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Hi Happy Ham(sters !)..

Which do you want first, .... The Good News, or the Bad ??? !!!

The Bad .... My new X50 Antenna was delivered this morning - after a wait of 11 days from ordering from 'Nocando' in Redruth. Sadly due to abysmal packing, the wafer thin outer white fibreglass tube was split vertically in the middle about 4 times, each split of about 4 inches in length. Without looking hard, you can't see them. I tried it out of curiosity, but it doesn't work!

The Good ... I eMailed the seller - got a very quick response, he is sending a complete replacement 48 Hr Courier today.... (Hopefully packed a lot better !!) ... He said to keep the damaged one.

The Ugly .... My mind has now switched to the 'cheat' mode !! ...... Does anyone know exactly what is inside the white tube ??? - Is it repairable? .... If so, I might just repair it and use it myself and sell on the new one. After all, it cost me £57 inc postage !!! .... I don't want to hack around the outer tube of the duff one, unless I know exactly what is inside, and how to tackle the job.

Any ideas ???

It could help to pay for a horizontally polarised Yagi as well, so I can join and chat with the 'Hedificated' users of VHF SSB, like Tony !!

Just get some pvc pipe the same length and you'll be sorted. its just a fiberglass tube with a lump of wire up the middle and a bit of "magic" at the bottom

Probably just a length of copper wire with coils along the length.
If it's any good there will be spacers that hold it centrally in the tube and a steady the length of the tube so that everything maintains its shape.

A poorly made one will just be a bit of wire supported at the top and bottom with the coils hanging loose!

Cheers

Tony

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I was thinking it was more than this, Chris. If this is the case, and I still have it up in the air with self amalg wrapped round the splits, why is it absolutely 'dead' on receive ?? I can hear the local repeater on my Baofeng on its 23cm antenna in the house, but with the X50 plugged into the IC-746PRO, I hear nothing from the X50, up at 25 ft ??

It's might be disconnected, or, since you are hearing nothing, shorted at the connector.

Cheers

Tony

Yeah I would guess that the actual antenna is broken internally.

If you're going to take it apart have a check inside. the copper wire has probably come off

Its basically a few long lengths of copper that are held in place by a few round bits of foam.

at the base there is a bit more but I never took the 50 apart when I had one. I just gave it away as it wasn't big enough for me

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Pity I don't have an analyser. I can hear FM White noise .... I will get my ever-willing helpers down here tomorrow, and lower it to look. I have adaptors to fit the Baofeng on to the Coax, but it doesn't access the repeater on this antenna, but does on its own 'stubby'. We will get it down in the morning and check for continuity / shorts on both the antenna, and the co-ax. If all OK, I suppose I have nothing to lose really, by breaking it open and - as Chris suggested, fit a upvc tube.

Current (forgive the pun!) thoughts are that Parcelforce may have really bent the fibreglass tube, and that has diconnected the vertical wires that Chris suggests is all that is in there.

Thanks, guys, will report back in when we have had a look-see (WX permitting !!)

I'd say it is more of a shock damage than bending.

For bending go to ~14secs on this youtube video of mine for my dual bander on the roof.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ0EEDdC ... AAAAAAAAAA

Sure this one is 5m long vs the 1m something of yours but they can flex A LOT

Just take care because a DC short, on the antenna connector, doesn't necessarily mean an RF short.
It could be the input is a tap on a coil to earth?

Cheers

Tony

Yeah if possible put it on a meter.
Give it a shake aswell to hear for loose bits

It doesn't matter if you break it really as they are replacing it.

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Thanks for more thoughts guys.

Chris - I doubt if this would 'Flex' at all. Looking at the splits, the external white tube is about egg-shell thickness ... Lets wait and see what we see when we gat it down again, and remove the self-amalg I covered the splits with.

I really would like to get it working, as the sale of the new one that is on its way here (Martin Lynch sell them for about £85), on Ebay - New and unused would go a long way towards a 2M little beam, that I want to purchase to try a bit of mid-range SSB DXing with.

hi john.
as said before, bit of wire thrown inside a plumbing pipe. these ebay cheapies are the moonraker and sharmans junk. i can believe the h/h flexi antenna is better.
my advice is its worth the extra few quid for the diamond or comet antenna.

Have you seen them all side by side. They are identical.

The bags of the WATSON 510 is the same as the DIAMOND 510.

The pole looks the same, the stuff inside looks the same.

The price tag is VERY different.

However, i don't think that the cheaper ones are tuned quite as well. Ive got a diamond x-50 which does me fine and has flat swr all the way through. My dad has a cheaper one and it runs at about 1.4:1.

I'm just thinking it is luck of the draw with these things.

I have had a watson 50, watson 2000 and now something bigger and both of the watsons have been fine.

The bigger white stick has actually permeneantly bent due to the battering in the wind but you can't blame it considering its size.