Prepper Communications - The Beginning - Installing the Solarcon A-99 Antenna
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2013
- We have had some odds and ends communications through the years but decided it was time for a unified plan. The CB was step one. Unlicensed communications can tell you a lot if you listen. We understand that many people have different ideas on communications and we are simply sharing one, ours, as we go along the path of building our communications systems.
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Good video, getting back into CB radio after many years. Running an A99 with a uniden 980SSB
Hows that setup working for you? I'm putting the same equipment together as I send this to you. Please if you have time let me know! Thank you for your time.
Great information thanks. We also installed a Comet GP9 for our VHF and purchased a yaesu 897 for our Base station covers everything from 2 meter to 160 m. We are still working the commo plan but it's coming together pretty nicely and we have made some great contacts. Thanks again for sharing some great info.
one tip I've learned from some commercial antenna installers is that you want to loop the cable tie around the coax and then make another loop around the mast so the coax isn't rubbing up against the mast because over time it can wear into the cable and cause the insulation to wear through or even sever the entire cable
Thank you. That's a good idea
I make a "drip loop" with the coax (just below the feed point.) The zip ties don't last as long as electrical tape does. Thanks Crazy Bob.
Great job! I use an A-99, & it gets the job done! Thanks!... (The 949 is a fantastic radio!)
Thinking about setting up a base again. If I do I'll probably go with this antenna. I got this antenna back in 1988. It preformed very well. I could be heard by just about everyone that heard me, even those putting less than 3 db. People thought I was running power, but it was barefoot for several years. The only drawback I found is it messed with the neighbors TV.
Damn good antenna I have 2 of them,was impressed with its performance
For extra security you could drill a hole thru the pipe where it is secured at the bottom at the bracket.Put the hole all the way thru the bracket & pipe into the wooden block & put another bolt thru it so it will never settle out of the brackets in high winds.
Thanks for the info. The jury is still out on which HF antenna I am going to go with. I appreciate the info on the 40 meter band also. I had heard that from others but it is nice to hear confirmation. I was strongly thinking of dipole simply due to portability. I really need to make up my mind and get something in place soon. A friend of ours has a buddipole. We are waiting for him to put it through the paces so we can see how well it works.
looking to get back into CB myself, havn't had one since the 90s prices are sure have changed. Most of the radios are all the same, which is good.
Prices sure have changed. Still very happy with our Solarcon. Its a good antenna and has weathered quite a few storms
How right you are. I got and SWR meter and an analyzer.
I use chain link top rail for masts 17 gauge steel 1 3/8" X10ft. Slips together by being tapered at one end and with the coupler are triple thick at the joints. About 12 bucks each and couplers are less than $3 a piece. If you go high enough add guy rings and you are in business.
Thanks for the great advice. You are right about the fence pole. The pole we replaced the conduit with was top rail chain link fencing and you are right it works great. We used one whole one and a partial one that was left over from another persons install. It's holding up great.
From a prepping standpoint, I have found 40 meters to be the best all around band. There are several hams in a 150 mile radius I can reliably make contact with on a regular basis, and when conditions are good I make Texas, England, and such. Lots of international qso's on 20 meter. I use a fan dipole with 40/20/10 meters set up as inverted v. The 10 meter doesn't work well at all, I believe the 2 longer wires are interfering with it.
My 40m NVIS does well out to 300-400 miles..
I have been on 10 meter ham band and did some 10 meter SSB too. I haven't tried any other the other bands yet because I don't trust the SWR meter I have right now. It seems a little flaky. I had great success on 10 meter. I made quite a few contacts the first time out of the gate but I think it was due to the band conditions. I have had some really long distance contacts with my CB mostly on channel 38 LSB In one evening I made contact to Australia, Puerto Rico, and Louisiana lol
glad the new pole worked out,if I was using cb for private comms 25mhz is nice quiet part of band if your radio has band A 25.615 to 26.055mhz well away from the normal bands.Else plenty of HF frequencies can be used in emergency situations,have you also considered LOW band VHF 29.7 to 50mhz FM range from base to mobile very good!
Gal post are cheap, but Aluminium is so much lighter and if double walled just as strong at 1/3 weight
Yeah Just towards the end of the installation we had the same thought LOL We mention it later in the video That we switched to metal fence posts. It's held up through several pretty good storms so far with the additional support brackets also.
Good job👍
that mounting pole looks way to thin for weight loading and windaged how that work out?
Id use 2" dia thick wall 20ft pole if mounting high on house.
Hey guys I got me the A99 also and I bought the channel master 1820 its 20 foot high and its a telescope with rings to use with tie straps or guide wires and I bought it at channel master and it was only $ 59 not bad so I'm glad I seen your video so I can do mine with no mistakes lol well good luck and hope to hear you on the ais they call me 9( TAZ ) well 73's to you's and good luck
Sounds like you have a good setup started. We will listen out for you when we are on air. Thanks for watching.
Sorry to hear about your antenna. As you saw we sure tried to make the conduit work LOL. Glad we opted to change to. Thanks for watching.
Interesting.
BTW, 1" fencing posts make great masts for small vertical antennas.
Bad part about CB is a very comms limited range. Ham radios are far more superior, with a worldwide communication range.
Very nice to see woman interested in radio communications. Not enough of that in my opinion.
Agreed
The Ground Plane Kit Is Suppose To Be 9 Feet From Any Tree Branches Or The Roof . You Should Have Put The Antron 20 Feet Or More Above The Ground
also need a Rain LOOP and a wind loop on the Coax a must
How much for the Solarcon A-99 antenna? And where do you get one? That's the only thing holding me up from putting up my old base station. I only run modified single sideband phase locked loop radios that go above channel 40 and below channel 1 and have modified the transmitter to swing with the clarifier to talk to those between frequencies or those who are off frequency. Very simple mods to do to a phase locked loop radio. Back in the late 70's through 80's I used to hang on the upper side band of channel 60 and always ran a Fluke freq counter to stay just below the 10 meter HAM band. I always talked to more HAM radio operators than CB radio operators because not that many ran modified radios. The best phase locked loop radios in my circle back then were Sears or J.C. Penny's single sideband radios. They were the easiest to modify with just cutting a trace on the circuit board and installing a couple of three SPST switches to control the frequencies. I sold all my CB equipment including my 1/2 wave ground plane antenna when we moved from the Atlanta area to Tennessee. I still have my parents old CB equipment, including SWR meters, linear amps, Davis freq counter and some coax, but I need an antenna to put up another base station. With my old ground plane I talked around the world.
How long are those radials, also does the ground go to the top of the mast or on the antenna, I’m looking to buy a Antron 99 soon , I have good ssb Galaxy radio and a 20’ telescopic mast and the mounting brackets , I only need the antenna and co-ax . I use to play around with cb’s in the 70’s , just getting back into it mainly for emergency purposes
If SHTF, electricity will be in short supply and the motor mouths will have to shut down their amplifiers and their 300% over modulation for hours on end. Communication will actually have to have some meaning again on CB and people will have to learn how to communicate using much less power. 4 watts AM and 12 watts PEP SSB (or whatever) on a stock radio is PLENTY of power on 27 mhz if you have an efficient antenna. Honestly, I've had an Amateur Radio license for 29 years and I think that's still the way to go just for the ability to communicate on multiple bands. Nobody is going to care if you transmit illegally on Amateur Radio bands during a national emergency like SHTF, but you actually need to have the equipment ahead of time and know how to use it.
I agree
People have been conditioned to think that you need signal strengths of 40db over S9 to communicate. On SSB, you can communicate just fine with an S meter reading of 0 zero if the band is quiet and everybody is LISTENING and conserving electrical energy like they should for important information during an emergency. The amount of power you transmit makes very little difference under equal band conditions. Antenna efficiency makes ALL the difference. Nice emergency station you have there. You could keep it going indefinitely on low power and a couple of car batteries wired in parallel and just enough solar panel capacity to keep the batteries topped off.
I agree about the power and I too have been a HAM for almost 30 years. Some people just don't understand, if the band is down, it doesn't matter how much power you're pushing, you aren't going to get anywhere. I had a Uniden HR-2510 and talked while I was mobile from the eastern USA with a California contact with no trouble what-so-ever, BAREFOOT with just 25 watts!!
All good comments. N8VO Williams county, Ohio
a99... nice i have one .......work good with my rci 2995 dx
+lacey397 Thanks and thanks for watching.
I haven't had any luck getting range out of CB, have you guys tried any ham bands?
Great video!! Check out the TRX communications 392m
Your brave bending them ground plane radials like that luckily they didnt snap or crack.. But good choice on the antenna i hear there great antennas
did you have to adjust the swr rings on the antenna ?? or just from the radio ??
From factory you should not have to adjust the rings
I see you posted this 10 years ago how is that Antron holding up now? I just bought one getting ready to put it up people tell me I need to seal the joints and paint it and all this stuff to make it last a long time but I'm not sure I buy that I think they're built to last a long time without that anyway how's your A99 holding up?
Had my Imax 2000 up had to take it down.. coax was kinked up hopefully i'll put it back up
1/2~ wave end fed dipole is all that 99 is.😏👍
you should really get a better pole for that asap until then guy wire the heck out of it lol. after make sure your ground is soldered if you use want to use a connector. your going to have a ball with that antenna the antron99 is awesome. I still use one along with the Imax-2000 from 10 meter to 12 meter on my galaxy Saturn. have fun all. "UNIT-928" BATAVIA NY..
Thanks :)
tuning tuning tuning
Best cable lenght for 11 meter - 27 mhz cb radio transmission : 3.64 meter (3 meter 64 cm) and up...3.64, 7.28, 10.92, 14.56, 18.20, 21.84...21 meters after cable is too long but working, maybe high swr or not...
300/27.215mhz (ch20) x 0.66 (for pvc-plastic-poietilen cable coat-isolation) or x 0.80 (for foam isolation) =7.27 meter...
7.27/2=3.63....so 3.64 + 3.64 + .....
I'm new to all of this so forgive me if my suggestion is foolish - but why didn't they run the antenna cable thru the interior of the fence post instead of zip tieing it all along the entire exterior length? I would think that by running it inside the pipe you would get the added benefit of protecting the cable from the elements - especially to those in the north east. If you run the antenna inside the pipe, will that cause interference with the signal? Again I'm new. Just wonderin'.
I thought the same thing, but I myself am new to this.
You should have mounted the board on the deck end grain, not cost grain. You mounted it the weakest way for that piece of wood. Mounting it end grain would make it strong. Then you could rest the mast pipe on it. But as it is, you can't. Well you could, but it would break.
It still might break, the clamp is holding the weight transferred to the weak side of the end grain. Good luck.
Mudducks!😂
So how is this antenna holding up ? Does it see regular use?
I had to pull mine down for a move a bit over a year ago...and have yet to put it back up. I am getting an itch however.......
Still working great! We had to replace the cable after a major storm but the antenna itself has help up great!
ive had 1 up for 20= years but i ran a good cox real thick an on a 40 channel cobra 29 classic with a d104 i run (.2) swrs on channel 7 an i also run it on an old tram diamond 23 channel that was made befoe FCC regulations it's 1 old CB an it will swing 45 watts an its swrs are at (.5) still to this day ! I put it up with 3 sections of 3/4 steel gas pipe with steel coupling's an i have it in the ground about 6 to 7 feet an it still works great so im a little over 40 feet in the air ! What more could i ask for ! It works better then most anything i could of bought as a antenna an still running 20 + years later im supper happy with it i give it 10 stars!!!!!!! I check SWRS at the beginning of the year an it was still on the money ! 20 + years later !
An on my last comment i live in the Chicago Sub's to give u an idea what type of Brutal weather it has gone threw ! It is a great antenna an they clam it can handle up to 2000 watts . Ive never seen any 1 do that but i did know 1 guy who used to put 450 watts on 1 an he ran it every nite like that for years he is died now but it worked an sounded great he was on a cobra 148.
An yes the SWR's were that low ive checked it with a few swr meter's
Ive even seen 1 that was hit by lightening an shattered the fiber glass on it an it still worked LOL no BS :)
on the a99, how much trouble did you have setting the swr?
No trouble at all. It was almost perfect right off.
i DIDNT EVEN HAVE TO ADJUST IT IT WAS ON THE MONEY OUT THE BOX AN 20 + YEARS LATER IT STILL IF PERFICT! But make sure you ground it well read above what i posted
I woulld not trust the internal SWR Meter either on any CB, get yourself an external SWR meter and that would probably give you an accurate SWR reading for sure. My only question is this, I have an A-99 up in the air on 10 of pole and it is attached to a tripod that is bolted on three wooden blocks on the front porch of my deck which the floor is 3 ft off of the ground and I was wondering when you attached the groundwire for the A-99, where in the world did you attach it too? Because my SWR's right now is about 1.5 the whole way around between channels 1, 20 and 40 but I DON'T have it grounded yet.
Thanks we have since the making of this video purchased an swr analyzer. We have the A-99 grounded to a lightening rod off the side of the deck.
How far did the rod have to go into the ground?
We have a 6 ft rod I believe and just under 2 feet is above ground.
The ground plane isn't necessary. I was wondering why you were attaching the ground at the base of the antenna but i see you did finally attached it at the base of the mast which will work and didnt need all that copper.
Actually, the GPK-1 serves a very important purpose! It becomes the antenna from the outside surface of the shield reducing the chance of RFI in the shack, interference to tv's, audio equipment and telephones in the neighborhood.
The A-99 as supplied, without the ground-plane kit, is only half an antenna and uses the shield as the other half. This causes RF to come down the outside of the shield causing interference. This is also the case that any stick type antenna, including several HF multi-band (Miracle) antennas on the market today.
don't trust those meters. Get an SWR meter!! Mine was OFF too!!
those antennas are nothing more than a long piece of copper wire housed in a fiberglass tube (to reduce static),with a helical wound topload (basically a fire stick) and a CRAPPY resister soldered at the base connector for the 50 ohm match. Just remember when your antenna takes a major crap COZ ya put "Fire to DA wire", check the resister, it usually gets toasted.
I seen an article where a guy bought one of the A99s and took it apart and the way it was put together was horrible!! www.radiomanual.info/schemi/ACC_antenna/Solarcon_A-99_review.pdf
.. - Why Are You Using Ground Elements?
( You Do Not Need Them for CB )
Ground Elements Will Not Help You with A99
- Why Are You Grounding at the U Bolt?
( Only Ground Near Bottom Mast )
A good base station radio would have been the Galaxy DX 2547
The DX-2547 is just a DX-959 in a box with a small PS unit built in. Cheaper to buy the DX-949 and a good PS!
The DX-949 is a DX-959 without the useless frequency display.
The best thing you could've done was to put a big piece of cardboard on the assembly area, them cracks in the deck floor love to steal parts away from your project, just sayin..
get a old copy of the ARRL Antenna Handbook, learn to make your own antennas
that way, when you need a antenna,
all you need is the book, a tape measure, some wire and knowing how to solder
see the youtube postings on what is inside the A99, its a gutless wonder
sometimes the connections inside are not even soldered properly
you can build a better antenna for half the price
why buy a antenna when you can build your own
is that not what this self reliant business is all about
mac mac neill So true. We have learned a lot since the making of this video :)
PrepperRetreat
I'm not a prepper just a guy that likes radio, but the A99 is a good antenna for the price and I've made my own. My first antenna was a dipole made with 14 awg wire for 20 meters. Still, the A99 is a good antenna for the price. You can use it on several ham bands with an antenna tuner and on 11 meters as well without having to cut anything. It's a good choice for a vertically polarized antenna for the upper hf bands. I wouldn't use emt to mount the thing, but other than that good video.
You need real push up poles,,,that will fold over in the Wind
Can't have to much communications options.I use Ham Radio all HF bands from 160 to 10 meters as well as 6 meters,2 meters,440 mhz,900 mhz,220 mhz,& CB radio.I have 10 antennas at home & 4 on my pickup truck.The install looks good but NEVER trust those meters in the CB for checking your SWR readings since they are very undependable.Keep up the good work & keep those antennas & radios ready.
Thanks. We have started expanding our communications and now have an swr analyzer.
and you have the licence to use it?
Muy mal procedimiento para instalar una A99
Wrong! The second clamp should go the opposite direction!
you need am 38 mm diameter !!!!
He's using screw on an antenna mast
I don't like her hysterical laughter, like she's laughing at someone all the time.