The Solarcon A99 Antron is a vertical antenna that operates between 25 and 32 MHz and has a length of 5.18m.
It’s a half-wave over a quarter-wave antenna. Is that true? Some believe it’s a 5/8 wave. Others say it’s a 1/2 wave. I’ve never owned one before so I can’t say.
The antenna comes in three sections. It also features two fine-tuning rings at the base.
It has a low SWR of less than 1.2:1, a power rating of up to 2000 watts.
Apparently, Solarcon claims 9.9 dBi gain but I’ve read that it’s closer to 3.9 dBi or even less!
I’ve always used a Sigma Venom 5/8 vertical, with great results, so it will be interesting to compare that with the Antron 99. The main advantage over the Sigma is that the Antron is fibreglass rather than aluminium.
Update 7/5/2024:
The antenna has arrived and I’ve set it up in the garden. I can access our local 10 metre repeater, GB3CQ, with 10 Watts using my old Sigma Venom 5/8 vertical. However, I need 60 Watts to access the repeater using the Antron 99. Everything checks out OK so… what’s going on? I’ve read on several forums that the Antron 99 isn’t as good the the Sigma 5/8 wave vertical. So far, this does seem to be the case. I shall investigate further.
Read this:
There’s a very good article here which explains why this antenna isn’t too good.
User Manual:
Thanks to Ed for the Solarcon-A99-manual.