HY-GAIN SUPER PENETRATOR

[W9ZXT]

My dad had one of these back in the late 70's early 80's and I remember it working well and I guess they sold a lot of them.

I'm thinking about trying one out for 10 meters and wanted to know if anyone else has had any experience with this antenna good or bad.  

I just talked to a local neighbor about buying her husbands old one that is still up from the 70's. I would have to rehab it if it's even possible after being up that long.  

On the other hand DX engineering sells what they claim to be the same antenna for 149.00.   

Check out the link below, I just recently ran across it and it's kind of interesting.  

Anyway, just looking for some opinions on this antenna.

W9ZXT        



http://www.copper.com/discus4/messages/7750/111489.html?1345400100

[WX7G]

MFJ owns Hygain.

[ONAIR]

Spoke to a ham who owns a new one, and he said they work very well on 10 meters. He also has used it on bands up to 20 Meters.  The Solarcon A-99 and IMAX also work well on 10, and are a lot less expensive.

[STAYVERTICAL]

It seems to be nothing too mysterious.

It is a 5/8 wavelength ground plane with a non coil matching system.
The 5/8 wavelength groundplane is well understood, and outperforms a quarter wavelength groundplane.
You can see this in many reference articles or by using antenna simulation software.

Also, there does not seem to be very much to deteriorate on this antenna, and if it is still standing, it may be in ok condition.
So, if you can get it for a good price, it will probably be a good deal for a 10m antenna.
Metal can be cleaned up, and you never know, it may be made mechanically better than the modern equivalent.
Compare many old school mobile antenna's to the pimped up fishing rods of today.

73 - Rob

[WB6BYU]

It still uses a tapped-inductance matching system, with a "single turn coil" made using
a linear stub.  Just like linear loading - and the claims appear to be similar, too!

"No lossy coils" may still mean that their matching system has more loss than a good
coil would, just that it doesn't look like a coil.


I'd be more impressed if the reviewer had more technical credibility:  the story about
"too much current flowing around the feedpoint" and similar comments are clearly
aimed to appeal to the reality-challenged antenna consumer.

[KC4MOP]

The only Legend in the HyGain line-up is the original HyTower. I HAD the Hytower Jr, and all of those wires and "stub tuning" and interaction between bands was a joke. 80M had a power limitation of 600W.
I kept the main mast and it is a perfect 40/15M antenna and with a wire supported 2 feet away from the mast makes a perfect 5/8 wave 17M vertical
The Super penetrator might have a little more going for it.
Fred

[STAYVERTICAL]

If I ever came across an old one, I would remove all the linear matching lines, make sure there were no static leak chokes in the base insulator, and feed the radiator and radials directly with a remote antenna tuner.
It would probably need a few more radials, but the basic structure would be a reasonable 30m to 6m ground plane.
I used a similar length homebrew one for many years, and it was a good performer on DX.
As usual it was lousy for local comms, but that is just an attribute of verticals.

The capacity hat on the top is also a good use of real estate in getting the current spread further up the stick.

In my opinion, the mechanical condition is the most important factor, as you can always feed it with modern remote ATU's.
Just my 2 cents worth.

73 - Rob