Got myself a Tram 1498 which is basically a much cheaper clone of the Antron/Solarcon A-99. Basic end-fed 1/2 wave in a fiberglass stick.
Was happy to see it arrived so fast but as soon as I started looking at all the hardware I noticed it was missing the allen key adjustment screw to tighten the end whip after adjusting for frequency, missing 3 locking bolts to lock the sections together, and even funnier it was missing a locking washer for the U clamp (7 instead of 8). It doesn't stop there, they gave me another wrench for an adjustment that wasn't even in the instructions and I later found out it's for the factory adjustment lmao.
Luckily I have extra hardware laying around, but that allen key adjustment screw was a major PITA. I found a similar one in an old radio knob but slightly too long so I used my dremel to shave it down and it worked.
Finally got the damn thing together, slipped the top section (internal whip) down 60mm like the instructions suggested for CB band use.
Went outside and up the tower it goes, walk back inside to test it out and SWR is almost flat at 26.515! WTF? So I go out again and adjust the rings, and again, and again... Nothing would raise the frequency to the middle of the CB band.
Frustrated I went back out and instead of the recommended 60mm to slip the top section internal whip down, I went with 100mm. Tested and finally SWR was almost perfect on ch1 26.965. Went back out and through trial and error I found 260mm was getting me a 1.1 on ch20. (update: went with 270mm eventually after finding out my TV antenna 15' or so feet away was causing the antenna to look longer than it was to the tuning).
260mm is a hell of a difference from 60mm like the instructions said wow! The instructions suggest 275mm for 28MHz, so I guess my 260mm was close enough for CB, but still shorter than expected. That's a 200mm difference to tune it compared to the suggestion in the instructions.
Now it's up in the air at 20' from the bottom of the antenna, ~38 to antenna tip, and getting out well. Receive is a tad better than my homemade EFHW at the same height.
Here's some pictures of it out of the box upon opening... (sorrrry larg images heh)
That last photo is a bit of an optical illusion. That is a 10' piece of tower below it on top of another 10' section out of frame, but the antenna really is 18'. Looks half as short at the top because of camera angle. Always amazes me how something almost 2.8x my body height looks short and small up in the air. You can really tell from the second to last photo given the top element is actually the longest, yet in the bottom photo it looks short lol.
The build quality of this seems better than the A99 antennas I have looked at. Instead of a copper wire through fiberglass poles, this Tram antenna actually uses stainless steel whips internally and allows major tuning adjustments without having to cut any wire inside.
So far so good. I will update if things get wonky with it eventually, but I love it so far for well under $100 US. Just wish Tram Browning would get their stuff together. Can't even look at their website right now.
Between this new antenna and my new Anytone 5555n, and Tripp-Lite PR10-b 10amp PSU, I am rockin'!
Okay I have been at my wits end with this antenna. I am sure it has been my install, but things definitely didn't go as planned.
I want to make it clear right now that the adjustment for this antenna and the Antron 99-A and other antennas have a major flaw. Tower height, coax length, and grounding.
I can't believe the hell I went through in the last week trying to narrow down these things. I installed a 6' ground rod, all seemed fine and didn't change things, until I realized I had two SWR meters reading different measurements at different frequencies.
This is where hell begins with antennas and I got real pissed. First I thought it was one of my SWR meters malfunctioning, but then I tested my radios built in SWR meter, it was also giving a completely different value than the other two. This was over about a 80' run of coax up 20' of tower.
I learned something valuable that I hope is heard loud and clear when it comes to these end fed dipole antennas, DO NOT USE a wavelength of pole or tower to mount to. You really want a half-wave of height. I made a mistake and went for 20' (2' of which buried in ground), close to 18' and I could not get this damn antenna to work right. I added some coax and pushed it up 25-30 feet, it works now, the original instructions work.
Why this is remains a mystery to me. All I know is I am happy the antennas element length is correct to instructions now, rather than having to shorten it by almost 6+ inches. I also coiled some coax at the base of the antenna, helped some with RFI.
These end-fed antennas are a pain in the ass, I am surprised we even use them on FM broadcast for pirating. I use to be for them, now I am really starting to feel burned.
Learned a few things since that post after this 1498 antenna died on me last year. I was wrong about a few things here because of my lack of understanding how to set up this antenna even with the instructions which left out some technical details, not to mention the missing parts from Tram themselves.
I eventually did go back to the 60mm distance on the end piece to tune it as the instructions said. This antenna shows it resonating center band around 27.325MHz. What got me was when I first installed it and I was getting somewhere around low 26MHz. Found out the coax cable needs to be a proper length to make up for the common mode currents to get a correct reading, which isn't always relative to the antennas actual performance. Proper is a half wavelength of coax cable. This is ridiculous because a proper antenna wouldn't require the damn coax to be tuned itself to give a proper SWR, but whatever.
I've had this antenna up for two years now and the first year it went deaf. Found SWR went sky high and got so angry after finding out it was the antenna itself I cut the damn things open at the base figuring I could use the fiberglass pole to rebuild something better. Found a broken cold solder joint that was barely soldered on from the main element to the coil so I gave it my best shot and reflowed with a lot of solder properly to the metal tube which... ended up melting the plastic insulator that acts as a capacitor.
This got so ridiculous I had to drill out the inner tube to widen it after it shrunk from soldering heat. Finally got it back together with a fiberglass repair kit, lots of TLC and JB weld with a slipped under a piece of PVC to strengthen where I had to cut the antenna open.
It's survived all this. Can't possibly have a new failure right? Seriously though it is a good antenna if you don't get a dud like me.
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