Thunderpole 5 galaxy 5/8

Hi Guys
           Is anybody using one of these , or used one in the past , looking for advice .
I am replacing my old Antron 99 , it has seen better days , (it is around 15 years old )
Will the  Galaxy 5 match or out perform a Antron 99 ,
The Thunderpole will go into my limited space , Ideally i would like a Sirio Gainmaster
but this would not suit the limited space i have available , or is there a Antenna out the 
there around the size of the Galaxy 5 , which is a good performer .

I had the Skipmaster 2011 and found it better than the Gainmaster.
Unfortunately it had a damage in transit that eventually let water in.
Skipmaster 2011 is just over 14ft so handy size.
https://www.radioworld.co.uk/sigma-2011-skip-master-58-wave-cb-fiberglass-base-station-a?campaign=203039367&content=506761183669&keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjw9r-DBhBxEiwA9qYUpSIyffCiYx0QAMEBLUfgXSErjfqfdM8-3381Q4OJnrs_UMX7nPabZxoCKdgQAvD_BwE

Edit
Just looked at the Galaxy 5/8 and it looks identical to the 2011 even down to being supplied with the 2 tip's.
Replaced mine with the Gainmaster but bought another Skipmaster new unopened off the bay for a good price ans it's still in the box in my shack.
Gainmaster is in the greenhouse lol  long storey.

Hi Alan thanks for the info , the 2011 skipmaster looks promising , do you use yours just on 11 m
or do you use it on other bands , the Bands I use most often are 10/11 and 12m

No not using it at the moment but when i did i worked it on many bands with a tuner.
As said mine was damaged on delivery but i put silicone on it but it didn't last the winter.
Replaced it with the gainmaster but i also bought another skipmaster but it is still in the box.
Using a long wire and a HF multiband vertical at the moment.

Hi, i've been using the Thunderpole Galaxy 5/8 for a little while now. Can't get it to a decent SWR across the range. Tuned it to FM UK & got it to 1.2 to 1.6 across the 40 channels but on Euro FM  it's way above 3. Had various answers as to why but the only way i can see to get other frequencies is to buy another antenna & have two, each tuned differently. Decided against that & i'm going to ditch the Thunderpole (despite it only being a month old!) & get a sirio Gainmaster. If that doesn't work I'm giving up & selling the whole lot. I don't see why i would have to keep getting up & down a ladder to retune the Thunderpole each time i want to change from UK to Euro. Good luck! Bob.

Never had a problem with SWR with the Skipmaster.
Tuned mine on 27.555 i think it was and it was around 1.8 on the uk c-40.

firebob22 wrote:

Hi, i've been using the Thunderpole Galaxy 5/8 for a little while now. Can't get it to a decent SWR across the range. Tuned it to FM UK & got it to 1.2 to 1.6 across the 40 channels but on Euro FM  it's way above 3. Had various answers as to why 

Looking on their website the most likely reason is it had an 11cm whip which would be usable for UK CB and 10m with the SWR on UKFM getting lower towards Ch40 instead of the 19cm one which would cover 26-28MHz and therefore all of the EU CEPT and UK40FM. The problem that can occur if you were using the longer whip and trying to get the lowest SWR on UK channels is that the further into the top section you have the whip the more funky things start to happen, you see the same happen with hamsticks and DV27 type mobile antennas too that use the same method.

Also despite the name it's not a 5/8 wave antenna, not that at 14ft it could be. Their specs actually say it's a 1/4 wave, which again at 14ft it can't be, but then their marketing blurb bangs on about it being a "5/8 wave design with a total length of 4.35m" on the very same page so very misleading. But it'll behave much more like a 1/4 wave than a 5/8 wave.

Thanks Northern Crusader, the Thunderpole was recommended to me by Knights CB so i went along with them & bought it & the President McKinley at the same time. Not happy with the Thunderpole so i've ordered a Gainmaster which is arriving today. Won't be able to get it up until the weekend so i'll let you all know how it goes then. Bit of a minefield all this! Cheers, Bob.

Hi All,
      I see this is quite an old post but thought i'd chip in since I recently put up a Thunderpole Galaxy 5/8.
It's early days to pass any useful comment on the performance of the antenna other than to say it seems OK!
Regarding the SWR with a bit of messing around I have an SWR of 1:1 on 27.555 going up to around 1.3 on CH40 UK and about 1.4 on CH1 CEPT. That covers my needs perfectly with the SWR being at its best at the top end of the CEPT block.

My homemade full-wave Delta Loop is far more broad with a great SWR through around 120 Channels!

I am glad it has a low SWR for you. Looking at the rubbish claims of it being a 5/8 wave and having 9.9dB gain I would have given it a miss myself. Also expensive.

Hi,
   It seems to be working OK for me but yes I really do doubt it performs the same as a full length 5/8 wave and that 9.9dB gain figure has to be total rubbish!
I daren't put up a full length 5/8 here or even a 1/2 wave so at 14ft the Thunderpole "5/8" is about as big as I dare go at this time.
I do also have a full wave delta loop so am currently doing comparisons between the two antennas although the Delta Loop is not mounted very high so any comparisons I make are not really fair ones.

Its all good fun in any case.

Fair point about length, have to do what we can at times.

I suspect the 9.9dBi gain claims from the original Antron 99 were modeled on a 20m mast which most could never achieve, at one specific angle of radiation and compared to a 1/4 wave with only 4 radials ground mounted.

In fact a quick look suggests a 1/2 wave mounted at 20m feed point gives + 5.0dB (plus) gain at 6 degrees and a 1/4 wave produce - 5.6dB (minus) at 6 degrees.

Then you would be approaching 10dB gain at that one angle.