Review on FireStik IBA 5 Indoor Base Antenna by Tom Childress

This is an attempt to develop a portable or semi-permanent seasonal antenna system for a CB and possibly a 10m ham, using off-the-shelf parts for a RV without an aluminum roof (as a ground plane on older RVs) and without having to erect poles, use tools, drill holes, or use some sort of permanent attachment, which should be better than 3 foot ungrounded solutions. I love this facility. It is portable and works fine after destructive tests. It turned out that the coaxial connector was not making contact with the bottom screw of the hub assembly. The screw head must be tightened enough to pass through the insulator and make contact with the lower washer that connects to the center conductor of the coaxial cable. The top disk in the coax circuit is the ground or shield. I cut open the loop to find out how they connect each of the two conductors when I was able to do a simple continuity test on the side and found that they have two discs or washers in the loop with a white plastic insulator separating them and that the center conductor in contact with the bolt goes through the bottom washer. I like the hardware and reliability of it, but very poor construction from the manufacturer. They fitted the top of the hub with the bracket, but not tightly enough and didn't bother to check integrity. All I really need before cutting the hinge is to tighten the main bolt and nut just enough that the edges of the bottom bolt touch the bottom washer. The insulator threads the head of the bolt so it won't touch if it's not tight enough, so tighten the big bolt and big machine nut and check quickly. SWR was disabled by default. no matter the scale, because the antenna wasn't even connected to the radio, just a coaxial cable. I ended up having a 1.2:1 SWR with a long screw in the bolt through the plastic case and a pair of jumper cables attached to a bolt between the top and bottom hub discs and then both clamps attached to an aluminum gutter, to also use the aluminum camper side panel which really made a difference compared to the lack of wiring. Be sure to install an enclosure as it lowers the SWR when used. This is a 5ft trucker antenna with a radial ground plane that will work just as well as it does on a truck as long as the SWRs are down. I get great reports from truckers. You may be able to add a spring at the bottom to lengthen the antenna so you can use a shorter screw that fits under the cover. I haven't tried this. In other words, you can add some length at the bottom, not just at the top. So this antenna is a success with a little fiddling, and fulfills my application: to be portable, not to drill holes, to have a mast, etc. I can just unscrew the whip, take it off the roof and tuck the connection cables. I don't think sandbags are needed unless there's a hurricane blowing because it's stable enough and heavy enough to stay in place. The only suggestion is to replace the equipment with stainless steel if possible as it will eventually rust in an acidic environment. Rain. I think the manufacturer should at least create a longer whip cap for this system as a professional product that doesn't need to be adjusted for it to work properly. If they corrected this adaptation of this whip commonly used on trucks to have a more finished product and also made sure that when something was assembled it was checked for correct connection at the factory they would sell a lot more of it because they were on the right track with it, but only failed somewhat in the end, causing some confusion, doubt and headaches for some buyers of this fine product.