The New Maco M104C Assembled

[@basicinfo.9315]

I know this is an old video but something ive learned throughout the last 45 years. When using vertical put the gamma match on top. I use a flip flop rotor on mine and when I rotate it vertical, I get a great standing wave with the gamma match above the boom instead of below the boom which puts the gamma straight in line with the mast.

[@paulhawk8277]

Hope u like that antenna.....been running a m-104 horizontal. For about 30 years now.....2different cause I sold one in between houses .....great antenna....got qsl cards from 160 countries using 100w.....low noise,great side rejection.....great gain for smaller footprint.....still using one.....good luck....

[@262NagantRadios]

Thanks Dave. Shooting for local RX gain more than anything. Some of the locals are 40 to 100 miles away. Being heard hasn't been the problem, receiving them can be.

[@fargoalspach557]

If I put this up vertical will I be good to go with DX and local talk? This antenna will be 50’ in the air.

[@m0ogy]

I'm sure it will work superbly Paul, maybe one day we will hook up on the air.....that would be cool!!

[@262NagantRadios]

Shooting Stars are nice. Back in the 1990's I converted a damaged Shooting Star into a 3 element Comet. One end of the boom was bent & split but there was enough good boom length to make a Comet. The only reason I didn't go with a dual polarity array this time is because I'm going to move the V-quad to a shorter tower by my radio room and use it for horizontal polarization. I have a CDE AR22 for it and the coax run will be really short. 73's Paul

[@MrMjsmith626]

You would only need only about 6" inches of mass pipe above the tower to mount them on.I build antennas for more than 20 years this works very well.

[@262NagantRadios]

Thank you Jack. Only reason I didn't get a Shooting Star like yours was because I still have my V-Quad and plan to have it put back up for horizontal polarization. 73's Paul

[@262NagantRadios]

Thank you John. I guess setting a day and time period is an idea. Otherwise I'm very hit and miss about being on the air. Lately in the afternoon (central US time zone) we've been getting conditions for the Caribbean. It took part of two different days for me to assemble. If I didn't have health issues I could have done it in less than one day. I had an assembly plan mostly worked out before I started because I've put quite a few of them together in years past.Still need to do some final tuning

[@262NagantRadios]

For horizontal yes but for vertical using steel mast I've found it takes much more than 6". The tower & steel mast both couple with a vertical mounted yagi. You can raise them high enough to reduce the coupling with the tower but if the mast is steel it still couples with it & distorts the wave pattern. Experienced it many times in various real life tests. One example using a steel mast, tune a yagi horizontal & flip it vertical the readings on an antenna analyzer will be vastly different.

[@esava2874]

Silicone tape is what I use for joints. Works great and a cleaner install. 100% weather proof.

[@peterfong2241]

Blessed love to all, Can I get the spec for this antenna please an thanks, Watching from Jamaica west Indies !!

[@bluewildcat1968]

Had my M104 for 14 years, Bad Ass Beam. And I'm steel Keying On Them Super Lasers..

[@chris2crazzy]

I wanna put one on my roof lol with a tripod lol and wanna be from the ground up 33 feet lol

[@1112223333111]

I'd put it on the flat side and stick a imax 2000 in the middle.

[@262NagantRadios]

I hope you're able to get it up over the weekend Jack. Would love to see a video of it.

[@262NagantRadios]

I know your pain all to well. I've assembled a few of their yagi's in years past and have become well aware of the errors and the poor wording in the instructions. Prior experiences made assembly go smoothly on this one but I feel for someone that has never assembled one before and has nothing to go by other than their horrible directions. Oddly the V-Quad directions are very good. True on the steel mast. It is what it is and like you said a person has to live with it.

[@1OFGODSOWN]

Been using the steel mast with vertical beams since the middle 1970s and have never had an issue Moonraker fours shooting stars super laser 500s Moonraker six all of them work awesome on vertical with the steel mast how can that be?

[@262NagantRadios]

I hope so as well George. Need of local RX gain is why I went with it. I hope it tune well with some decent bandwidth, low reactance and SWR. 73's Paul

[@m0ogy]

Looks very nice Paul, you will be heard for sure with that

[@MrMjsmith626]

The two things that you can do to get around the steel Mast issue would be this.Buy another 4 element just like the one that you have now and stack them side by side 9 feet apart vertically.The second thing that you can do is to get rid of the gamma matches and go to direct drive with two DX Engineering 1to1 baluns.This would take care of the radiation distortion issue And improve band width, forward gain and rejection.Especially front the side rejection and front to back rejection as well.

[@GeorgeEI7KO]

You'll have some fun with that Paul. Hope it works real good George

[@drumminsonlive9199]

Set the elements on a 45 degree angle and transmit vertical and horizontal at the same time... you might like it...

[@butterbean4195]

i know this is a old post but its still up. has anybody ever heard tilting a beam to 45 degrees? i have had people tell me that for many years but never needed to because i have beams with vert/horz anyway.

[@MrMjsmith626]

Actually there's less torque against rotor with stacked arrays on the tower then your single array 10 feet above the tower.Check out the A.R.R.L.'s Antenna compendium book for more info.Its about $30.00-$40.00 dollars,but worth the cost.It's a book about the thickness of a New York phone directory.But it's fairly easy to understand how to get the most out of your antenna investment.

[@262NagantRadios]

Thank you Ian. Yes I agree on the weather proofing. I've had water get into aluminum tubing, freeze, and split it in other antennas that I didn't seal. 73's Paul

[@262NagantRadios]

That would work just fine for most but not in my case. I need a great deal of local vertical gain and can't get anywhere near enough with any omni. I'm eventually moving the V-Quad to another tower to use for horizontal polarization. 73's Paul

[@262NagantRadios]

Hopefully we will be able to make contact via the airwaves one day. I'd like that very much!!

[@Mister22x2]

Had my M107 monted on a 45 foot tower with the steel mast only 3 feet over the top of the tower. It was a murderous setup. I took a 10 foot section of tower and tied it to the deck out front. Then I mounted the rotor, steel mast and beam. I hoked up the Dosey and tuned the 2600 gamma match to 1:1. I took it all down and apart and then put the tower up. Then added the rotor, mast and Beam. At 45 feet, the SWR was 1.3:1. Good enough for me. I mashed into NJ and Penn from Eastern CT with ground wave conditions and skip was never a problem. Even on Ch 6, I talked at will except when one guy was on. We were neck and neck so he wasn't covering me up with his flat 6 and his steel tube amp. Not really trying to be the biggest. Just wanting to reach out there and touch someone. :-)

[@1OFGODSOWN]

Dosy meters SUCK or Dosey as you spell it. LOL No matter how you spell it they SUCK.I was also wondering what HOKED up is? LOL

[@Mister22x2]

They don't really suck. They are certainly not Bird 43 caliber or quality but they are good for in line monitoring as long as you aren't doing huge watts. I run mine mainly for the AM Monitor Function (Headphone Jack) and to be honest, both of my Bird 43's read the same as the Dosy 4001P on RMS. Peak watts are a bit higher on the Dosy. The Astatic and Paradynamics meter really SUCK! LOL. Ya! Dosy! I had a couple of typo's in that last message. Typing while on the job. LOL :-O

[@1OFGODSOWN]

Sure they do.Why not make a video showing the BIRD vs the Dosy on Peak readings? A Dosy has No Peak Circuit in it so it just jumps all over the place & some of us know what you said is total BS when the Truth would have been much better.

[@262NagantRadios]

Thank you & welcome to the world of antenna tinkering as I call it. Guess I call it tinkering because I've done some from scratch home brews, modified factory made, & just assembled factory made like this one. It can be a lot of fun but aggravating and time consuming as well. Don't ever let the last two deter you though. Patience, study, and experimenting are IMHO the keys to doing your own antennas.Don't be afraid to try things people say won't work either.This hobby is not an exact science.73

[@mikeyo357]

Hey how's it going I just got a Maco 104c and I can't get my measurements right on my elements ,if you could please tell me your measurements for the elements I'm getting 3.0 swr everything, or explain to me how you spaced out your elements ,any help I would appreciate, been fighting it for 2 days now.thank you sir 803 Turbo waving and asking for help!

[@keystonecountryboy]

The last video uploaded to this channel was 8 years ago is he still around?

[@justdoingit.43]

When you seal your slip joints up like that do you not have a problem with condensation inside and not drying out? I'm getting ready to build a maco comet and I have a maco v58 right now and I'm considering sealing up all the slip joints with shrink tube. So I was just wondering if condensation inside the elements may be an issue.

[@262NagantRadios]

The M104 is not drastically better than the M103 IMHO. Built the M103 for my friend & neighbor. He still uses it & it performs as well as my M104. The manuals for the Maco antennas are on their website for download. The gamma mounts on the bottom, counterpoise, side. I don't have any experience with baluns but I'm familiar with them. I'm sure you could make a balun for a Maco and feed it that way. Done right it's likely more efficient than the gamma as well. 73's Paul

[@262NagantRadios]

You didn't pay attention to the part were I explained what you see is not exactly how I did it. Yes I used a level for each element and the boom was clamped tight to the stands so it couldn't move, mentioned in the video as well. All is shown here is the end result after some of the setup (clamps and such) were removed.

[@262NagantRadios]

The stacking/cophasing I'm familiar with. Bad thing about it is I believe you looses half your band width stacked? Never tried it myself but that's my understanding. Other down side to stacking is the wind load & all that stopping inertia of two arrays. No problem if the rotor being used can handle it. I must admit I'm ignorant when it comes to the effects of replacing gammas with baluns. I have very little experience with baluns. Your idea is interesting for sure. 73's Paul

[@M70ACARRY]

Steel masts don't cause as much problems as they do to 3 elements. 3 elements suffer the most.

[@262NagantRadios]

I'm familiar with that ARRL publication but have never purchased one. I should find me a used ARRL compendium sometime. I'm to cheap to purchase the newest edition. LOL 73's Paul

[@mikehannahs]

Can I mount a maco m103 horizontal on a steel mast and get it tuned just fine to be OK? I won't switch it vertical I'll just use it horizontal, I will upgrade to an M105 later on down the road right now I'm looking to upgrade from my Andron 99 and I do not have the space for a M105 yet

[@williamedwards5441]

what is the total length of each element fully assembled

[@robertdixon6536]

Which of the following statements is true? Lengthening capacitor rod improves SWR on 40. Shortening capacitor rod Improves SWR on 40.

[@KnuckleHead-t4x]

not sure but instead of a steel mast what about a fiberglass mast instead?

[@1OFGODSOWN]

Fiberglass mast would not hold up to the wind load & sun destroys them quickly.

[@BestBoardsDR]

Looking great Paul ! We need to get on track for a contact...youre on my most wanted list ! How long did the assembly take ? All the Best ...John (Island 0860)

[@TheZeke1974]

A friend of mine bought a m 103 and it took us 3 hours to decipher the horrible instructions. As far as the steel mast there is no real alternative. It just something u have to put up with.. People have done it for years.....

[@donhooker8299]

I’m looking for specs on maco m104 Beams Please somebody help me

[@lllJuanlllCarloslll]

I acquired a Maco 104 these days. When I watch this video several times I see that you made several mistakes putting that antenna together. The first is to use that silicone paste. This antenna is one that fits in 1/8 inch measurements and it would be difficult to make some small change after that silicone dries. There is no need for so much glue, the tube ties are made of very strong aluminum for performance. The second mistake I notice is in the gamma match. I see that it was adjusted. There is no need to adjust it since it is configured to obtain the lowest SWR in 11 meters. If you are correcting the SWR when the antenna is on the ground or has many obstacles it will give you a high SWR. Once that antenna is in the air mounted your SWR will be 1.1 on channel 19. Third mistake I see is the distribution of the elements. Because this antenna has a boom of three pieces should leave 3.5 inches at the ends of each end, so that you have no conflict between an element and the union of the boom. I recommend following the instructions to the letter so that SWR is 1.1 like mine. Use RG-8 cable at 100 feet. Thanks for making this video, it helped me a lot to plan the installation of my antenna.

[@malikmorganmm]

Hey Juan do you have the measurements of each element and spacing?

[@1OFGODSOWN]

Almost forgot.Do you still do the commercials saying,Motel 6 We'll leave the light on for you? LOL

[@j0llyroger889]

Nice Antenna.

[@gabedorpinghaus629]

Are you still on the air and running the beam?

[@rasheven777]

I mean what kind of what kind of math do you use if not a steel Mast I mean what it would you use a PVC mask that don't sound like a too good of a deal I don't understand

[@gabedorpinghaus629]

Are you still running the beams?

[@MrMjsmith626]

Excellent video I like it.

[@chopshop254]

Getting back into cb from being on the ham bands for a while. I have a M103 in the shead but thinking about getting a m104, I have a aluminum mast. What is your opinion about the m104 vs a 103 I herd you said you experimented one. Also when you mount it do you put the gamma on the top or bottom elements? Im not used to gammas etc. I build antennas and make them with baluns or use ladder line and a tuner on ham. ETC. Any input or advise or should I even purchase one?

[@1OFGODSOWN]

A HERD is a bunch of animals like deer.HEARD is something you do with your ears. LOL

[@262NagantRadios]

Thank you. 73's Paul

[@thetriple555]

You should never put the black caps on the ends take that crap off 😂 that's how water gets trapped inside and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.Ive had all kinds of beams including laser 500,lightning 6 ,5 element cushcraft,6 element maco,shooting stars.. well you get the idea we been taking the caps off all of them since the early 80s we never use those caps anyone that knows this doesn't either take care 73s

[@L.o.u.i.s..]

The instructions gives me a headache.

[@1OFGODSOWN]

The V-Quad is a POS & a waste of money.I gave one away it sucked so badly.