Longer Whip on A99

[HomerBB]

Has anyone tried, or do they know, what could be expected (ears/transmit/swr) by putting a longer top (whip) section on the A99"

Also, if you've done it, how long were you able to go before it was not tunable or useless?

Thanks,
HBB

[Circuit Breaker]

Putting a loner whip on the A99 would cause the SWR to go up...you'd probably get better swr WAY down below channel one, but that's about it. You won't see any increase in gain or TX/RX range.

[HomerBB]

I see.

[nutcracker]

It wouldnt work, it would also be pointless. It is a 1/2 wave antenna, making it longer would just cause the swr to go up. 5/8 would be the next step up which is around 22', and the matching parts inside wouldnt let it be that,

[HomerBB]

Makes sense. Thanks.

[gramps]

i put a 102 whip on a 99 and it was just fine(because i only had the two sections)swr was almost flat across te 11m band.i would still be using it but the ice storm killed the fiber glass sections,the 102 is still ok.

[HomerBB]

i put a 102 whip on a 99 and it was just fine(because i only had the two sections)swr was almost flat across te 11m band.i would still be using it but the ice storm killed the fiber glass sections,the 102 is still ok.

I tried the 102 also. As you said, it worked fine with a fewupward turns of the rings.

Ice storm wrecked the lower section of my A99, also. I slid a piece of 1 1/4" pvc over it wrapped it tight with electrical rubber stretch tape and put it back up. The inner wire was still itact so it continues to work.

It's a very patched up antenna, but works as well as ever. Looking to upgrade in some way.

[Foxhunter]

Yeah I wouldn't get too carried away with trying to salvage a breaking/broken stick type antenna. Those $99-or-less CB base antennas (like Workman Bandits, Antron 99's, Solarcon A99's or Imax's) are basically "throw-away" antennnas. It may be fun though to experiment with them if you should lose a top section, substituting a whip-type piece and cutting it for length to tune it. I'm all for saving money and maximizing useage, until something becomes "iffy" and unstable----because you don't need an unnoticed spike in SWR or something occuring that exposes your station equipment to risk or harm. There's nothing like putting up a brand-new antenna that's sure to last for years!

[HomerBB]

I'm getting a increasingly bothersome case of Continual Buying coming on. I do need a new antenna....

[djrebel236]

Has anyone tried, or do they know, what could be expected (ears/transmit/swr) by putting a longer top (whip) section on the A99"

Also, if you've done it, how long were you able to go before it was not tunable or useless?

Thanks,
HBB

longer whip such as the 102 whip, would only increase your SWR on your A-99 antenna, why becuase the a-99 is on in 6 foot sections, now the I-Max 2000 could handle the 102 whip, since the imax is in 8 foot sections, yes i have experiment with both antennas, now ya could put any 6 foot antenna on the a99 and work fine, but any thing longer would do ya no good, i have had a 6 foot frances on mine and worked well, i also had other 6 footers on my a99 and had good results but when putting anything longer, it just bombed out, but the imax worked great with the long antennas....Dj

['Doc]

You can't go just by the physical length of whatever 'whip' you add to the bottom section of an A99. At least not is that 'whip' is loaded, or wound in some way. If the total 'electrical' length is 1/2 wave length, or sort of close, then the 'rings' ought'a handle tuning the thing. Any advantage to that? Only if you're trying to hide the antenna, shorter typically makes that easier. Any electrical advantage? Not really. It could be the difference between making it usable or not, which can certainly make a difference. But after that? Nope, sorry.
- 'Doc

[HomerBB]

After the weather got my top section, I put an uncut 102" steel whip on the top of the A99. A few upward turns of the rings and my SWR was acceptable. It seemed to be operationally equivalent to the original. If it had not gotten an acceptable (1:2:1 @ 40 1:4:1 @ 1) Swr I would have been forced to cut it as there were no more threads left to turn the t=rings higher on the shaft.

[HomerBB]

Swr is SWR

t=rings is rings

Sadly, no edit option here so pardon my typos.