sirio antennas

I've run a number of different mobile antennas on my pickup. My favorite had been a wilson 1000 mag, but an incident involving a tree, and my brother n law, and well...it busted. So I'd been reading reviews on the sirio performer and turbo 5000. Could not find one bad word said about the performance of these antennas, and were said to out perform the wilsons. Upon further research, the 4000hp was said to perform just as well as the 5000, only lower power handeling, and they were cheaper by about $20. Me, being the tight-### that I am, opted for the 4000hp and hard mount. Yes, I drilled a hole in the top of the cab of my truck. There are only a few radio shops in the states that sell these antennas. I bought mine from DNJ Radio in Cali. The antenna itself, the sirio angle body mount with approx 12ft of rg58 coax, was around $65 shipped to my front porch.

Opening the box, I found the base coil well packed in a separate smaller box, inside a large plastic bag which included the 74" ss whip, the mount, also well packed separately, and a set of instructions, which are vague, but its pretty much self explainatory. Everything is well made. Hard ABS plastic and black chromed brass houses the copper coil, the pl259 mount is black chromed brass as well. I usually prefer rg8x coax, but the rg58 that came with the mount is 95% sheilded, and seems to be of high quality.

I drilled the hole, routed the coax through the truck to the radio, and mounted the antenna. A rubber o-ring on the bottom of the mount seals the mount to the cab. Some assembly is required on top of the loading coil for where the whip slides in, but everything needed is included. I would also recommend reinforcing the underside of the sheet metal if you are using a hard mount. The length and weight of the antenna easily flexes the thin metal used on newer vehicles.

I usually like to check swr as close to the antenna as possible, but the coax is made into the mount, and doesn't come apart. So checking at the radio with my radio shack 21-534 swr/power meter, I found swr to be at 1.2 across the entire cb band with no triming of the whip. Checking the entire range of my radio, from lowest, 26.815 swr was 1.9. To highest 28.015 swr was 1.8. Acceptable across the entire frequency range of my radio. I dont have access to an antenna analyzer, but do plan to purchase one, then find the actual resonant point. Until then, im leaving the whip uncut. But this is a wide banded antenna for sure, as advertised.

Flipped the radio to 38lsb, sure enough, skip was rolling in and made a couple mid-west contacts with goodreports. Gave a friend of mine a call, told him to give me a radio check on his base, he's about 20 miles or so by the way the crow flies. He said I had him in the red, and seemed just as stong as my base and a99. Where as before, with the wilson, I was hitting him with 8-9 lbs. I can hear,and talk a lot farther locally mobile to mobile, and works really well for dxing. I'm very impressed with performance of this antenna and seems to live up to the hype.

I think that most of the difference in performance is the overall length. Height is might!! The antenna itself is 80" long, putting the tip at just over 13 ft on top of my truck. I've been smacking trees and other low obstacles with no damage or loss of performance. The whip on the 4000 is thinner and more flexible than those on the 5000, which I think helps with this. But it does bend way back while running at highway speeds, maybe suffering some performance loss there. The antenna is easily enough removed if your gonna hit the mcd's drivethru, by simply unscrewing the base from the pl259 mount. If you are going to have it off for any amount of time, just screw on the rain cap that is included with the antenna.

I've had this antenna for about 6 months now, still works and looks great. No leaks through the mount as of yet. I realize a long antenna like this isn't for eveybody, but if your able to run one, give em a try. For the money, compared to other mobile antennas, you really can't go wrong. Sirio also now makes a trucker style antenna that I would like to try some day. If anybody has used one, I'd like to hear your experience or comparisons.

I am in no way associated with sirio, this is just my experience with the one I have. Just thought maybe this thread would help if you were wondering, or on the fence about them. YMMV

 

You are absolutely right, all loading coils, no matter what brand, are built basically the same. Build quality does differ though.. And rf physics is not changed, that is why I pointed out that I thought the performance difference was because of the added length. The wilson, being 60 some odd inches, and the sirio being 80".

That is a common misconception. They don't perform any better, they just use a heavier wire in the coil for power handeling. The sirio 4000hp is rated at 600 watts continuous. The sirio 5000 is rated at 1500 watts continuous. The nubers printed on the antenna mean nothing.

 

That's available on the performer 5000. Pretty neat idea.