| W0VPI |
Rating:      |
2012-02-13 | |
| Surprising |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| With 10 meters coming alive again I wanted to find a good antenna with which to casually operate. I found a great deal on the A-99 complete with ground plane from an AMAZON seller. The assembly was straightforward and easy because of the nicely machined components. I mounted it with TV mast secured to a 2 inch pipe in the ground and stand-off mounts on the side of the house resulting in a 22 foot base height and eight foot clearance for the radials. Everything is grounded per national code. When I fired up my SGC-2020 connected to the A-99 I was delighted at the many strong signals I was able to follow along the Grayline. The A-99 loaded right up at 1.2:1 without tuning. This antenna rates as one of my best HAM radio purchases since licensed in 1966. |
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| KG6VFO |
Rating:      |
2011-12-12 | |
| Impressions of first use |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I'd like to give my comments concerning the first use of this antenna. I'm a casual operator that doesn't have a permanent station. I wanted to participate in the ARRL 10M contest (12/10-11/11)so my plan was to use a dipole I had along with a vertical. I read the reviews here and thought, for the money, I'll give it a try. The shipping was very fast, I received the antenna a few days before the contest. The antenna was unpacked and the installation and operating instructions seemed quite simple On the Friday of the contest, I assembled the antenna (about 3 minutes, just screwing the sections (3) together, attached it to a 10' steel pipe and erected it in a friends backyard. The dipole was also erected but was limited to about 15' AGL. Friday night operation was disappointing, sundown was about 1715 local, I only heard a few local stations. I started operating at about 0700 local on Sat, switching between the A-99 and the dipole. I started making contacts on the dipole to stations on the East Coast (using about 80 watts), around 1300, South American stations started to come through, when I switched to the A-99, I made contacts with stations in Brazil, Chile and Argentina! I had to make quite a few attempts, but they heard me. This was the first time I made contacts at this distance. The A-99 seemed "louder" than my dipole. Around 1500, I started hearing some JA's, I thought I'd give it a try and a few actually responded to me! Sunday was more of the same. I spent most of the day on the A-99 with the about the same result as on Sat.
In summary, based on this first use, I am really impressed. Easy to install, easy to disassemble and it worked fine for me. It's now packed away until another time. Even if it never works again, this antenna gave me a great thrill for this weekend. The fun and excitement this antenna gave me far exceeds the money spent for it. |
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| KC5CQD |
Rating:      |
2011-10-25 | |
| Great Antenna that Suffers from Stereotyping |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have run both the Antron 99 and Imax 2000 antennas for many, many years. They both work flawlessly. They're mechanically sound, have very low wind drag and withstand even the most violent of storms. I've run them at different heighths up against other "ham" verticals and I never saw one bit of difference. Well, the Antrons do win in one category. Pricing!
Look....bottom line here is simply this: It's a popular CB antenna that works VERY well and even exceeds the performance of many HAM antennas and that just kills the pride of many ham radio operators. They absolutely refuse to give any credit whatsoever to the 11 meter community or companies that cater to them.
The Antron 99 and Imax 2000 are damned good antennas. End of story. Yeah, like any company, they will on occasion make a lemon but 99 times out of a hundred....you'll get a fine operating piece of equipment from this company. I don't care how many CBers use them. The damned things just plain old "kick butt" at a great price. |
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| M0TWA |
Rating:    |
2011-10-22 | |
| it works! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| well... thought I would throw my thoughts into the ring. Was sorting out the garden shed today, the A99 was stored up in the roof, had been for many years, so I thought I would try it out just to see what it could do on ten meters. set it up on a 6 foot pole attached to a large trampoline.... ran a length of mini rg8 back to the ft-817 5 watts..my garden has no clear shot at the horizon, buildings and trees all round,time switching on the tx/rx 7 pm uk time..total darkness.. first in the bag KC1XX 5/9..this from the u.k. okay a DX station with a big gun antenna..lets face it they give everybody 5/9.. so wasnt surprised.. but the guy could hear me with my 5 watts.. it may not be the most expensive well designed antenna in the world.. but it seems to work on the band its designed for. will experiment more... |
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| W3ZV |
Rating:      |
2010-09-26 | |
| hell of a good antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Had this antenna since the last solar cycle. At that time the antenna performed VERY well on 10,12,15 meters and OK on 17 meters with a tuner. Since that time living here in the north east this antenna has seen numerous ice storms,( with high winds), snow storms, rain storms,and several wasps nest. This is a very well built antenna. Just as this current solor cycle is starting up, I have made several contacts on 10 meters along with several contatcs also on 15 meters. Still going strong since 1991.
N2EDY |
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| KG6AOH |
Rating:     |
2010-09-26 | |
| Really not that bad. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I know full well that the Antron 99 isn't supposed to be a high performance antenna, and I also know it was intended for the 11m band. So, unlike a couple reviewers below, I am not going to compare it to monoband gain antennas designed specifically for 10m, 12m, 15m, etc. That is just insane.
What I do know is that I needed a real simple antenna that would cover 10m and 15m, and not have so much windage that it required a big pole, or a tower to support at the hilltop QTH.
I searched around for the best price on a fresh stock new A99 and ended up ordering online from copper.com who had the best price, including shipping to California. The antenna arrived perfectly intact and without a scratch (they did pack it very well). I removed the antenna and started by cleaning it with lacquer thinner, then a nice coat of clear lacquer paint to seal it. This in response to complaints from others about it turning into a fiberglass fur tree in a short time. After over a year in the air, it is still in perfect shape without a hint of fiberglass deterioration. I also used white electrical tape to wrap over the chrome parts, and painted the black tuning area and rings with white lacquer, just to remove some of the ugliness and make the XYL happier. It worked.
I modified the antenna to cover the entire 10m band under 1.5:1 by cutting about 17 inches off the top piece using a pipe cutter and wire snippers, followed by running the tuning rings all the way down (toward the input connector) as this broadened the bandwidth considerably. This also got the SWR in the CW portion of the band dead flat, also around 29 MHz. dead flat with just a slight 1.2:1 increase in the 28.7 area. But, it covers all of 10m very nicely. Also, SWR on 15m is 1.2:1 at the bottom end and dead flat at the top end. That makes my radio happy. Naturally, SWR on 11m went way up, around 2:1 or more, so it probably won't work too well on 11m after shortening it, but I don't have an 11m radio in my shack (nor do I want one), so I don't care.
Strictly SWR speaking, my A99 doesn't do 12m (SWR is 2.3:1 there) or 17m (2.2:1 there) very well. I don't know why some people have reported good SWR and performance there, mine does not. It does receive OK on 20m, but even with tuner, transmitting is an exercise in futility. A wet rubber band might work better.
Performance wise, the A99 performs better than my inverted V on almost every signal. I didn't expect that, and didn't even desire that, but it is so. I have a 'Six Pack" switch and have 6 antennas to choose from. Switching between the inverted V, inverted L, ground plane vertical, and the A99, it almost always has the best signal rx and tx on 10m and 15m over the others. It is rare, but occasionally, the inverted V beats the A99 on 10 or 15m. Like maybe one signal in 20. It will NOT beat a 4 element monoband beam, don't even think about it.
I did add ferrite chokes around the cable at ground level to filter off any stray current over the coax shield, which also helped tuning. Mine is mounted with the feedpoint about 15 feet AGL on a thick 1.5 inch diameter pipe attached to the side of a garage. The cable runs underground about 20 feet to the switch, then another 30 feet to the shack.
If this antenna gets destroyed, I would likely buy another just like it, similarly modified. There is NO shame in having an Antron 99 as part of your antenna farm! |
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| K3DAV |
Rating:     |
2010-07-11 | |
| Was the best in it's day.. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I owned one of these antennas back when it was still made by Antron and called the Antron 99. I replaced it with newer ones after Solarcon got it and called it the A99. Antron 99 and A99, makes no difference. They are the same exact antenna inside and out.
I used to use mine for CB many years ago and found it to be the best 1/2 wave vertical on the market. It seemed like no other 1/2 wave could beat it. Always broadbanded and sturdy.
Then I got my ham ticket and found it worked great on 10, 12, and even 15 meters with the tuner. It worked on 17 meters but had a higher SWR than I felt comfortable with, even using a tuner.
Then came the I-MAX 2000. A 5/8 wave version of the A99. Same design, just longer and a couple more extra turns on the base loading coil. The I-MAX says it's a 5/8 wave or a .62 wave. But it measures out to be a .64 wave. The .64 was the best kept secret in the 70's and 80's for CB antennas. There was only 3 models of them on the market, and they blew away the 1/2 wave and 5/8 wave antennas out there. A .64 is the absolute longest radiator you can use before the radiating pattern begins to collapse on itself. That means the absolute most power towards the horizon.
I know this sounds like it has turned into a review for the I-MAX 2000. But the point I am getting at is this. The A99 was the best in it's day, and I loved mine. I would not have owned any other antenna. But as good as the A99 is for 17 through 10M, the I-MAX 2000 will out perform it with a very noticeable difference. More signal to the horizon. More broadbanded to have lower SWR at 29.700 down to 18.110MHz. It has a much better SWR on 15 and 17 meters so the tuner does NOT have to rob as much of your radios power, and can send more of it to the antenna. In fact, the extra length of the I-MAX 2000 makes it close enough to a nice 1/2 wave on 15 meters, that the SWR is under 2.0 on 15M.
Consider the I-MAX 2000 as the newer and far more improved A99. They work the same way but the I-MAX 2000 does it much better. Think of it as a company upgrade. It's like changing from a standard TV to an HDTV. You can see all the same shows, but they look a lot better. |
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| KF4CZV |
Rating:      |
2010-06-27 | |
| Works for me! |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| Got it wall mounted on a mast about 20 feet to the bottom of the antenna, maybe 10 feet above my roof. Got the ground plane kit on it but haven't touched the tuning ring. Been using it locally to test vintage tube cb radios I restored. I used it on 10 meters for the first time this Field Day weekend. Made solid contacts from NYC to Louisiana. Then made a good contact to PORTUGAL and another to AZ! This afternoon made a solid contact to Cuba. All on 30 watts. What more could I ask for in a vertical? |
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| KC7CRR |
Rating:      |
2010-05-31 | |
| Good Antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This antenna has grown along with me has given me nearly 11 years of great service. Originally bought it in 1993 for 11m use, but once I received my Tech Plus license, quickly found that it would suffice for 10 and 15 meters cw. In 2000 (after I got my General ticket), this antenna provided another 4 years of use on 10 through 17m (never could get good enough SWRs to use it on 20m, however).
I believe I retired the A-99 in 2004. At that point, I cleaned it up, gave it a new coat of varnish and have stored it in the garage (wrapped in plastic) ever since. Couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. Just waiting for the day when all else fails or someone nearby needs an HF antenna to get started.
Only downside for me was the fiberglass particles coming off after a few years up in the air. It's a good, dependable antenna...the tuning rings are still in the original factory set position.
73,
Bob KC7CRR
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| KJ4AGC |
Rating:      |
2010-05-31 | |
| GREAT DEAL FOR THE MONEY |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Bought an A-99 in '08. Have used it on 10-20 meters. Not the most efficient but for the money and being flexible you can't go wrong. If weather takes this one down,I'd buy another one. 73's Todd kj4agc |
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