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Reviews For: Solarcon I-MAX 2000

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Solarcon I-MAX 2000
Reviews: 101MSRP: 80 SHIPPED
Description:
3 piece, over 21 foot tall fiberglass 10 meter base antenna
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001014.5
KC9MLA Rating: 2010-03-02
10 to 12 meters Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Yes a 10, 11 and 12 meter antenna. I dont recommend it for anything else. It is sold as a CB antenna. You dont need a tuner to opperate on bands which this antenna is not recommended for. Why? It is not made for that. This is the best antenna out there for the money for what is was made to do. I have mine now for 2 years that has taken a Chicago winter beating but still stands proud. Highly Recommend!
KF6ODC Rating: 2009-12-20
Great Antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have been using my Modified Imax2000 for over 6 months and she is a 10-8 setup. I made a modified heavy duty aluminum bracket with 4, 8 feet stainless steel whips as ground plane radials at 30 degrees to attach to the existing lower u bolt of the antenna bracket. 10 inch diameter of lmr400 as a balun on the feedpoint and Isolated my Antenna from the mast and This my friend is one bad antenna. My distant locals are my real world proof that this Antenna works great. 73's from the Beautiful coast of Northern Cali.....................
K8OCN Rating: 2009-12-05
Mine works fine Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Ok its a CB antenna, WHO CARES
It works well on 10 meters, I use it most of the time on FM so I trimmed mine. It still works find on 28.40 I just use my tuner.

I have not done it but I have a friend that says it also works good on 20 meters.

I also have a Cushcraft R8 Vertical that works good but on 10 meters the I-Max 2000 works a LOT better.

If I was Solarcon I would make a version designed for 20 meters, that would be great to have a simple antenna with gain for 20 meters. I guess there are more CB ers than Hams to sell them to.

For the price I think they are a bargan, I even put one up at my cabin.
KI6RSE Rating: 2009-12-05
EXCELLENT VALUE , TOUGH ANTENNA Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Ive used my used Imax for approximately 6 months now in the Cali. desert with excellent results.Used on 10 and 11 meter with outstanding recieve and transmit, lo swr soon as it was put up on a 40 foot crankup, I get extremely high winds here at times in the 60-70 mile per hour range and this old used Imax has withstood a few storms like that so far.Being old and used I expect one of the big winds to snap it eventually though when they do I wont hesitate to buy another and put it right back up. And just a comment on the guy that rated it 0/5 just because it was a CB antenna, DUHHH. i,ll take this great performing 5/8 wave antenna over many that are twice the price and called Ham antennas anyday.CHEAP AND EXCELLENT PERFORMING ANTENNA.
26TM119 Rating: 2009-11-08
not a cb antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
i use mine for 11meter and general listening down to 20m,below that the long wire beats it hands down.but for the upper portion of the hf spectrum its difficut to beat,however i will be trying a sirio 827 soon as i have heard good things about them.
BUT for an exsposed antenna down here in windy cornwall it is a survivor,bent almost double at times never,broken,snapped,shorted or given me cause for concern,what else can i say.
N4AEQ Rating: 2009-02-24
Excellent 10m antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Great 10m antenna, I had a 10m dipole (inverted vee) and 10m home made J pole before the Imax2000. I
had problems with weak reception which cleared up
with the Imax. I do have the ground kit on the Imax
and a 5 turn - 5" coil as a balun at the feedpoint,
also I took one of the 4 ground radials & swapped it with the top element, this shortened the antenna about 18" and put it flat in the 10m band, I then
just added the longer top element back as the missing radial.
AE5RC Rating: 2009-01-22
Finally works... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I ordered one of these antennas from LxTronics which had as good a price as anyone I found. I received the antenna and was able to install right after Christmas. The antenna presented an infinite swr everywhere. Nobody could hear me at all. I took it down and was extremely frustrated. Investigating the coax connector showed a bent connector and a bent mount. I straightened all of this out. The Imax was then re-installed and it became the antenna I initially expected. Locals on 10 meters were giving great signal reports. Some more distant locals (15-20 miles) were giving me solid s-9 reports. The swr on 10 with no tuning done is 1.3:1 on 28.400. 12 meters swr is 1.6:1 and 15 meters is 1.2:1. I wanted this antenna to work these bands and it will do so in a nice manner. 17 meters is about 3:1 which my tuner will bring down and make that band useable.
I would have given a 0 if the corrections had not worked,however with my "homebrew repairs" it appears as if the Imax is a keeper.

73
GI0ZGB Rating: 2008-11-24
Caveat Time Owned: more than 12 months.
A great antenna but......!

I was rachet jawing on 10m at the legal limit and I noticed the AWI lamp starting to glow, so took some time out to check the vswr, it was 1:2.8 where it normally would have indicated 1:1.2 being near it's resonant frequency having been cut for that purpose. Prior to resuming my qso, I checked again and it had returned to normal, but after some five minutes talking the AWI lamp came on again, so I used the auto tuner to protect the LA and carried on with the qso. Eventually the iMax died, even the rx was gone. I havn't had time to do a post mortem yet but I presume the failure was related to overheating in the loading coil area as the vswr measurment was now infinite. I notice that a few other posts indicate similar experiences, so I thought it prudent to warn about this event so others might keep a watchful eye on their iMax if running qro.
KC9MSA Rating: 2008-10-22
Great for what it says it does Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have had my Imax up for almost a year now, and I love it. I had a Shakespear Big Stick, and it did okay, but the Imax does much better. My local contacts said that I gained 1 s unit when I switched. I am also using the ground plane kit, I don't know if it does any good, it is just too much work to try it with and without the kit.

The standing wave is pretty much flat on 10 and 11 meters, and I did not mess with the tuning rings. Everyone told me to leave them alone, and I did. I have talked to guys who have messed with those rings, and no one has had any benefit from adjusting them.

Anyway, I reccomend this antenna highly!
W1LDD Rating: 2008-09-14
Best 10 meter Vertical Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This antenna is a great 10-17 meter vertical.I run mine above a large mono band yagi and no swr problems.Over the summer there were many E openings and 95% of the contacts were using the same antenna or A99.Buy one!