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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ส.ค. 2024
- This is my findings after testing the Sirio Gain Master against the Antron 99. Both antennas were at a similar height and were connected to a York 863. Please note that if you are going to use your Sirio Gain Master for DX purposes then it should be as mounted as close to the ground as possible for optimum results. On the other hand, if you are only use the antenna for ground wave purposes, i.e. talking to your mate 5, 10, 20 miles away then it must be mounted as high as possible and away from obstructions.
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I have the 3 piece shakespeare big stick it's a 5/8 wave ,it replaced my starduster,now the big stick is in the closet and I have an A99 up on the roof.Works like a champ ,local,and DX. I've talked more skip in the last year than I did with the others over a period of 30 years. The A99 is an excellent antenna.
I didn’t know the big stick was a 3 piece antenna. The one I had years ago was only two
Thanks for that post, I was really impressed with the noise reduction, staggering really. I have a gain master ready to replace the A99, when the weather improves. Thanks again.
It's now Jan 2021 I saw your comment and just wondered how you got on with the GM?
thanks Rob
Thanks for that info! Those results are consistent with my findings and from most people I have spoken to as well.
I have the Antron A99 as my first fibre glass base antenna but after changing it with the Sirio Gain Master I have better reception and distant stations can hear me better with the 5/8 wave antenna while the Antron A99 is a half wave antenna! I highly recommend the Sirio Gain Master Fibre Glass Base antenna!!!👍👍👍
Thanks 9545.
I agree with your points...better reception and being heard better at a greater distance.
IMO, this can really make a difference in overall performance...if your installation is improved somewhat using the Gain Master.
Marconi 390
The GM is definitely easier to tune than the A99, There really isn't any tuning to do, you just put it together and voilà, the SWR is pretty much flat from the end of 25 MHz, all the way up to the end of 28 MHz. The A99 will maintain a reasonably good SWR on 10 m if you have it tuned to 11 m, and sometimes there is quite a lot of fiddling to do. The GM is arguably the best vertical available for 10 m, it also works exceptionally well on 12 m as well.
@SNAKERADIOS This is a cheap antenna that won't break the bank, unlike some amateur radio antennas that cost several hundred pounds that are really not much better on performance. I never take any notice of the claims that the manufacturers make, I totally agree with you, absolute rubbish. However, be fair the A99 is not junk, it works very well indeed on both CB and 10 m, and it will certainly last longer than some of your aluminium verticals.
A test like this, on the face of it, seems good but when you think about it, itlt can not be relied on. The antennas would be so close that they no doubt would be coupling into each other. Think about it, full sized vertical antennas at very similar heights, within a wavelength of each other :/
Well i have just replaced a antron 99 with a gainmaster the antenna is in the exact same location as the antron was and i can rell you the gainmaster totally blows the antron away on both tx and rx, just for your information the antenna is mounted on t & k brackets on a 11 foot scaffy pole which allows the antenna to stand approx 6 foot above the gutter to the base, great antenna i love mine
Are you talking near field or on the horizon, or further? Across the street you might not see much difference between a 1/4 wave GP and a Moonraker but when you get out 30 miles it's then when you begin to see the real antennas come on and the rest fall off.
The difference could easily be 6dB, maybe even up to 20dB I could see being possible since one antenna might hang in for 60-70 miles leaving the other behind by many miles and several s-units.
Thanks LeeeShore, we're on the same page.
You know there are 1/4 wave nulls which you could have one antenna in which the other might not be in when talking to receiving station. If ever you've noticed an FM signal fade up/down/up/down as you came to a stop in your car, you were rolling thru 1/4 wave peaks & nulls. When you compare two antennas simultaneously erected on your property, they would have to be very close, within a foot or so of being exactly the same distance from the receiving station for the signal report to be meaningful
If ever you were to test these two in the field, far away from any obstacles, trees, wires etc., and on the same mast/coax, you'd be amazed by the Gain Master.
I did and saw
A99=S6,
Proton99=S7+,
I2K=S8,
P500=S9+1Db,
GM=S9+3Db
Both TX & RX were reciprocal.
This was done on a flat field with nothing but a few 4' bushes, and at a height of 41' to the bottom of each mounting base on a 5 section push-up mast using Dacron guy rope, 92.25' of LMR400 and a Johnson Messenger 124 at 4 locations, mine+3 on RX. 2 miles, 7 miles & 19 miles.
4 Rogers variable receive preamps/ATTs were each set for S6 @ A99.
Not Gov't standards scientific but more so than most, and with repeatable results.
73
Sorry your stuck with the Gain Master, lol now get back to reality :)
I had an Antron 99, then put up a Sirio Gain Master. No difference on 10 meters groundwave to ANY station I talk to regularly. The Gain Master only work on 10,11, and 12 meters, and is very power limited. The Sirio Gainmaster is coming down this week (I just bought an IMAX 2000).
+chris tucker Your installation is at fault.
You would need to give the Gain Master it's own airspace, far away from all other antennas, NON-INSULATED GUY WIRES, trees, buildings, etc., and given you install it at least 1.5 wavelengths above ground, you will see an incredible improvement over the A99, especially as you compare them at ever increasing distances.
The GM equaled the 4 element Yagi on DX signals over 8K miles.
Too bad for you if you do not allow it to shine. Not the antennas fault, though it's fickle, yes, but give it a fair shake and you'll love it.
Also, there is a power handling upgrade available to read about online which consists of a simple 3"-4" piece of Teflon coax replaced at the feed point.
Good luck.
You did something wrong as theres a definate 1s point better on gainmaster over antron 99 in every installation i have done !
I have a 5/8 gainmaster and for dx it is superb , mine sat on the
ground leaning against my garage and worked all over europe .It is now
up 30ft on an extendable mast. I have had to repair it a few times with
fiberglass wrapping cloth this is the biggest let down but i am
confident in my repairs .I like this antenna and even bought another one
from Radiozing for £50 which had a small crack in the fiberglass which i
repaired and keep it for a spare / portable .Against my old imax / and
even older Antron it wins easy especially for dx and low swr but for
build quality no.
A99 is the better Antenna for you buck!
This is true the antron is incredibly noisy sometimes a S7 noise floor.
go 3 channels either way and the signal can be 6 or more s-units +/-
The CB is very picky, you see a fool with a coat hanger that gets out like stink, and a seasoned veteran that is weaker.
then move the antenna over 10 feet it can make a huge difference too.
I've have 5/8 CLR2 type antenna out talk a Imax 2000 and the Imax is 80' in a tree, the 5/8 only 20 feet off the base.
It's hit or miss.
The only gain on fiberglass is the durability and dependability.
The background noise is S3 on the Antron and S1.5 on the Gainmaster
The Gain Master is very sensitive to other antennas in it's near field. If they are mounted within a wavelength of each other you are killing the performance of the Gain Master.
I replaced my Imax and lost 1 s-unit until I removed my nearby metal 5/8 then the Gain Master went up 2 s-units & beat the Imax by 1 s-unit.
When I put it on the metal 5/8 mast it beat it by about 1/2 s-unit.
Those who erect the balanced Gain Master near other metal objects won't receive it's full performance benefits
I think realy the benifits will be more noticeable on signals further away Penn. I have seen massive benefits compared to a Shakespere ABS1600 5/8 Bigstick. My friend Carl who had a A99 is seeing greater TX and RX benefits to you and he's running his on the same pole.Everyone has commented on the lower noise floor of the Sirio Gain Master. Look on World Wide Radio Forum (WWRF). The Americans are comparing it to many Stateside antennas and seeing compareable gains to the ones I did....73's Dave
Hi Dave - that's what i need - a lower noise floor! I'm getting S7/8 at times- I'm considering the GM at the moment - would you still recommend? 73 Rob
@@robgibbsofficial Yes still a great antenna Robert
@@m0ogy thanks Dave
Penn,
.....and it is also my opinion that many people get wrapped up in the antenna gain figure hype, which causes them to have unrealistic expectations when trying one antenna over another. If any given antenna is designed properly at a given portion of a wavelength, then we already have somewhat of an idea of what to expect.
I am picking up a GM this week and after taking advice, I'm going to fibreglass the two joints. Apparently, a few others are doing the same now. It just don't look right with those cheap jubilee clips.
I suppose that's a good idea if you don't intend on taking the antenna apart again. However, the jubilee clips work just fine if you put them in the right place. The problem is that some people don't put them at the top of the joint, so when you get really have you wind the top splits. If you don't leave anything sticking out above the jubilee clip than is perfectly safe.
Hi Penn
Thats is a good point that you have just made. I may do that first instead of messing around with the fibreglass.
Thanks for getting back.
That is exactly what happened with my first GM. The one I have up at the moment has been there for about two years, probably longer actually. And I live on the edge of the cliffs at Brixham in Devon, believe you me get some really strong winds. This year we've had gusts up to 90 miles an hour where I live and the game master is still standing there proudly. Whether there are any cracks I really don't know, I haven't had it down to check. But it still works really well.
I shall definitely take you advice with regards to using the jubilee clips in the correct place. I live right next to The Wash in the East Midlands, we do get the odd gust now and again but nothing like you get there in Devon. So I am sure it will be fine as long as I mount it correctly.
Thanks for this, I'll stick to the Antron/Solarcon after getting it up higher this weekend. As for the noise comparison, were the aerials equally distant from any potential noise sources?.
Words of wisdom Dave.
Also, they must be on the same mast or you could have one in a null to the receiving station where the other could be in a peak or 'hot-spot'.
The A99 is sometimes a surprisingly good performer, but unfortunately that hasn't proven to be a typical scenario.
The GM also has a DC path to Ground to help bleed off static which neither the A99 nor Imax2000 have & the DX capability of my GM amazes me.
I get glowing international signal reports I'd only expect from a beam!
Ive both antennas and to be honest the antron is very much the noisy aerial
I just picked this antenna today. The gain master today.
how has the GM been for you? I'm looking at it to replace my Antron as I'm getting swamped with high interference levels thanks Rob
@@robgibbsofficial I like the antenna I have a great swr all of 10 meter. I love it.
@@n6pud many thanks
From what I understand an A99 is pretty much a unity gain antenna, its about the same as a 1/4 wave. I know my Hygain Penetrator and Ham International both outperformed it.
I can`t understand how come the Sirio GM is twice the price ( roughly ) and yet the performance is so similar to the A99 ?
If you are using around 10 meter it's great. I love mine.
@@n6pud Just on 11 mtrs Tim, i use the Sirio 827, works really well both locally and on the dx. Mid priced betweem GM and A99. ATB
@symonh2000 It really depends on what you want to use it for, if you only want the antenna for the CB frequencies than the Antron 99 is perfect and I really don't see any point in replacing it. However, if you use the 10 meter amateur radio band then the Gain Master is extremely good, although again, probably not much better than an Antron. Also, the GM has a good SWR and works very well on 12 m, another good reason to get one if you are a radio ham.
@symonh2000 Well it outperforms anything else Omi Directional I have ever owned......by a decent margin.
It realy does need to be out in the open to show big improvements though.
One issue I have with having 2 antennas up simultaneously, other than simple interaction, is the possibility of one being in a relative null compared to the placement of the other & relative to the receiving station.
I saw 2 s units loss when I had the Gain Master up simultaneously with the Penetrator. Once I downed the Penetrator the signal to a local operator on the Gain Master increased from s7 to s9+2db on a Pro3 analog meter.
A Gain Master is perfect for the top of an unguyed 72' tower.
Like them or not the ANTRON 99 works as it is designed.I have worked the world on the Ham & CB bands even with low power.Not much to them when they are taken apart but they work VERY well.My ANTRON is only up at 30 feet but does a GREAT job for me & so many others. I see a difference on the meter on your radio on transmit as well? It appears that it is putting out more but maybe it's a difference in the SWR between the two radios? {:>)
was the coax tuned to 50 ohm for both? or a better question did both have acceptable and similar swrs?
Sigma 4's, I remember those. Quite a few people had those in my area, problem is, as soon as the first high winds came along they all broke. However, all the Antron 99' s from way back are still standing in good order.
I have a 99 bagged up in the shed and a gainmaster in the air.tells it's own story
@m0ogy One of the problems is there is hardly anyone using the CB down here in Torbay so finding people to help test the antennas is rather difficult. I might tune into the 27 net on the midblock this evening and see if I can see any improvement.
Penn,
While I thought you did a good job with this, had you performed your on-air comparisons on am or sideband mode versus fm, you would have likely seen approximately 3 db of difference between the A-99 and Gain Master. This is of course assuming equal heights of both antennas with identical feed-line loss and adequate spacing between them. Some have suggested one foot spacings which would be too close, even in the vertical plane. That would certainly cause an interaction between the two ant
I disagree. Maybe a noisy Imax & if they were at the right height above gnd to boost the Imax & hurt the GM, but no chance with an A99. I saw 2 S units loss when I switched to an A99 from my Imax & more than an S unit increase when I dropped the Imax and put the GM where it had been.
The A99 is an inefficient matching network matching a very high impedance end-fed 1/2 wave which always has a higher angle than any 5/8 by nature.
Many have A99s & enjoy them, what they don't know won't hurt them.
Gain master seems to be better tuned, just by looking at your signal meter when you tx you are 9db on the A99 and 30db on the gain master, i bet your output power is better on the gain master for shure,
Penn,
.....and if we are to achieve any real quantitive gain figure numbers, they will only come from an antenna test range. Until then, I like you will just have to settle for the back yard. 73, Dave
@UKCBTV Thanks Justin :-)
Try the Gain Master on the A99 mast and compare signals to those you logged while still on the A99.
Make certain you haven't failed to insulate the metallic guy wire beneath the Gain Master. Anything metallic in it's near field will upset it's balanced design and skew the pattern & Radiation Take Off Angle.
If you could test them, each on a 72' self-supporting tower, you would see an amazing difference between the Gain Master and ANY other vertical omnidirectional antenna, metal or fibreglass.
I've seen as much as 3 s units drop from a Penetrator to an A99 when both were mounted on the same mast for several days each, and logged in for signal reports. I saw that difference on both receive and transmit, and they were both at 56' to the base, same coax & radio. Most of the signal reports were done at distances greater than 10-15 miles, some as far away as 70 miles.
Perhaps that distance from the ground or that mast length was not complimentary to the A99, but 3 S-U drop on RX was crap.
The GM isn't all it's cracked up to be. The Antron has a much better build quality and will stand up to higher winds then the GM will. My GM cracked at the first join, after all is only held together with cheap hose clamps. I wouldn't have another one, the gain you get over the Antron is so minimal, it's hardly worth bothering with
Great video, looking for a cheap base station / mobile.
I didn't spot if your Antron 99 was with or without the optional ground plane kit. Please clarify.
Never had the radial ground plane kits, I don't think it would have made an awful lot of difference to be perfectly honest
for yr information the antron 99 tunes 10m,12m,15m, and 17m perfectly for me so i dont think u can say that it does'nt work on the ham bands because it does my friend..:)
@Marconi390 My GM is located on a 7 foot pole on my chimney. The Antron is sitting on top of the 20 foot pole that is located at the back of my shack. If you visit g0vqy.co.uk and then click on G0VQY's Shack > Photos > Ham radio, and then scroll along you will see a photo of the antennas are my house.
WOW THANKYOU
Parabéns amigo muito boa antena 73
Wilson Alpha V-5/8, same thing as a Sigma 5/8 by Avanti
Looked like the Antron had stronger receive signals..
Will the GM tune on 15m, 17, band ?
Come-on, don't be obtuse. You know as well as anyone who has had a CB for at least a month that CB & most Amateur radio meters do not track at 6dB per S unit, an old Ch.17 wives tale
A Collins S-line maybe, but most meters read around 2-4dB per S unit, & when dealing with distant contacts, simple angle of radiation variables may cause even >20dB difference
On another note, a friend of mine swapped out his Imax for a GM at 36' AGL & saw no difference. I suspect 36' is a bad height for the GM.
You will hear more noise on a better receiving antenna!!!
In general, it depends if both antennas you are trying to compare both are DC grounded or not and have the same length and type of feed lines to them (or not). In general, a DC grounded antenna produces less static noise than a non DC grounded one. So if the latter is what you are trying to compare. you compare apples against oranges.. In this case the DC grounded one is more silent than the other one, but it doesn't mean it is less sensitive, quite the opposite is true. Less static noise means more weak signals are successfully reaching the receiver.
Your loss. What you don't know won't hurt the guy stepping on you.
Which metal 5/8 wave was it?
The gainmaster is lightweight and when hit with high winds you will probably get high swr reading like i have been getting of late in high winds..! Never had the problem on either an Antron or Imax and i had them both..! Lightweight,,Flimsy antenna that high up does not like high winds or can withstand them..! Rubbish..
How is the Gainmaster standing up to the wind?
the sirio sure looks nice, but it cnt take the beating the way the antron can!
How far away was peter from you
what was the conditions?
Boring, its really simple, The Avanti Sigma 4 will out perform any vertical cb antenna, the Sirio Vector 4000 is very similar. I can talk up to 150 miles ground wave on my Sigma 4. On SSB i talk all over the world with ease so please dont be fooled into thinking an A99 or a Gain Master are outstanding antennas.
You need a real RADIO!
Just because it's a CB radio doesn't mean the receive is rubbish. You wouldn't get any better results on a top of the range HF radio on FM
pure junk,up for 3 days at 30ft,had a light storm (20mph winds) it split like a banana. For triple the cost of a antron (( and double of the Imax 2000.Don't waste your time or money. Cheaply built,performance isn't any better than the lower cost antenna's.. built like a Italian car,looks good but is broken from day one..
I'm sorry but if yours broke during a light storm (20 mph winds) like you mentioned then either there was a manufacturing fault with the antenna, or you didn't install it properly. I've had mine up now for a couple of years and it's withstood wind gusts up to 90 mph. I live right on the edge of the cliffs near Berry Head in Brixham where we often get horrendous weather. It's only a vertical at the end of the days so performance wise it isn't going to be that much better than cheaper verticals. But it is a very good antenna that works better than any vertical on 10 m I have ever used. It will also tune up on 12 m which is a benefit. I work South Africa on 12 m with a really good 59 signal both ways.
mine would barely tune below 26 mhz or above 28 mhz,my Imax 2000 tunes from 17 mhz up to 50 mhz with no problems and has just as good if not better receive than the Sirio had. I wasn't impressed for double the price I felt was a real waste of money.My opinion of course.But I have read in many forums that worldwide most feel the same and how they list the db gain in there spec's ( 1 to 2 db gain over most 5/8 antennas) to me show they even lack faith in their own product. Doesn't even give a actual db gain figure.
I think it all depends on how the antenna is mounted as to how well it performs and if indeed you can tune it. I suppose coaxial cable could make a difference as well. Maybe cheap rubbish doesn't perform as well as good quality stuff. A lot of the comments people have made are quite valid. My comparison was just a basic test. The antennas were not quite at the same high and I think one of them had better cable attached to. I think the big advantage with the gain master is there's no tuning involved, you have a very good SWR straight out of the box which covers both the amateur band from very low down up to 29 MHz and above. It's also very low on the CB frequencies if that's where you want to use the antenna. Obviously there's always going to be some compromise with such an antenna. But if you think about it these frequencies don't really require sophisticated antennas and you can normally work sporadic E on even the basic antennas.
the sirio could be improved much if they used a thicker better quality housing,the tube is so thin it's bound to crack and break under high winds. I've been into radio since 1964 and made plenty of mistakes but learned from them.I have installed and tried many antennas in my day.I still prefer a metal antenna but with winds as they are fiberglass is smarter option in my opinion. If Sirio would use thicker material it would account for the outrageous cost.But I guess it's a form of job security for them for the antennas to break so they can sell more of them. But for 2 to 3 times the cost and half the performance they won't get any more of my hard earned dollars.I will stick with a tried and true Imax or Antron til they get realistic with quality and pricing. And if I do trade for or acquire another I will go to the local hardware store and buy some good PVC pipe and make a new housing that will last instead of that paper thing junk they used.