broknindarkagain
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Has anyone retrofitted the military antennas for any ham bands? Is there info anywhere on it?
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Retrofitting Antennas
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m38inmaine
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No need to retro, the military made antennas in most if not all the ham bands.
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Do you want to operate Ham HF? VHF? Want to transmit as well as receive? There are threads by the dozens here on SS, but quickly:
AS-1729 with MX-6707 base and two section whip: Operates 30 MHz to 80 MHz. Will work quite well for 6 m Amateur band and not so well on 10m (which is outside range below 30 MHz). The base includes a crude tuning selection by switching to closest frequency band. Not a bad antenna used as-is but is difficult to modify and get decent performance. Much better gain than the newer generation AS-3900 (not tunable).
AS-3900A- a broadband, non-tunable VHF antenna designed to 'work' without tuning: works from 30 to 80 MHz and works somewhat on 10m. Very inefficient antenna and SWR will look high to any transmitter everywhere in the range. Could use an auto tuner inline to make radio happy. A good dummy-load antenna for close in work. Not easily modified. Some mods shown online are 'iffy' and gut the matching section.
AB-15 base and MS-116, 117, 118 series antenna sections, or AB-21, 22, 23, 24 sections: Probably most useful antenna to use on CB, Amateur HF, 6m or even 2m if length is modified. Modification is as simple as cutting length of whip to required frequency. Can be shortened or lengthened coarsely by adding and removing sections. Works great with an antenna tuner if just under a quarter wavelength of antenna is provided.
There are other bases which use the same MS-116, 117, 118 sections, like AB-558 base (large mounting hole, or MP-65.
I have not run across many other antennas commonly available and modifiable to general purpose antennas.
IMHO the AB-15 with it's antenna sections is the ultimate antenna for general ham use.
AS-1729 with MX-6707 base and two section whip: Operates 30 MHz to 80 MHz. Will work quite well for 6 m Amateur band and not so well on 10m (which is outside range below 30 MHz). The base includes a crude tuning selection by switching to closest frequency band. Not a bad antenna used as-is but is difficult to modify and get decent performance. Much better gain than the newer generation AS-3900 (not tunable).
AS-3900A- a broadband, non-tunable VHF antenna designed to 'work' without tuning: works from 30 to 80 MHz and works somewhat on 10m. Very inefficient antenna and SWR will look high to any transmitter everywhere in the range. Could use an auto tuner inline to make radio happy. A good dummy-load antenna for close in work. Not easily modified. Some mods shown online are 'iffy' and gut the matching section.
AB-15 base and MS-116, 117, 118 series antenna sections, or AB-21, 22, 23, 24 sections: Probably most useful antenna to use on CB, Amateur HF, 6m or even 2m if length is modified. Modification is as simple as cutting length of whip to required frequency. Can be shortened or lengthened coarsely by adding and removing sections. Works great with an antenna tuner if just under a quarter wavelength of antenna is provided.
There are other bases which use the same MS-116, 117, 118 sections, like AB-558 base (large mounting hole, or MP-65.
I have not run across many other antennas commonly available and modifiable to general purpose antennas.
IMHO the AB-15 with it's antenna sections is the ultimate antenna for general ham use.
Last edited:
broknindarkagain
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I'm not worried about CB. I have a HT to use for that.
I do 2m and 70cm right now. Later on I do want to grow into some of the HF stuff though. Very good info though thank you. I didn't realize there were so many different antennas. I'll figure out what I have and then go from there.
I do 2m and 70cm right now. Later on I do want to grow into some of the HF stuff though. Very good info though thank you. I didn't realize there were so many different antennas. I'll figure out what I have and then go from there.