best magmout and whip for mobile

any ideaas for this, workd van but need mag mount and a real good aerial,work from norfolk to london and every where in between, there was an old k40 on gumtree, real good back in the day, but only mg mount for that whip, so cant changer about, looking for a bit of mobile DX when at work (lol...after work ) any ideas would be good........

I use a Sirio 4000. 

Had great results and it hasn't (yet) fallen off my van when doing 65 on the M25 or hitting low branches.

I wouldn't go for the 5000 unless you just want to spend more for the same results. Others will disagree.

Hi Jimmy, 

I use a Wilson 1000 a bit pricey but excellent quality. Performance will be consistent with any other 1/4 wave antenna.

73's Gary.

Razz229 wrote:

I use a Sirio 4000. 

Had great results and it hasn't (yet) fallen off my van when doing 65 on the M25 or hitting low branches.

I wouldn't go for the 5000 unless you just want to spend more for the same results. Others will disagree.

I have the Sirio hipower 4000 with a sirio 145 mag.
I went for the 4000 over the 5000 as I'm tight
Well, I'd set a budget when starting back and was going over it from the off

I'd read they both perform similarly, but the 5000 has a metal base rather than plastic and a thicker whip ?. 
If that's the case I feel I should of paid the extra £7 lol.

But I wouldn't hesitate in recommending the 4000 and it stays on with the 145 mag way over 65mph (I've heard)

Knights seem to like the 4000

"Probably the best antenna available - it will certainly outperform a Wilson!"

I have the 4000 with the 145 mag and it worked well (not used it for some time).
Was on the roof of my bmw x5 and it hit every tree well almost but never came off.
I did once forget to take it off when we went on a trip to see our daughter and at one point on the m56 totally by accident i hit 3 figgers well that 3ltr engine with all them ponies does like a galop now and then but the mag was still there when we got there.

Thanks all 
Looks like a Sirio 4000 then
Get one Friday i think on way home 
Thanks for all the help

"Get one Friday on the way home".
Wish i could do that but no shop within 100+ miles for me.

i have a sirio 4000 and a 5000 and are on a tri mag and at 120+ and they never move two great antennas

well got the said merch and will not swr....... been at it 3 hours best i get is hi  swr and radio wont go alinco dx 10 135 on a very large van, tried fully out to fully in and every where inbetween only a smidge at a time arhhhhhhhhhhhh, the thunderpole long orbitor straight away swr 1:1 on every chan even on ssb help needed and alot need it for work monday (sorry on way to work) i meant to say

Pull the rubber boot off and check the coax connection.
I have seen people having this problem and that was the fault.
When i got mine i re-did the coax connection first as i had seen posts about it.

that was my next step Alan thanks, but a few rums in thought i better leave untill today hic

peewee norfolk wrote:

well got the said merch and will not swr....... been at it 3 hours best i get is hi  swr and radio wont go alinco dx 10 135 on a very large van, 

The problem might be you've got too good a ground plane because of the size of the roof of the van. Better the ground plane the shorter the antenna has to be fdor a given frequency. Antenna whip length from factory is designed assuming a poor one so made a bit longer as it's easier to cut down than add length. 

I had same problem but I had an antenna analyser so could see that it was resonant on 26MHz and 1:1 SWR, well below the range the CB could transmit which is why I couldn't use a SWR meter. Had to cut almost 3 inches off to get it up to CB frequencies.


As mentioned they do have a problem with the braid from the coax coming detached....

Watch this video that shows you how to remove the top. Do that, turn it over, make sure the braid is still attached to the brass tab.

https://youtu.be/tmvdjLRNobM?si=Kqb5OuJVzZySFfmt&t=109

cheers connor.
all sorted now !!!! new coax lead made up, resoldered and 2" cutt of the whip now swr 1:1 yay,
roll on some nice weather if it ever comes, not the best weather for messing around with whips and mag mounts,
and yes Alan you were right, the coax had a bit of a break about 12" in and the plug i think was soldered by a 3 year old lol.......

They must have had loads of complaints so you would think they would have got the coax sorted.
I bought mine about 4 years ago could be 5 and it was a common fault back then.
Recently cut 2" of mine to se t on the 10m band didn't think to pull it back up and see the swr on 11m will have a look later.

going to try it in a bit, see what its like now got swr down to 1:1 so im happy with that and chanel 20 (27.97125) and chanel 40 (27.99125) just a little bit higher but have to look ral hard at needle to see it move, so hopfully get a few good shouts out today,
but wife at work and left jobs to do and got some more mocks for my foundation licence to do when nice and quite
73`s

peewee norfolk wrote:

going to try it in a bit, see what its like now got swr down to 1:1 so im happy with that and chanel 20 (27.97125) and chanel 40 (27.99125) just a little bit higher but have to look ral hard at needle to see it move, so hopfully get a few good shouts out today,
but wife at work and left jobs to do and got some more mocks for my foundation licence to do when nice and quite
73`s

Good luck with the Foundation, I passed mine a few months back, you have plenty of time and can go back and check any answers.

Good luck with your foundation exam, you are given plenty of time to read through and select your answer before submitting it.

73
Derek

Read the questions twice you have more than enough time.
Good luck.

Thanks all, loving getting back into radio , just had central Scotland, north coast of Ireland , and Shetland on fm, yes i did say fm the lift was awesome im totally hooked now esp with only 4w and mobile,
Just joined RSGB nd also my local ham club “Bittern DX’s”, smallish but a great bunch of people and have a trainer if i get stuck with the more tec side, done loads of mocks now, pass rate at 70% so getting there, want to get it 98% as want to pass first time, not that i need to more i love passing exams first time sad i know ……..

Awesome to hear about your excitement with your radio interests there Jimmy.  

Very well done with your FM contacts too, (amazing what can be done!)

Great to hear that you've found a good club and am sure that with your efforts you'll pass the Foundation with no problem.


All the best,
Victor

Alan Pilot wrote:

They must have had loads of complaints so you would think they would have got the coax sorted.

Mine is well over a decade old and had the same issue so it's been an ongoing problem for years.

i just got a sirio 5000   i think its a fantastic antenna

Hi I've a Sirio Mag125 with ML145PL antenna which gives me a near perfect SWR 1:1 on channels 1 through 40. Magmount was previously fitted with a Sirio Titanium 3001 antenna which was giving SWR readings of above 3. After a bit of investigation and fiddling it appears that the whip had been cut too short. I will replace (or lengthen) the whip and try it again.

These both are situations where an antenna analyser can save you a load of time, grief and money. An antenna analyser is one of those things that the first time you use one you ask yourself why you didn't get one years ago. 

And it doesn't need to be expensive either, you don't need to spend £300 or more anymore. I'm now using one of those cheap NanoVNA ones off Amazon or Ebay I got more to have something smaller than my MFJ269 for portable ops and it's good enough that I sold my MFJ. It's a bit more faff, for example having to do the calibration with the open, short and 50 Ohm loads, but given it's not even 1/4 of the price and you can store the calibrations so you don't need to do it every time it's not the end of the world. Just don't believe the up to 1.5GHz coverage. Whilst it will do that it uses harmonics to work above 300MHz so it's not as reliable. When comparing it to both my MFJ and a friend's RigExpert on a 2m/70cm dual bander it's good enough for measuring a SWR dip but you can't trust the numbers. Both the MFJ and RigExpert agreed with each other, the NanoVNA was for example reading 1:5:1 where they were reading 1:1. SWR curves the same but different values. But as I say that was above 300MHz so for HF and VHF they're absolutely spot on.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B085CFHTBM

That one in the link is the one i bought last August well the 2nd of August Amazon tells me.
I found it very good once i got my head round it but still keeping my MFJ but did sell the RigExpert.
You can get them for less but that one is a bit bigger for my old eyes