Vintage...even possibly antique cb antenna...some questions

K so here goes...I picked up an antenna today off Craigslist.Previous owner said it had been laying in his attic for 25 years.Reason he was so shure about this is he moved into his present home 25 years ago,pulled this antenna off his old house and put it in the attic at the new house hoping to put it up at some later date.Well that later date never came and now his wife wants the attic and garage cleaned out so enter Craigslist.Anyway after hours of searching all over the internet I finally found it,well almost but not exactly.I think what I found was the first generation of this antenna... the Rangemaster.The fella I got this antenna said he thought for sure it was a Super Rangemaster wich is very possible since mine is almost but not exactly like the one I found.So anyway the question is does anyone know anything at all about this antenna or where there would be some readily available info on it. http://www.cbtricks.com/ant_manuals/l_coil_research/rangermaster/ad/index.htm Heres a link to what I did find.I was not able to find any technical info about it just this old advertisement. The one I bought [15 bucks couldnt pass that up] is in amazingly good shape for an antenna this age.I already polished up all the radials and elements with Never-Dull and plan on eventually taking the whole thing apart and cleaning everything else up and using all new s.s. hardware to put it back together.Heck I figure for the price it was worth it just for the experimentation aspect of it.Plus I couldnt help but think that if Im not happy with the way it performs the ground radials might be able to be modified to work on some other antenna like possibly the alluminum vertical that Midland makes or made not sure if you can still get them new or not. So come on someone tell me something about this antenna.Bluebird you of all people should know something about it you were into cb back in its heyday.Of course so was I but I was just a kid and didnt really pay attention to things like antennas I just loved when Dad would let me get on the mic.Allright its getting late,what is it with me posting stuff at like 2/3 oclock in the morning anyway? I'll tell you... its called insomnia or something like that.BUMP BUMP Im on the side,Shawn

[quote="outlawmobile"]K so here goes...I picked up an antenna today off Craigslist.Previous owner said it had been laying in his attic for 25 years.Reason he was so shure about this is he moved into his present home 25 years ago,pulled this antenna off his old house and put it in the attic at the new house hoping to put it up at some later date.Well that later date never came and now his wife wants the attic and garage cleaned out so enter Craigslist.Anyway after hours of searching all over the internet I finally found it,well almost but not exactly.I think what I found was the first generation of this antenna... the Rangemaster.The fella I got this antenna said he thought for sure it was a Super Rangemaster wich is very possible since mine is almost but not exactly like the one I found.So anyway the question is does anyone know anything at all about this antenna or where there would be some readily available info on it. http://www.cbtricks.com/ant_manuals/l_coil_research/rangermaster/ad/index.htm Heres a link to what I did find.I was not able to find any technical info about it just this old advertisement. The one I bought [15 bucks couldnt pass that up] is in amazingly good shape for an antenna this age.I already polished up all the radials and elements with Never-Dull and plan on eventually taking the whole thing apart and cleaning everything else up and using all new s.s. hardware to put it back together.Heck I figure for the price it was worth it just for the experimentation aspect of it.Plus I couldnt help but think that if Im not happy with the way it performs the ground radials might be able to be modified to work on some other antenna like possibly the alluminum vertical that Midland makes or made not sure if you can still get them new or not. So come on someone tell me something about this antenna.Bluebird you of all people should know something about it you were into cb back in its heyday.Of course so was I but I was just a kid and didnt really pay attention to things like antennas I just loved when Dad would let me get on the mic.Allright its getting late,what is it with me posting stuff at like 2/3 oclock in the morning anyway? I'll tell you... its called insomnia or something like that.BUMP BUMP Im on the side,Shawn[/quote] SEND A PIC I GOOGLED IT WITH NO LUCK

Admin wrote:

outlawmobile wrote:

K so here goes...I picked up an antenna today off Craigslist.Previous owner said it had been laying in his attic for 25 years.Reason he was so shure about this is he moved into his present home 25 years ago,pulled this antenna off his old house and put it in the attic at the new house hoping to put it up at some later date.Well that later date never came and now his wife wants the attic and garage cleaned out so enter Craigslist.Anyway after hours of searching all over the internet I finally found it,well almost but not exactly.I think what I found was the first generation of this antenna... the Rangemaster.The fella I got this antenna said he thought for sure it was a Super Rangemaster wich is very possible since mine is almost but not exactly like the one I found.So anyway the question is does anyone know anything at all about this antenna or where there would be some readily available info on it. http://www.cbtricks.com/ant_manuals/l_coil_research/rangermaster/ad/index.htm Heres a link to what I did find.I was not able to find any technical info about it just this old advertisement. The one I bought [15 bucks couldnt pass that up] is in amazingly good shape for an antenna this age.I already polished up all the radials and elements with Never-Dull and plan on eventually taking the whole thing apart and cleaning everything else up and using all new s.s. hardware to put it back together.Heck I figure for the price it was worth it just for the experimentation aspect of it.Plus I couldnt help but think that if Im not happy with the way it performs the ground radials might be able to be modified to work on some other antenna like possibly the alluminum vertical that Midland makes or made not sure if you can still get them new or not. So come on someone tell me something about this antenna.Bluebird you of all people should know something about it you were into cb back in its heyday.Of course so was I but I was just a kid and didnt really pay attention to things like antennas I just loved when Dad would let me get on the mic.Allright its getting late,what is it with me posting stuff at like 2/3 oclock in the morning anyway? I'll tell you... its called insomnia or something like that.BUMP BUMP Im on the side,Shawn

SEND A PIC I GOOGLED IT WITH NO LUCK

Check the link I posted,its about as good a pic as your going to get.This thing is way too big for me to get any kind of a detailed pic of...at least the whole thing.Maybe I can take pics of it piece by piece,Shawn [img][/img][img][/img] Thats about as good as I can do,a photographer I most definately am not.I think it gives you the basic idea.4 ground radials,one small shaft and then 4 mostly vertical elements.Im half tempted to stick it up as it is and hook up a junker radio just in case and check the swrs and if they are ok run it for a bit and just see what it does.Whatta ya think??? Shawn

[img][/img] Heres one more.Yeah I know it looks like the radials and elements are all bent to heck but they really arent.I mean they probably arent perfect but they arent how they look either.Its just they are so long and so thin they just kind of twist and contort all over the place when its not sitting vertically.Shawn

[quote="outlawmobile"][quote="Admin"][quote="outlawmobile"]K so here goes...I picked up an antenna today off Craigslist.Previous owner said it had been laying in his attic for 25 years.Reason he was so shure about this is he moved into his present home 25 years ago,pulled this antenna off his old house and put it in the attic at the new house hoping to put it up at some later date.Well that later date never came and now his wife wants the attic and garage cleaned out so enter Craigslist.Anyway after hours of searching all over the internet I finally found it,well almost but not exactly.I think what I found was the first generation of this antenna... the Rangemaster.The fella I got this antenna said he thought for sure it was a Super Rangemaster wich is very possible since mine is almost but not exactly like the one I found.So anyway the question is does anyone know anything at all about this antenna or where there would be some readily available info on it. http://www.cbtricks.com/ant_manuals/l_coil_research/rangermaster/ad/index.htm Heres a link to what I did find.I was not able to find any technical info about it just this old advertisement. The one I bought [15 bucks couldnt pass that up] is in amazingly good shape for an antenna this age.I already polished up all the radials and elements with Never-Dull and plan on eventually taking the whole thing apart and cleaning everything else up and using all new s.s. hardware to put it back together.Heck I figure for the price it was worth it just for the experimentation aspect of it.Plus I couldnt help but think that if Im not happy with the way it performs the ground radials might be able to be modified to work on some other antenna like possibly the alluminum vertical that Midland makes or made not sure if you can still get them new or not. So come on someone tell me something about this antenna.Bluebird you of all people should know something about it you were into cb back in its heyday.Of course so was I but I was just a kid and didnt really pay attention to things like antennas I just loved when Dad would let me get on the mic.Allright its getting late,what is it with me posting stuff at like 2/3 oclock in the morning anyway? I'll tell you... its called insomnia or something like that.BUMP BUMP Im on the side,Shawn[/quote] SEND A PIC I GOOGLED IT WITH NO LUCK[/quote] Check the link I posted,its about as good a pic as your going to get.This thing is way too big for me to get any kind of a detailed pic of...at least the whole thing.Maybe I can take pics of it piece by piece,Shawn [img][img]https://2img.net/h/i626.photobucket.com/albums/tt344/outlawmobile/wackoanntena154.jpg[/img][/img][img][img]https://2img.net/h/i626.photobucket.com/albums/tt344/outlawmobile/wackoanntena156.jpg[/img][/img] Thats about as good as I can do,a photographer I most definately am not.I think it gives you the basic idea.4 ground radials,one small shaft and then 4 mostly vertical elements.Im half tempted to stick it up as it is and hook up a junker radio just in case and check the swrs and if they are ok run it for a bit and just see what it does.Whatta ya think??? Shawn[/quote]never heard of this antenna

No me either.I scoured the net for hours just to come up with the page I left the link to.After finding that,wich was quite honestly just by dumb luck...I just went on cbtricks antenna info section and started at the A's and worked my way down literally downloading a pic of every single antenna they showed till I came upon this one in the L's...Even now knowing the correct spelling and the companies name and address I still have yet to be able to come up with anything more.I dunno,I guess it really doesnt matter but I would really like to have some specs on this thing.Oh hell Im just going to pull down the Imax and throw this thing up when I get a chance and pull a junker out of the closet in case it has a dead short in it or something and just see what it does.If the swrs are ok I will leave it up for a bit.I just cant see how it could possibly work.I mean Im no antenna expert by any means but I know enough to know that theoretically this array of 4 vertical elements that closely grouped together just shouldnt possibly be able to work.On a vehicle if your going to co-phase the accepted distance the antennas should be seperated by is 6 to 8 feet,although I think it is Firestik that claims on their web site that they have had some success in some installs with only 4 feet of seperation.These 4 elements are as far as I can tell co-phased so how could they not interfere with each others radiation parttern as close as they are to each other? Maybe Im just thinking too much into it.I will let you all know how it all works out.Shawn

[quote="outlawmobile"]No me either.I scoured the net for hours just to come up with the page I left the link to.After finding that,wich was quite honestly just by dumb luck...I just went on cbtricks antenna info section and started at the A's and worked my way down literally downloading a pic of every single antenna they showed till I came upon this one in the L's...Even now knowing the correct spelling and the companies name and address I still have yet to be able to come up with anything more.I dunno,I guess it really doesnt matter but I would really like to have some specs on this thing.Oh hell Im just going to pull down the Imax and throw this thing up when I get a chance and pull a junker out of the closet in case it has a dead short in it or something and just see what it does.If the swrs are ok I will leave it up for a bit.I just cant see how it could possibly work.I mean Im no antenna expert by any means but I know enough to know that theoretically this array of 4 vertical elements that closely grouped together just shouldnt possibly be able to work.On a vehicle if your going to co-phase the accepted distance the antennas should be seperated by is 6 to 8 feet,although I think it is Firestik that claims on their web site that they have had some success in some installs with only 4 feet of seperation.These 4 elements are as far as I can tell co-phased so how could they not interfere with each others radiation parttern as close as they are to each other? Maybe Im just thinking too much into it.I will let you all know how it all works out.Shawn[/quote] STOP THINKING AND JUST DO IT WE WANT TO KNOW

10-4 B.B. Im surprised Binrat hasnt weighed in on this one.I mean he has done experiments with making different antennas.He certainly must have some kind of an opinion on this contraption.Shawn

OK so B.B. twisted my arm and the antenna is up.SWR's are 1.3 on ch. 1 and 1.4 on ch. 40 Receive seems good,not sure if its quite as good as the Imax or the Big Stick.Will run it for a while,take readings from known stationary locations and then throw the Imax back up and take comparison readings.It sure is an odd antenna but it looks pretty cool once its up in the air and all the radials and elements are hanging the way they are supposed to.Looks like a BIG TIME OPERATORS ANTENNA haha.Allright let me get it on up outta the way,BUMP BUMP...Shawn

Lets see if this works.

[quote="outlawmobile"][img]https://2img.net/h/i626.photobucket.com/albums/tt344/outlawmobile/Rangermaster005.jpg[/img] Lets see if this works.[/quote] LOOKS GOOD KEEP ME POSTED

So far so good.Works great for local and was also able to make a couple of dx contacts with it the very evening I put it up so no complaints.Still Im not for sure that it is quite as good as the Imax or the Big Stick.It is fun to play around with an antenna that for all intensive purposes might be older than me.I mean the ad for the regular Rangermaster in S9 Magazine was from a 1964 issue.Not sure when the Super came out but Im guessing me and this antenna are probably about the same age or it may just have a couple years on me.Im going to run it for a few weeks and then bring it down and completely dismantle it,clean everything up and put it back together with new s.s. hardware.Or possibly just clean it up and get the new hardware for it but put it up in the storage over my garage for a while.I have an original Davemade 2 element base/portable beam coming hopefully this weekend so I will most likely be busy with that for a while.BUMP BUMP

K final opinion is...Neat little antenna,works good but in my opinion it is not as good as my Imax especially on the recieve side of things.Not planning on getting rid of it any time soon though.It would nicely complete a complete vintage setup which one of these days I am going to put together.I have the radio,Cobra Cam 88 [needs work but looks great] and now I have the antenna.Might possibly pick up an old Varmint or D&A or Big Boomer...something along those hollow state lines as an amp to compliment everything.For now the antenna has been stored above the garage. Shawn