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Dutchman
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 26, 2001 - 12:09 am: | 
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Someone gave me an old Starduster antenna. I was going to get a 5/8 groundplane,but for free .....
Is it worth fooling with???? It is all there,and in good shape.
how good were they,and would you put it up??? |
707
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 10:19 pm: |
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I used to have a starduster back in the 70's. It worked very well, has a good radiation pattern but is kind of lightweight construction. If it's free, try it! You won't get quite the gain of a 5/8 wave, but it looks cooler! I think the old stardusters were rated at like 5.5 dbi. |
Marconi
| | Posted on Friday, October 04, 2002 - 11:49 am: |
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Dutchman, did you ever put your Starduster up? If so, how is it working for you?
I am a real SD'r fan!
Marconi |
Taz
| | Posted on Friday, October 04, 2002 - 6:43 pm: |
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Oh geeze, not this again.
Go to keyword, starduster and look for yourself.
Taz
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Marconi
| | Posted on Sunday, October 06, 2002 - 9:37 pm: |
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Hey Dutchman give that old SD'r a chance and let us know how it works for you. Taz gets a little bent when someone brings up a deal about these old antennas. I think he had one once and could not get it to work so his opinion of them is quite low.
Marconi |
Taz
| | Posted on Monday, October 07, 2002 - 12:14 am: |
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no marconi, I got it working swr was flat. It just bent in a 40mhp wind. |
Hoosiercardinal
| | Posted on Monday, October 07, 2002 - 12:25 am: |
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Theres nothing wrong with these old antennas!!!!;-) In fact i like the old ones better than the new stuff out now..... Dont ask me why but i do!! |
Marconi
| | Posted on Monday, October 07, 2002 - 8:42 am: |
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Well Taz if the wind bent it up that is one thing. I didn't get the impression that was the main problem you had with them however. I thought it was a gain thing compared to todays antennas.
Dutchman, the very new import knockoffs (KO's) are junk according to what I hear. Some of the early KO's worked fine, but did have a problem with the SO-239 fitting in the hub being a bit small.
I have several SD'r and they work great. Taz it right about the SD'r being light, maybe 2 lbs. Maybe a 40 or 45 mph wind could damage it but it is still a very good antenna if you get it anywhere from 25 feet up.
I have antennas that will show and produce a better signal, but I have never lost a contact by simply switching to the SD after making a contact on another antenna. I talk local on one most of the time, and my buddies all run the newer and bigger antennas. If we get a comment from DX during the process, I never have any difficulty keeping up with the contact, where ever it comes from. Maybe I am just lucky though.
Marconi |
Taz
| | Posted on Monday, October 07, 2002 - 8:44 pm: |
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That to marconi, I dont like its performance to the newer antennas. But most of all its physical stabillity. |
Marconi
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 08, 2002 - 8:26 am: |
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Taz, you say, "...no marconi, I got it working swr was flat. It just bent in a 40mhp wind.
How did you end up with a Starduster?
How did it work before the wind got it?
I had several original SDr's in the 70's and they worked great. I never compared them to any other antenna, however. In the early 90's, when I got back into radio, I bought a new knockoff from Italy. The box was marked M-400. The hub is bigger, but otherwise it is almost identical to the original SD'r. They used similar materials and design. It is still up and working just fine after almost ten years. I just recently took it down from about 60 feet to the hub to change coax. With a couple of other antennas up, I use it all the time and it still works great.
I will agree that the newer imported knockoff models are not very strong. I just picked one up from a guy. He can't tell me why, but he says the same thing, "It doesn't work very good." I checked it out and the feed point is poorly made and the tubing is very light weight. The angle of the ground radials are not the same as the original SD'r either. The element stud is mounted into the hub and not set into the element like the originals. The bottom part of the stinger is also ribbed aluminum tubing and it does not fit this stud as well as I would like either. All this may well have some bad affects on the performance. I have not put it up for comparisons yet, but if you had one of these, you are probably right, they really may be junk now.
Taz, you must have got hold of one of those new modern knockoffs!
Marconi |
Taz
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 08, 2002 - 8:50 pm: |
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Nope, it was the an actual starduster. I bought it. And it worked poorly for me. |
Marconi
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 09, 2002 - 10:54 am: |
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As far back as 10 years ago I tried every CB distributor in the business, and plenty of CB Shops, trying to buy an original Starduster and could find none. I finally settled for a knockoff and found it to work just fine. As I have told you, it is still up there working today.
I live on the Gulf Coast, Northwest of Houston and we get some pretty rough weather at times. I also have an old original SD'r that was in the air for about 30 years. It is on a 20' test pole and the aluminum is a little pitted, but it still works fine.
Let's see, from your profile, you look to be a teenager or should I say a lucky teenager to have found an original Starduster, maybe 15 years or more after they stopped making them.
Taz, I asked you earlier because I am curious, what provoked you to get one of these old workhorses in the first place?
Marconi |
Scrapiron63
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 09, 2002 - 5:24 pm: |
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My opinion of the old Starduster is that they were better than most GP's of their time, and very durable. I know where there's several still standing from the 1970s, one is on an old house that nobody has lived in for several years, i've meant to stop and see about it. They were one of the few 'quite' gp's, no rain noise, and very broadbanded. I don't know anything about the later look-a-like reproduction model. |
Taz
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 09, 2002 - 3:29 pm: |
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Well, as I said in an older discussion on the forum it was my fathers. He never even used it since it was given to him. I put it up and 2 weeks later it bent over. |
Znut
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 09, 2002 - 10:40 pm: |
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The one that bent in 40 mph winds must have had an invisible injury. My wife's grandparents had one in a pine tree here and it survived until they took it down. They preferred it because they could talk to friends and family back in PA. I guess because the angle of radiation is a little more steep than that of an A-99 and such, the DX they experienced was suitable for their needs.
I knew a guy that had one at about 32 feet to the mount(which is the middle of the antenna) and talked too much DX. He lived 20 miles away and I could hear him, he could hear me but he was too busy talking to the bluegrass state or the one with the worthless nut(buckeye).
That reminds me. Someone told me that squirrels know what part of a buckeye to eat without getting ill. I don't know but I peeled one and bit into it when I was 13. I got very sick. I threw up violently within 15 minutes and had a headache. So don't even try to eat one. Stick with the chestnuts roasting over an open fire.
Anyway, a 1/4 wave groundplane with drooping radials has to be one of the most efficient vertical antennas there is.
Znut |
Marconi
| | Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2002 - 1:08 pm: |
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Znut, you are my kind of guy. Now I must admit there are plenty of them old buggers still up around here, and some are broke off at the hub, like Taz notes, but they have been up there 20 years or more. I think the coax also fell out of them as they don't seem to be connected to anything.
Actually he didn't give it time to really get seasoned in so he could tell anything about how the antenna worked, it was only up for two weeks.
He really needs to fix that old thing and get it back up there for a real try, he'll like it I know.
Marconi |
Taz
| | Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2002 - 9:28 pm: |
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ok, it was in perfect shape. so was the second one. both blew over!!! |
Bracketbird
| | Posted on Friday, October 11, 2002 - 1:45 am: |
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a freind give me a starduster to use 1 time and it worked well . as good or better than my antron at the same height(about 40 foot) and it was a newer knockoff of the old ones. i still like my old astroplane at 30 foot much better than either one of the previous 2. ive had probably 4 of the astros and loved everyone of them. they did a hell of a job all way around.....good swrs good transmit and good recieve. anyway i guess im saying is those old designs do work as well as the newer antennas as long as you take your time and get um right or at least close. my 2 cents......see yall on the airwaves |
Hoosiercardinal
| | Posted on Saturday, October 12, 2002 - 1:32 am: |
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There are a TON of old antennas and towers all over were i live here in Indiana and in fact ive picked up some over the years. A lot of old moonrakers, astrobeams, astroplanes stadrdusters, penetrator 500s, clr-2s, super maggies, PDL-2s and super scanners all over the place just sitting unused waiting for someone to inquire about them. Ive never really cared for the stardusters because of the way the coax goes up inside the mast but some guys around here love them!!! |
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