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Reviews For: Solarcon A-99

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Solarcon A-99
Reviews: 204MSRP: 57.99
Description:
10-20M Vertical Antenna
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
152043.6
WB2IOE Rating: 2005-02-16
Poor Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The A-99 was designed to protect the CB’er from death by contact with power lines. Gain figures are highly overstated. Performance is less than a Ham Stick mounted at the same height. Ham Sticks are $10.00
W9RPE Rating: 2005-02-16
Not worth the $$ Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
It is a very poorly constructed antenna, but it is a hit with the CB crowd. I owned two of these in a row for use on 10m and both developed cracks in the fiberglass which allowed water into the antenna. Both were unusable within a year. Save your money.
KE4RTE Rating: 2005-02-16
Awful-99 Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Took mine down last year after the SWR went sky high. It had been up for 9 months. I cut it apart to see what the problem was. Broken solder connection. Yes folks it’s very poorly constructed. It looked like a monkey had attempted to solder the connections! Horrible quality control. I put up a Shakespeare Big Stick to replace the Awful-99. The Shakespeare is a much, much better antenna.
AC0H Rating: 2005-02-16
amazed!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Anybody buys this piece of crap. Just becasue you can load this POS up with a tuner on a band doesn't mean its a good radiator, you can load up a light bulb with a good enough tuner but it donesn't radiate worth a damn. It may be a fine 10m antenna but please don't try to compare this antenna to just about anything else on the bands below 10m.

Its a CB antenna whose manufacturer decided to market this POS to 10m HF only hams.
VE7ELD-ALAN Rating: 2005-02-16
No thanks Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Quality of construction = 0
Signal Receiving = 0
Signal Transmitting = 1
Ease of installation / Adjustment = 1
Longevity in bad WX = 0

This is a good antenna for those who wish to put forth very little effort maximizing their station efficiency.
W9KQU Rating: 2005-02-14
Not good Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I put up a wire this weekend to compare it to my a99 like others. I trimmed the wire until the swr was 1.2 to 1. Its up about 25 feet. The a99 was up about 30 feet. The wire receives and transmitts alot better than the a99. I had the a99 up for 2 years and didnt notice any cracks. It did stand up to the bad wx here. I know the wire is a better antenna for me than the a99 is.
N6LJ Rating: 2005-02-10
Marginal, at best..... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The A-99 vertical antenna works OK close in (1 to 40 miles or so). It’s very marginal compared to a dipole, or ground mounted vertical with radials, for any type of coast to coast or DX work. Yes, some DX stations will hear you on the A-99, but you could homebrew a much better antenna for 1/3 the cost of the A-99. The reason the A-99 is popular is due to its ease of installation (instant gratification), not due to its performance. It’s not much of an efficient radiator, (highly exaggerated gain figures!) but it is better than no antenna at all.
KC2MEY Rating: 2005-02-09
What do u expect?? Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The Solarcon A99 is a half wave over a quarter wave variable mutual inductance antenna for 10 to 17 meters.
And that's EXACTLY how it performs. A “well constructed” 1/2 wave dipole at the same height WILL run circles around the A-99 everyday. No need to write a book on this thing either. It's a cheap vertical antenna, and it performs like a cheap vertical antenna.
NY4Q Rating: 2005-02-09
Well it does work... Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I compared the A-99 to a 10m mobile hamstick. With 10m open, you can't tell a bit of difference between it and the 10m hamstick.

Maybe I should surf on over to eBay now...
W4KYR Rating: 2005-02-09
$30 and good perfomance gives it a FIVE Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I never had problems with this antenna, I owned it twice. I had to sell my first one because I was moving. I bought another one later on it was a weather beaten used one at a hamfest and that one worked fine too. With a tuner, you can stretch it down to 20 or 15 meters. Hey, for the price $ 30 at a hamfest its one of the better deals out there. Just be careful of the fiberglass!