Identify this antenna.

Not sure where I acquired this magmount many years ago, or if it is actually a CB antenna.
I did fix a new plug to it.

Any thoughts ?
Before the Dalek exterminates it.

Put an Antenna Analyser on it and see which band its resonant on.

Or........

Hook it up to a CB on low power and a SWR meter.

If the meter bangs over to infinity or end stop then it's probably no good for CB, but if it shows a less than end stop it may be worth fiddling with it to see if you can get a low SWR.

Then you can either use it or stick it in the junk pile for later experimentation.


All the best,
Victor

Seen hundreds of them back in the day but not sure on names they came in all sorts of wrappers lol.
Inexpensive but did work ok ish unless somebody had cut a lump off the top witch did happen trying to swr with a duff patch cable lol.
Little grub screw at the top of the coil and slide the whip up or down for swr no need to cut.

It's a Valor Half Breed, Knights still sell a version for £12. They are great old school CB aerials and I even have one myself on a magmount for mobile, I've had it decades now.

That's it "Half Breed" couldn't remember it's that long ago plus the old age thing lol.

Mitch wrote:

It's a Valor Half Breed, Knights still sell a version for £12. They are great old school CB aerials and I even have one myself on a magmount for mobile, I've had it decades now.

Aye just checked knights and we have a winner
Says 50" whip but this one is no more than 40" so possibly a good chunk cut off

I'll clean and test the connections and check the swr. It could be a handy little twig save lugging this Sirio 4000 all the time


I notice the Sirio has a silver tape to cut and affix to the base. This Valor just has insulation tape and no rubber boot.
Is the silver tape to help with ground plane ?
And does the magnetism cause a ground plane since its rubber on paint ?

Also what tape could I use for the base of the Valor please ?

And thanks all for the replies.
Much appreciated.

I've just measured my half breed and the whip is 4'11" (150cm) and the base is 6" (15cm). I guess they could alter whip length with a different coil, mine is about 40 years old and still works well. I wouldn't bother with any tape, silver or otherwise, they don't need it and it may affect the swr. They will fit in any 3/8th thread type mount though, I use a 7" mag mount now but it used to be on a gutter mount on a land rover 20+ years ago with a quick release. The ground connection is capacitive for a mag mount and through the aerial mount for fixed, there is no ground on the aerial, only a radiating element.

Sharpshooter wrote:

Mitch wrote:

It's a Valor Half Breed, Knights still sell a version for £12. They are great old school CB aerials and I even have one myself on a magmount for mobile, I've had it decades now.

Aye just checked knights and we have a winner
Says 50" whip but this one is no more than 40" so possibly a good chunk cut off

I'll clean and test the connections and check the swr. It could be a handy little twig save lugging this Sirio 4000 all the time


I notice the Sirio has a silver tape to cut and affix to the base. This Valor just has insulation tape and no rubber boot.
Is the silver tape to help with ground plane ?
And does the magnetism cause a ground plane since its rubber on paint ?

Also what tape could I use for the base of the Valor please ?

And thanks all for the replies.
Much appreciated.

Hi chap, I've got a Sirio 4000 with the ML145 magmount, and mine came with the silver tape too.  I bought it second hand, but the previous owner hadn't cut the tape to size and stuck it on, so I thought I'd do it....I believe it ensures a good connection to the car roof, but exactly how, I don't know!  I must admit, I've had amazing results from my Sirio, and it's never let me down except when there's loads of really close QRM about, but that will happen with any antenna.  I also trimmed mine by about 10mm (at the bottom) to get the SWR just right....and I thought that by doing it at the bottom, I could always slot the piece back in the base again to get it back to full length!!

cheers

Simon.

Did someone trim it for 29.6 (Ten FM)?

BigTone wrote:

Did someone trim it for 29.6 (Ten FM)?

I thought that but did a calculation and I reckon cutting it to 40" would put the frequency under 9 metres, so this one puzzled me a bit.

BigTone wrote:

Did someone trim it for 29.6 (Ten FM)?

I don't have a clue and I'm learning. Every day is a school day as they say.

I'm away at the moment but fetched my new CRT 9900 and sirio 4000 as well as an old swr meter to hopefully set up. 
Today I located the fuse box and it's spare slots, and checked the 12v cigarette type connection. Which is 10 amp.


Blonde moment, I haven't dabbled with car electrickery for many years .
Ciggy connection is showing around 13v (cheap mobile meter)
Fuses are showing 6v . 
Used or spare connection ???


Anyway, I'm thinking of putting the rig in the glovebox of a Ford focus and either a fuse box connection or a cigarette lighter plug, but is 10amps enough ???

I want to be back on air by next weekend and I'll look forward to testing that old aerial.

The radio and aerial are a cracking setup.
Be aware that the 9900 gets a bit warm and I don't think you will get sufficient air circulating around it in the glovebox

I have the same setup (9900 + hp4000) but have trimmed mine to resonate on 28.500

BigTone wrote:

The radio and aerial are a cracking setup.
Be aware that the 9900 gets a bit warm and I don't think you will get sufficient air circulating around it in the glovebox

I have the same setup (9900 + hp4000) but have trimmed mine to resonate on 28.500

Thanks Tone, everything has been put on hold at the moment as one of my dogs passed away.

If I get any enthusiasm back I'll shout out.
Cheers