sky <<and its been a VERY long time since I've used that!
That handle rings a real faint bell. Either from the downs in Brighton
or the Ditchling Beacon.
Really no problem from Ally Pally to the south coast, even on AM though
far easier on SSB.
Dunstable Downs was one of my other haunts until you had to fight for
space a few years later!
Later
Phil / London
Davey
much the same as a sigma 2
cheers
Davey
On 25 Jan 2001 15:16:42 GMT, adva...@aol.comburger (ADVANSPEC)
wrote:
chris
think they have a web site now, but dont know the address.
although it has been about 4 years since i last saw one of there catalogues.
"Sigma 4" <sig...@twosixop205.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:980280088.8450.0...@news.demon.co.uk...
Sigma 4
Truck king used to have some stock a fews years ago. Sadly no more..
"chris" <chr...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:xo%d6.13850$YT3.3...@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com...
Mark
co-author a book,
I`ts great stuff.
Mark. (Kingfisher) and I haven`t used that in a long time!!
Paul
<ph...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote:
>That handle rings a real faint bell. Either from the downs in Brighton
>or the Ditchling Beacon.
How about Firle Beacon, just along the road from it, that was our
haunt. Did I mention a number 19 set, a pram, a tank whip and Uckfield
High Street? no.... I didn't think so LOL. and its best I don't say
anything about the 'donald duck noises' coming out of the electronic
church organ during a wedding (we made the paper for that one:))
One lasting memory of the B300 is the remaining stain from a slug that
crawled onto the heatsink one night when we was in our tent. The
'dxpedition' went something like this, convince dad to drive us upto
the Firle carpark, everything for the weekend was in a rucksack and
the Siggy 4 and pole was tied together on the roof. The beacon is
about a mile from the car park so its a pleasant walk through the
fields upto the trig point, however a full framed rucksack with tent,
food, cooker etc etc AND a BIG car battery gets a tad heavy. So there
I was in the middle of the field when the resident cows start taking a
keen interest, not really knowing about curious cows I started to
speed up, you gotta remember 80lb rucksack, sigma 4 and scaf pole. It
ended up with me not quite flat out being followed by a few dozen
fresians, oh for a video camera! Once I got to the other end of the
field and through the gate, the best I could do was lean against the
gate, being to knackered to even try getting the rucksack off LOL. I
have some photos of one of our trips somewhere I'll have to cobble a
website together with them and the Ham Int catalogue scans on it.
So I've dug out the Multimode 2, it sounds OK on a dummy load so far
but I'm sure the tx audio was crap the last time I tried it out with
an antenna and some woosh. I guess they aint really worth spending
money to be looked at these days, this one was modded to increase the
coverage and it was never quite the same again, shame I cant reverse
the mod! Just need to get up some Aluminium now, I see Sirio make a
Vector 4000, Siggy copy but its pricey, not really sure what the cost
of stuff is these days, its probably easier and cheaper to make a
beam. What is noticable from the Sirio site is the gain figures, they
seem almost realistic!! No silly dbi figures of 5 and more for a end
fed half wave. Just got to sort out these shops selling 200w (sic)
B300's, I'd make em stick a bird meter on one and wind up the input
and see what happens.
One last question, what happened to all the old rigs, there must be
thousands out there! Are they in box's in attics, scrapped, knackered
and chucked or what? Whats everyone reckon?
Seeya
Paul
Mark
Paul <blag...@gb.com> wrote in message
news:6u6p7t45d098h67b7...@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 30 Jan 2001 13:47:51 +0000, Philip de Cadanet
> <ph...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
> I was in the middle of the field when the resident cows start taking a
> keen interest, not really knowing about curious cows I started to
> speed up, you gotta remember 80lb rucksack, sigma 4 and scaf pole. It
> ended up with me not quite flat out being followed by a few dozen
> fresians, oh for a video camera!
That`s a shame, in addition to the book you could also have released a video
!!!
The last time I looked, all my stuff was gathering dust in the loft.
I did take a president lincoln mobile last year, but got annoyed at all the
music, keying and language that seems to be countrywide now.
However sideband was still good but I found the activity quite low.
I blame truckers, kids and the government for leagalising it in the
first place. ;>)
Mark.
Snowbat
> I'll have to cobble a
> website together with them and the Ham Int catalogue scans on it.
Yes please - I'd love to see both.
Philip de Cadanet
>I think that you pair (Phillip & Paul) should defiantly get together and
>co-author a book,
>I`ts great stuff.
I'm afraid that if I co-authored a book on my past radio exploits they
would send me to Siberia.
Phil / London
Mr Grumpy
Hmm stories from 'Blue Sky,
A couple of things also worth mentioning about the early days of CB
down here near Brighton...
The trips on top of the Downs, where great fun,
Fired up one Sunday afternooon with a multiomode up on the downs, a
good bit of ground wave was running, and caused a major pile up.. hard
work.. !! lol
How 'Blue Sky and 'Eliminator put up with sub artic temps on the downs
I dunno, but they spent a few days up there when we had that stuff
called snow (remember that ! hihi)
we had fun coming back down in the car (Dad not being availible - so
me was the driver..) more like we slid down !! and a puncture on the
way...
Sigma IV and silver rods.. - Mobile..
There was one character around our way, went mobile with a silver
rod... and half a sigma four mounted on the top of the blue marina
van....
Was quite a sight, I think it got a photo in one of the CB-MAGs If I
remember correctly..
Ok, south coast peeps...
Who Remebers
"The Big E Breakers Club" (AM) meets held at the old Kings club in
eastbourne.. huge club...200+ members
"Happy famalies" (AM)
then FM came along...
Clifftop Breakers (FM)
Channel Snobs (FM)
I could go on and on...and on.... lol
10-10 Little Fred (Ahem...) / 26UK2
"The 32 then 27 Mob"
Mark (G6...)
Just one last thought ...
why did we break on the 14 in the old days, but on 19 on FM.. ???
</anorack>
Philip de Cadanet
>haunt.
> Did I mention a number 19 set, a pram, a tank whip and Uckfield
>High Street? no.... I didn't think so LOL. and its best I don't say
>anything about the 'donald duck noises' coming out of the electronic
>church organ during a wedding (we made the paper for that one:))
6.6MHz a million years ago long before ssb was used on the 45mb. With
the 807 in the final I think it only ran around 3w of rf and with that
awful grid modulation.
Talking of noises, I was possibly the first CB op in London to introduce
the infamous 'Tweety Bird' onto the airwaves. This single chip noise
maker fitted inside the power mic. every time one keyed up it send a
vibrating warble with a long single tail at the end. If you ever listen
to the American AM stations, especially down in the southern states you
can still hear the odd Tweety Bird at the start of their transmission.
The most famous noise maker has to be the 'Browning Eagle' screech. The
Browning was a valved Cb set with seperate tx and rx. You could mod it
so that the tx was still keyed when the tx/rx switched over. this
created audio feedback. Under noisey band conditions you could always
hear this feedback shrill even if you could not understand what the
operator was saying due to qrn/m.
Similar to your church organ. I was on the air driving down Shaftsbury
Avenue in London when the original theatre production of 'Jesus Christ
Superstar' was showing. I think I had just hooked up with a foreign
station from the mobile and was having trouble copying them so I parked
up outside the theatre. minutes later someone came running out of the
theatre and seeing my rather large, centre loaded, oil filled Audio King
antenna gathered that I had a transmitter on board. I was coming through
the pa system.
From memory this was Yaesu and Varmint 600w amp!
>One lasting memory of the B300 is the remaining stain from a slug that
>crawled onto the heatsink one night when we was in our tent. The
>'dxpedition' went something like this, convince dad to drive us upto
>the Firle carpark, everything for the weekend was in a rucksack and
>the Siggy 4 and pole was tied together on the roof. The beacon is
>about a mile from the car park so its a pleasant walk through the
>fields upto the trig point, however a full framed rucksack with tent,
>food, cooker etc etc AND a BIG car battery gets a tad heavy. So there
>I was in the middle of the field when the resident cows start taking a
>keen interest, not really knowing about curious cows I started to
>speed up, you gotta remember 80lb rucksack, sigma 4 and scaf pole. It
>ended up with me not quite flat out being followed by a few dozen
>fresians, oh for a video camera! Once I got to the other end of the
>field and through the gate, the best I could do was lean against the
>gate, being to knackered to even try getting the rucksack off LOL. I
>have some photos of one of our trips somewhere I'll have to cobble a
>website together with them and the Ham Int catalogue scans on it.
I was never one for operating portable due to the power I used to run.
Even my early exploits made me upgrade the alternator on a 'company'
mark 2 Ford escort that I had when employed as a mobile service
engineer.
>So I've dug out the Multimode 2, it sounds OK on a dummy load so far
>but I'm sure the tx audio was crap the last time I tried it out with
>an antenna and some woosh. I guess they aint really worth spending
>money to be looked at these days, this one was modded to increase the
>coverage and it was never quite the same again, shame I cant reverse
>the mod! Just need to get up some Aluminium now, I see Sirio make a
>Vector 4000, Siggy copy but its pricey, not really sure what the cost
>of stuff is these days, its probably easier and cheaper to make a
>beam.
Correct, but IMHO it's even easier to purchase a quality yagi rather
than build one. Unless you have plans of a tried and tested design or
access to computer modelling software then you could easily waste your
time.
I am a registered user of EZ NEC but ended up purchasing two
Hy-Gain/Telex 5-ele Long John yagi's.
> What is noticable from the Sirio site is the gain figures, they
>seem almost realistic!! No silly dbi figures of 5 and more for a end
>fed half wave.
A pleasant change.
> Just got to sort out these shops selling 200w (sic)
>B300's, I'd make em stick a bird meter on one and wind up the input
>and see what happens.
I don't know whether you're saying that 200w is too low or too high.
together with that Bird watt meter you want to insert a good quality 30,
not 50MHz low pass filter to reduce the harmonic output of the amp. As
I'm sure you know all those harmonics just make the meter read high.
I am right in thinking that the B300 only runs 60 or 80w pep pills in
the output.
'All' my amps now run Toshiba 2SC2879's. These are rated at 100w on 12v
or 120w on 14v. With the current state of the art charging system, high
output alternator and deep cycle batteries I can pull 150 amps no
problem and hold 14.3v on keydown. this department would of given you
problems as you had no charge going into that battery - the famous
'bubbly' sounding audio caused by the high current drain, voltage drop
on speech peaks.
>One last question, what happened to all the old rigs, there must be
>thousands out there! Are they in box's in attics, scrapped,
Most I'm sure are scrapped with others stuck in lofts.
By the way as a final ditty I was in court a total of three times with
Eric Gotts and Vic Frisbee. Once for SW operating on the 49mb or was it
the medium wave, so long ago. Also two further occasions both for 11m
activity.
On two other occasions after being tracked down while operating mobile
from well known locations I out-ran them twice in a car chase. Once from
Dunstable Downs in Beds and the other from just outside Orpington in
Kent on the South Downs. Both of these times were many years back. I
have since cleared up my act other that to be prosecuted for marketing
unapproved 'very long range' (non-cellular) cordless telephones. Best
call distance 34 miles, best one-way where the handset could not latch
onto the base was 57 miles, Denham in west London to Brighton where the
Audi quatro was up on ramps in a garage have the ABS seen to. 100w base
and 25w amp after the handset in the car.
The RA did not approve!
Later
Phil / London
Paul
<ph...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote:
>I don't know whether you're saying that 200w is too low or too high.
>
>together with that Bird watt meter you want to insert a good quality 30,
>not 50MHz low pass filter to reduce the harmonic output of the amp. As
>I'm sure you know all those harmonics just make the meter read high.
>
>I am right in thinking that the B300 only runs 60 or 80w pep pills in
>the output.
IIRC a pair of MRF454s, rated at 60w, usually reached with about 6-7
watts of drive. I did wind up the input to 13w once, still 120w with
the low pass in line, 150w without!!! I'll talk about my Superstar
cordless phone in the week :)
Paul
Mr R@t [2.30xz]
news:d7vfuAAq...@invest.fsbusiness.co.uk...
I guess if that *did* happen Mr Putin would probably employ you to work on
the TX for Voice of Russia, and if Dumbya re-starts Star Wars [which he has
every intention of doing] then probably also the return of Woodpecker :)
Alex
--
Mr R@t [2.30xx] network23, reading
http://www.ratsnest23.org
<golf><romeo><tango>23<AT>ratcotel<DOT>net
"Reading Borough Council (on whom be a pox forever)" - Nick Leverton
tim smith
in the early eightys and it really did kick ass.I always wanted one but
didnt have the space for this beast. I had the HAM Thunderbird plus also the
HAM Sexy 6/8 (3/4) wave but none of these 2 could touch my mates Big Mac. If
only someone would start to manufacture them again!
I have original spec sheet for the Big Mac but dont know anybody in the land
who has one now. Even the guys in Belgium dont have them now. I also had the
HAM catalogue too.
Is there anybody out there who has one or knows someone who still got one,
either up or down?????
Tim
26 OP 141
Brain Dead CBer
<Ralf_f...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Why is it that every new Amateur that has come from CB suddenly thinks they
>are better than every other 11 meter operator, but continue to "DX ? " on
>channel 31 mid block FM???
>
>Does this Ham status qualify to DX on this channel??
>
>
>
>
>
>
Nope. I think that the real reason is that the band is mostly dead,
even during peak sunspot cycle. Most hams ignore this huge expanse of
spectrum and prefer to cram themselves into just a few KHZ. It's a
crying shame really but there you go.
I personally think that the 11 Meter allocation should be cut down to
around 500KHZ at the very most. Anything more is just a waste of
space.
Breaker Break
Brain Dead CBer
mbz07
> Nope. I think that the real reason is that the band is mostly dead,
> even during peak sunspot cycle.
Where on earth is your antenna? Or have you buried it underground, y'know
you ain't going to get 'groundwave' propagation that way... (11m,
dead?????? )
mbz
No Morse
By the 'huge expanse of spectrum' I take it you're referring to the 10
metre amateur band which is surprisingly quiet at times when it
shouldn't be. They're all too busy cramming themselves into the 200 KHz
between 27.4 and 27.6 MHz, aren't they?
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
Brain Dead CBer
>By the 'huge expanse of spectrum' I take it you're referring to the 10
>metre amateur band
replying to a post about 10 meter amateur band so I was either
refering to that particular band or the space between your ears. you
can choose.
>which is surprisingly quiet at times when it
>shouldn't be. They're all too busy cramming themselves into the 200 KHz
>between 27.4 and 27.6 MHz, aren't they?
Actually no. I find that most Amateurs prefer to cram themselves
between 7.000MHZ and 7.999MHZ
Never understood that but there again I also never understood the
satisfaction gained from the folllowing . . .
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
CQ Contest, CQ Contest, CQ Contest
Your 5 and 9, I repeat 5 and 9, 5 and 9
Brain Dead CBer
Brain Dead CBer
I wrote
>Actually no. I find that most Amateurs prefer to cram themselves
>between 7.000MHZ and 7.999MHZ
>
Of course what I REALLY meant to say was between 7.000MHz and
7.099MHz
But anyone with more than a couple of brain cells will have probably
worked that one out for themselves. (By which I refer to all the
non-offensive hams and CBers).
So there you go. It seems I really am Brain Dead after all.
4 for sure Good Budgy. 19 for a coffee!
Brain Dead CBer
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