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View Full Version : Bottom Feeding AND the BIG STUPID


WX7P
05-03-2015, 08:27 PM
Went to the second day of an estate sale of a deceased local ham today.

I wasn't interested in any of the "good" stuff, just mast sections and other odds and ends the piranha didn't nab yesterday.

It was worth the trip as I got a 40' push up mast, 2 long boomer 2 meter beams, a bunch of individual mast sections and a bunch of wire, connectors, an capacitance meter (it works) and some other random odds and ends for $30.

I dug out what I think is a Cushcraft R-5 from the scrap pile that was going to the recycler. It's seventeen feet high assembled, but the traps don't look like the ones in the manual I saw on line. This is obviously NOT an R4, I have one of those and traps are different. This antenna is only missing the x-hat at the base of the antenna.

So here's the big stupid. Is this an R5 or am I on drugs?

13871

This is why EVERY ham should have a junky Suburban. With AC of course...

13872 13873 13874

The curvy traps are throwing me for a loop. I didn't figure you'd all need to see the entire antenna...
Fire away. Take your best W9GB shot.
WØTKX
05-03-2015, 08:32 PM
You tell me. I have one too. A freebee I have not 'effed with.

Seriously. :lol:
KJ3N
05-03-2015, 08:35 PM
An R-5 doesn't have that kind of trap design on the top. I think you have the R-7.

R-5 manual: http://www.cushcraftamateur.com/pdffiles/r5.pdf

R-7 manual: http://www.cushcraftamateur.com/pdffiles/r7.pdf
WX7P
05-03-2015, 08:42 PM
I don't think it's a R7. The base section more closely resembles the R5.

This pic is what confused me:

http://www.eham.net/classifieds/detail/328681

The manuals I've seen don't depict the antenna with the curved traps.
K7SGJ
05-03-2015, 09:21 PM
I think I'm going with you being on drugs. But then, I could be full of shit, too.

I forgot to mention, I think it looks like the R5s I remember from way back when I was just a children.
WX7P
05-03-2015, 09:23 PM
Remember I live in WA state...
WØTKX
05-04-2015, 02:08 PM
There was a similar design by WiMo in Germany, and I've always thought that's where it may have come from.

I've tried it ground mounted and got it to tune on 20 with two short radials using the MFJ analyzer
K7SGJ
05-04-2015, 02:50 PM
There was a similar design by WiMo in Germany, and I've always thought that's where it may have come from.

I've tried it ground mounted and got it to tune on 20 with two short radials using the MFJ analyzer



Did you try to scatter some Deutsch Boden under it to see if that improved the signal?
KG4CGC
05-04-2015, 07:47 PM
<snip>Deutsch Boden ... ?

Who gnu?
WX7P
05-05-2015, 11:51 AM
It's an R5
WØTKX
05-05-2015, 01:38 PM
http://ok1ike.c-a-v.com/soubory/ant_txt/Cushcraft%20R-4-5-7.pdf
n0iu
05-10-2015, 07:18 AM
How much you want for it??
WV6Z
05-10-2015, 08:02 AM
Now when you said Bottom Feeding and Big Stupid, I thought you were calling me.
n0iu
05-10-2015, 08:03 AM
Now when you said Bottom Feeding and Big Stupid, I thought you were calling me.

I thought it was going to be about lawyers!
kb2vxa
05-11-2015, 01:46 PM
Like Bert?
K7SGJ
05-12-2015, 08:25 AM
It's an R5

You got that thing in the air yet? We can do 40 again
n0iu
05-12-2015, 05:08 PM
It's an R5


You got that thing in the air yet? We can do 40 again

The problem is if it is indeed an R5 and not an R7, the R5 only did 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20 (hence the name) so doing 40 would be problematic. The R7, however, did 30 and 40. I have had the same R7 on the air since 1993... and it is the best vertical they made.

Just sayin'
K7SGJ
05-12-2015, 05:19 PM
Well.............we can do 20 twice.