Need Some Advice on an NOS Midland 102M Radio Setup

I agree. I use the Lil Will for temporary installs and it does O.K. and is much better than the other junk out there. I had a Wilson 5000 mag mount at one time and have never used a 1000 mag mount, but I do use the 1000 in a hard mound configuration and am totally satisfied with it. (I ran a Texas Star 667V thru that 5000 mag mount with great results)

 

This is very true, and it's one reason you want to ensure your SWR's are low. The other reason is because a higher SWR means less signal going out of the antenna.

So in other words when you key up, if your SWR is high, most of the RF signal goes back into the radio, namely the finals, the finals burned out, and you guessed it....no more transmit.

Likewise, a lower SWR means more RF signal is going out and not much going back to the radio, which equates a long and happy life, if treated right.

The main difference between the Wilson 1000 and the 5000 is the 5000 has a better coil inside and comes with thicker coax. Other than that, both antennas use the same length whip and will hear equally the same. The 5000 will handle more power than the 1000 will. IIRC the 5000 is good to 20 KW, not that I'll ever need to run that much.

I have a Wilson 1000 with a trimmed down whip I have set up as my 10 meter antenna, and a 5000 coil mount with a stock length whip that serves as my 11 meter (CB) antenna. Then I just swap out the coil base from the magnet mount depending on which band I want to use.