The Ultimate CB / 11m Antenna? 

When I was a young C.B.er, the Star Duster was my antenna. This antenna served me well.

I'm been studying and working on 10 and 11 meter antennas for 45 years. Some antenna theory has actually changed in those years. The Starduster was sold as a half wave. The coaxial feed line goes inside the mast pipe, for additional shielding / isolation from the antenna. The downside is the radiator is not grounded. The small radials are on the center of the quarter wave radiator. Some speculate that it is to increase frequency range, while some believe it is to raise the high current point on the antenna to reduce ground loss and increase gain. In a similar, "modified quarter wave" the radials are angled down to a point to increase the impedance to 50 ohms. The Starduster radials are angled down even more and possibly the small center radiator radials somehow decrease the impedance to match the feed line with the large radials angled so far down. The Starduster antenna design does work really well, especially considering its smallish size.

You have made my day. Callum this is something I've always wanted you to build as I would to get rid of my silver rod plus I would like something homemade myself. I will definitely buy you a beer and buy the parts to construct this.

Since the CB service was created I'll wager that more money has been spent on this slice of the spectrum than any other. The pre-1970 magazines always had build-it-yourself projects in them.

Antron A-99 with the 5/8 wave "power up" top section - add the ground plane kit, - best ever 10/11m I've ever used - had a great qso with Bob McLeod in the Falklands only using 10w on 10m using it.

I had one of those Starduster Ground planes from the 70's and I loved it! Had it at 40' on a pushup pole and we used it all over our FARM.

I have had the m400 up before worked great it was at 45 feet replaced it with the 2016 5/8 on 10 meter and turns out it's all most a perfect match on 20 meter with about 1.6 swr talk all over the world on it from south east US it is amazing how well it works

Thank you so much for this info. I have a business frequency in the 11 meter band in the US and my bass station and Mobil station experienced exactly what you and your friend did, with the drop off. I was scratching my head trying to figure it out. Thanks!

Would be great to see the build of the ‘Star-Commander’ really interesting not that my neighbours will be too happy with a 18m pole in my garden … I just about get away with a Cobweb above the lawn but only if I hang washing on it 👍😂… thank you for sharing your knowledge ⭐️

There is a difference. Some of the big electrical 5/8 mobile antennas like the Sirio don't do as well for local contacts as simpler cheaper antennas. Seems to be the angle of radiation that's the issue. I think that three pointed thing in the middle of that aerial would increase the bandwidth a bit. You could try it with, and without, and see if it makes any difference. If you thicken an element it tends to give better bandwidth (at VHF anyway, I made dipoles out of aluminium foil to test this once).

When I was first licensed, my dad had one of the Starduster antennas that he used on CB. I borrowed it from him and found it worked great on 10 as well as good enough to get me on the air on 2 meters. With a tuner, it was also effective on 15. WD5DHK Ray

Interesting Callum, I would love to see what this looks like built and how it performs. I'm over in the state, been in to ham for quite some time and there's some growing interest in CB again in my area, so I bought a radio and will be looking to put up an antenna soon. Thanks!!

Excelent. I would love to see a rebirth of CB in the states. Maybe this antenna would be the boost CB needs. A duel band CB / 10m or would probubly be a good seller as you could get both Amature radio and CB band sales.

as i just got back into cb i used a 108 aluminum element for center, then used 3 108 wires for lower elements adding string to use as guidewires also. was exact same look as starduster. worked great! but last week i bought a 5/8 groundplane and new antenna was much better. the difference in 9 foot main element and 22 foot main element was substantial.

Those pieces at the top are a capacitance hat. Its actually quite useful for antennas at this length. Remember sir, a proper gentleman is never fully dressed without his hat. Do I fancy you building it? Of course, thats always great fun. Of course I would love to see you drag an old CB out and see what it does on 27.385. I think that would be an absolute hoot.

Built one and used it for 15 years + seemed better with 4 radials and a slight difference on the feed point The factory one was fed through the bracket that retains the radials I fed mine on the side and 16M above ground wit consistant good results😁 Would love to see you model the omni quad Built one for 2M and frankly i am impressed with the results so far Love the content Thank you for the excellent videos keep them coming👍

Ive been using a homebuilt CB antenna for the last 35+ years. I have no interest in DXing but I happily talk to the locals (15-20 miles away) without issue. Its a centre fed dipole. A length of 2.5 twin & earth wire 18ft long left over from the house rewire. Split the wire from its gray insulation. The wire is wound onto 2, 10ft pieces of PVC pipe like 2 firesticks. So its 18ft driver and 18ft ground plane in a short package. I did have a silver rod at one point... It snapped at the coil during a moderate wind, hence I built my own at the ripe old age of 12 years old

I "/think/" that little "thingy" near the top of the antenna might have been an attempt at a "capacitance hat" as I've seen a similar "thingy" on a Hustler 6 BTV multiband vertical ground plane that I had years ago. Ch. 38 LSB and vicinity can be a lot of fun - sometimes 🤣🤣🤣. Slightly seriously you might hear me there using the call of sorts "330 (reflecting one of the telephone area codes), Akron, Ohio, *Rubber City*"! KD8EFQ/73! Another good video Callum!

I would like to see you make this Callum and see how it performs , My mate had a original Starduster back in the naughty 40 days of AM and used to get out well ,

This design resembles the Civil Defense antennas designed by K1GOI at MIT Lincoln Labs in the late 1950's. These 6m and 10m 'starduster' like antennas could be found on most schools and fire stations up thru the 1990's

Thanks for doubling my workload, because now I'll have to build one for 10/11 and one for 6.😱 Since Monday I've been working USB 10M on a new Anytone AT5555 PLUS/N feeding a homebrew T2LT/end fed RG58 coax dipole with 16 turn air choke hung in the redwood outside my bedroom window. I've made 30+ contacts 1,500-2800+ miles. Most signal reports 5/7-5/9; some 5/4-5/5. I'm gut hooked now and 10 is opening. This weekend with Winter Field Day working through the pileups gave me a lot of confidence in this trucker's rig that's my base and portable. Anytone had a long time to improve this model, but the "N" makes it worth using. The NR circuit they added to the V3 simply makes the difference in being able to listen without fatigue. But no, it's not one of the big three; then again it was only $200 with a $9 antenna. I learn from your videos more than hundreds of others, thanks mate. Charlie KN6VYP

Nice work on this, Callum. I have a Solarcon A-99 and if there was only ONE antenna I could have for 10, 12, and 15 meters, believe it or not, it is the Solarcon. It gives around a 1.5:1 SWR on all three of those bands. Granted....it uses the coax as a counterpoise....but it does a bang-up job. I frequently get signal reports on FT8 here in Florida that is +1, 2, 5, or 10 DB over S9. Many hams are very biased against these kind of antennas because they are marketed as CB antennas...but who cares what they call them? As long as they work. 73 de Scott, W1AL

The original version of this antenna was called the Thunderpole. I think this was how the company of that name got started. The reason it came about was because of the legal restrictions on CB base antennas at the time. The maximum radiating element length was 1.5m so half wave verticals weren't allowed. The Thunderpole had a 1.5m base loaded top section. This type of vertical dipole arrangement was about as good as you could get if you were staying within the law. Although I had a neighbour with a half wave vertical that had a fake loading coil 1.5m from the top and the length below that disguised as a support pole. And back in those days you had to switch to low power if you used an outside antenna.

Look at the 1985 Radio Shack catalog on page 73. The Crossbow 21-968 1/4 wave antenna worked great. I still have it in my barn.

Hello Callum, many years ago I "worked" many people worldwide on the 11metre band. From Belgium to Canada, the USA, Brazil, Australia, Europe but mostly Italians 🙄 And when there was much fog many English on their islands. (On FM) Fan of your vlog😉

That very antenna right there is what I am using here at my location. She will handle quiet a lot of power too! She works really well for me.

I had a Wilson 5/8 wave vertical on a tripod on top of my roof. It was a fantastic antenna. I remember seeing a lot of stardusters too. KQ4RRO

Hello DX Commander! This is Steve, Kb3hay from Pennsylvania in the United States. I had a Starduster and used it for 10 meters and it was a very incredible Antenna! I say build this one and I hopefully will be able to have a QSO with if the band is open. First time commenting on your channel and long time subscriber. Cheers! Great channel!

As a teenager around 1977, I had the original Starduster by Antenna Specialists and it worked fantastic. It stayed up for many years after I moved out and became a young man in my 30's before my parents took it down form their home. The only other Antenna that I used back in the 1980s in the no man's land between 10 & 11 meters was the The infamous Hy-Gain Super Penetrator 500. That antenna was awesome for dx. I recall a huge club in the UK that called themselves The Jolly Rodgers Club. Those days were awesome.

I started my radio endeavor with cb radio in the 90s and it has led me to ham radio but back in the day the best vertical antenna was a maco 5/8 wave made a lot of distant contacts with them 73 your friend Kd9dle

Back in the day 80's / 90's my best contacts were using a Wilson Trucker on the roof of my Sherpa van using a little 25w amp on my Major 555 radio . Locals with big beams and high power linear's didn't like it when i'd be talking to Mr Johnson in Jamaica and they couldn't get through - massive ground plain of the van roof was all i needed lol . Then i grew up and got my M6 and it got weird - FT101e runnuing sub 5w of power into a MFJ matcher and out to a std 21ft aluminium silver rod cb antenna = 1:1 swr on 20 / 40 / 80 meters and i was talking all over the world on 2 to 5w lol . Ok the big boys were wiping me out with their kw's of power as i sat there shouting UK QRP station , but eventually i'd get through and the remarks when i told them what i was running were funny ... Sometimes the illogical actually works quite well ...

The things at the top are supposed to be a capacitance hat. It's a quarter wave with steeply angled radials. The design is in an old version of the ARRL. It's not a dipole since "di" means two and it has four elements.

Reminds my of the old 'Thunderpole' from back in the 80's

Hi a GREAT ant I use to run American antenna M-400 on a mast of 72 ft and altetude of +/- 4200 ft and could normaly run 20-250 miles and work the world with it can say must be 1 of the best I ever had, Thank you, Pieter

Hello callum, best one I've used is a forward gainer. 2 element horizontal dipole on rotator. Wow what an aerial. Vertical wise a home brew gain master coming out 3m above a 100FT tree. Thanks for sharing cheers

I love the Gmax, by Grazioli Antenne! The best ever commercially today 🤩

I had Starduster antennas on my towers in the early 1980s. They were excellent performers, and extremely popular at the time.

I think you should build this one. I haven't done CB in many years but the antenna is interesting from a build perspective. Have you ever considered a line of VHF/UHF antennas for sale along side the DX Commanders? Jack K5FIT

Can't believe I've missed this one, for some reason my subscription wasn't there. I believe they were called a thunderpole originally. If I remember correctly those little legs were to help with capacitance 🤷🏻‍♂️

Much interest, please build it!

Back in my day we called them a Thunderpole.

LOL..."It means you can charge more." Best line ever.

If you build it, they will come!! Yes Cal, I would love to see this build. Oh and all the nails should have a bit of varnish on them :)

love to see one working Callum, another enjoyable video your head is full of ideas. keep up the good work.

Hey Cal back in my CB days that antenna really surprised me and a lot of my CB Buds. I always had Contacts asking me what antenna I was using because my voice clarity was great

we had this antenna back in the 80's when i was a kid, a simple fiberglas construction with no bracing and no smaal antennas at the top, and i think a 15 w radio for a while, dont remember the brand but a big metal box that loocked like wood with a v shaped front , it for sure knocked out the tv while talking. it was a pretty common setup, as theese radios where used in fishing boats until the VHF came along. this antenna may even still exist at my parents house somwhere. how does a cb compare in range to a VHF no skip added.

I have the old astro plane antenna that was shown with the internet pictures of the starduster. Just waiting to get it put up along with my OCF 10-40 meter dipole.

Interesting, maybe one day you could explain how the Avanti Sigma 4 worked for CB radio, an interesting design I never understood

A 10m might sell in the US. Lower part of 10 in the US Novices and Techs have a small sliver for CW and phone

I’ve had best results with half wave antennas on 11 mtrs , and the cheap to construct T2LT, ( strapped to a fibreglass,Fishing Pole ) , works as good as any other half wave , I’ve ever tried , haven’t tried every half wave , but most , cheers Shane

took my starduster apart and put back together up top of a 65' pine tree. stuck 15 foot out of top. live in a great location *(very high area) I was on 300'ish watts and was a beast. (back in the 90's)

I mounted one on a 18m pole, and it worked tremendously well, Call. I did use the elements as my guy wires. That's what I did before I installed my 2E cubical quad. 73's de ON70FF, Kurt

now you are taking me back you are right again in pricing a great way of getting more stick cb on it

I was a RTO (radio telephone operator) in 3rd Ranger Battalion back in the 90's when my unit went to Jungle Warfare School in Pamama. As part of the training, I built a military field expedient jungle antenna called a 29er2 jungle antenna. I had a pocket fisherman that I carried in my ruck and would use it to throw a washer over a high tree branch in the jungle canopy. Coms are a big challenge in the jungle and was able to make coms with the HQ about 7 clicks (km) away. We were of course in the military bands in the 10 m range. 30s MHz. We were taught to get three equal size bamboo or sticks. We measured them by spreading our arms out and estimating that distance. Then we used speaker wire and 550 paracord to make the radial wires and the radiated wire. Those were all measured the same way from hand to hand outstretched from each other like wingspan. We used additional speaker wire to connect the main beam and the radials to the radio. Anyway, this is basically the same thing as the military's field expedient 29er2 jungle antenna that was used in Vietnam. I have been planning to make two versions for 20m and 40 m bands. I think you would have to make the radials and main beam 15 feet and 30 feet. Do you have any idea whether or not this would work?

With this design he lateral lobes overlap nicely and aim solid at a low angle, without warming clouds.

Build it Callum and let’s see the results,looking forward to the next instalment 👍

The little radial on the driven element is to lower the feedpoint impedance.. Likely to broadband the matching on this sort of twig.. It may help with ground loss.. Cap hats are better on the top in my experience..

I remember a lady back in the 1970-1980”s she was in her late 70”s talked on Cb with a star duster at 33 feet and her. Radio was a cobra 142 and amp was a nitro 300 I lived 2 miles from her she was just strong as hell but if you drove 10 miles or 30 miles away she was always 5-9 no matter time or day nobody out talked that set up the starduster was a kick ass talker 😃

I use CB (11 meters) for two totally different purposes. I have AM only CBs in my car and truck, with fairly small mobile antennas, running about 35-40 watts. These are for short distance local line of sight communication only. In the U.S., where I am, almost nobody has a CB in their personal vehicle. BUT. Almost ALL truck drivers do. So if you are driving on the highway, you will always be within range of someone you can communicate with very clearly. But just because they can hear you (if their radio is on) that doesn't mean they will talk to you. You have to be able to speak their language. Driving a truck is a very lonely job, and truck drivers actually like to have someone to talk to, IF it is the RIGHT someone. I just happen to be one of those types. I have an 11 meter SSB setup at home, with some extra channels, running 100-200 watts. That's clean RF, NOT splatter. I'm using my own homemade tube amp. I also have a whopper of an antenna in the back yard. I built it, but I have to admit I didn't design it. I did exactly what you are talking about. I copied the design from the '70s. It's a copy of what was called a Moonraker IV back in the day. It's a 4 element cubical quad beam, and it's so big and heavy that I had to use a Rohn tower designed for amateur radio antennas to put it up. I use it with a rotator. I have made contacts all over the world with this setup, though I seem to do better with Asia and the South Pacific, especially Australia and New Zealand. Oh, by the way, that little thing on top of most older three element ground planes is called a "top hat". Its usefulness is debatable. It slightly changes the antennas impedance, which may or may not increase its bandwidth, depending on a lot of other variables. It can also increase the antennas capacitance, but again that depends on a lot of other things. Way back in the mid '70s, I had a 5/8 wave ground plane that had a top hat. It worked very well, but whether the top hat had anything to do with its performance is unknown. It had no measurable SWR across the entire 11 meter band. I used it on AM only. I didn't have an SSB radio back then.

You always have great videos sir! I use a high gain 34' J-pole tuned to 27mhz made from 1/2'' copper tubing hanging from rope inside a tree and i can work anywhere i want from 5 to 100 watts! I have talked over 50 miles away on 2 watts as a test base to base no BS!

Build it I love to try that out

Build it, the DX will come!

I run Hy gain SPT-500 for the 11 meter band. Nothing like a good ole 5/8 wave ground plane☑️ 73

The spiky bits form a capacity hat, I did build a clone many years ago and it did seem to have amazing useable bandwidth. I bet this will work well on a Nebula pole, might be rude not to make a version for 20m. Go for it! edit.. stick with 10m

Build it !!!!! Loved these antennas back in the day

Thanks for this, I have found it interesting. Personally though I'm more interested in how an aerial would perform at roof height (where most of us mortals would place it). Before anyone shouts at me I do realise that height really does matter but I am a council estate dwelling realist! Please keep the vids coming DXC - I really find them educational AND entertaining!!

Thank you, Calum. I do learn so much.

I've been running a MACO 5000 5/8 on the main shack and a 1/2 wave Tram 1498 on the main house. The biggest difference I've seen between the two seems to be the fact the MACO has less bandwith, and only occasionally better performance. Both do great in local LOS testing, both have made South America on skywave with raving reports with 200 watts, 8,000+ miles out. I think your point is very good. As long as you aren't using a compromise antenna, they will all work well. Height, terrain, nearby objects, far field, can all have more impact than actual antenna choice per se. The inferiority of my 108" whip on my big 20 foot long Lincoln car, and the poorer performance of my Hustler BTV6 on 10 meters, is better explained by the difference in height to my bigger antennas, more than the 1/4 wave vs. 1/2 wave vs. 5/8th wave argument.

Ohhhhh when is the video coming I keep checking can't wait to see how you make this

The best antenna I have ever built for local work on CB was a J Pole. Although, I have built many Quarter Wave Droopys, and they have their advantages. I friend of mine 50km away has a 5/8 gp and a quarter wave. There is a lot of terrain between us, up to 1000m. When he switches to his quarter wave, he jumps up as much as 2 S points (by my cb base meter) compared to the 5/8. This I believe because of the higher take of point, the 5/8 runs into the terrain. This can also be advantageous for skip, 'drop zones', if you will.

Hi Cal always good videos! If you have time and want to play with a 10 mtr antenna, build a Sterba curtain. I made one at my cabin in northern Michigan while on vacation.. this was a few years ago when the sunspot cycle had ebbed tonite lowest point and I had 10 mtrs come alive. Hope to see you in the morning on RU-vid...73 W8RRI

For me, the Avanti Astro-plane was the Ultimate CB vertical antenna. I couldn't afford one initially and still am using the over 40 years old Hy-gain Penetrator 5/8 wave. I eventually had a Moonraker 6 setup. But a storm took it years ago. Been a Ham for a while, but still like to fool with 11m too.

The old AS Star Dusters in the 1970's where great ! The Sirio M-400 is thin, weak.

love to try that for my president lincon

I get it got it good. Bravo DXCommander! Start with quality coax, tweek your SWR's

I love my A99 and Gain Master antennas

I've built these for years from wire for 2 - 40m. They have 2 radials or 3 if I've enough wire and you don't need them high. 1/8 of a wave agl for feed point works. I would take Rudy Severns advice and pop a common mode choke at feed point.

Long time ago I had a good antenna, similar but different it was called an Astro Plane . All aluminum and worked great talk skip from the US, Louisiana, to Europe and UK and Caribbean plus both US & Canadian coasts.

Yes Callum , build it lol , would be good to see one built and tried in real world conditions

I still have a star duster just haven't put it up yet

An interest experiment Callum. Most of the 11m antennas on the market are 5/8 wave so it will be interesting to see how this performs. It does have a hight advantage though. Looking forward to the next video on this.

Super mag full wave ground plane did us very well for skip back in the 70's

Thanks for the info. Very educational. Hope to here you on skip in Alabama.

The object in the driven element is there to very slightly lower the radiation (take off) angle. It would also have a slight capacity hat effect, but not much, due to its size and placement.

So, a couple things; 1.) I see it provides 3.85dB gain Isotropic 7:33 That's about 2.15dB less with reference to ½ wave dipole, however this *_IS_* a ½ wave dipole - so how is it getting 1.7dB gain over itself? 2.) It needs a small hairpin (6.5" x 1"?) across the feed point to neutralize/bleed-off static electricity.

I would love to see you build cb antenna and would buy the one you say is the big cahoona

Yes! We fancy you to build it!!

Would love to see this happening! Another Version for 15m would be interesting too!

Vector 4000 for the win. Over a sirio 27 gpe5/8 wave I found the vector at the same height to the base give or take a foot it was 2 s point better than the gpe locally and skip is harder to quantify but it sure feels easier to get those distant contacts especially the ones I had trouble with before. USA is my bad spot.

The angle between the radiator and reflectors is 158° Amazon sells the antennas still for $93.-

best antenna you can make is 2 firesticks on a dipole i get all around the world on it two 7ft firesticks doit your love it.

My experiments concluded 1.Least ground affect(reflections below the antenna) around 18metres min height ,ground radials become more effective and radiation angle lowers. 2.Isolate antenna from mast ,earth mast via copper stake (frame earth ground) Antenna sits at isolated. Add a fully isolated 1:1 ground isolator transformer using BN43 mix binocular ferrite block (2t:2t) This will isolated DC radio ground on coax to antenna (only required on 1/4wVe type antenna) Provide a DC short circuit to antenna,improving static protection. The radios DC negative ground from SO239 to ground isolation unit is now fully protected. You should now have Earth ground Radios ground Totally isolated to prevent grounding out your SMP PSU , when it can cause all manner of RFI EMI issue ,often blamed! SMP psu do not like (being a balanced DC output) the DC negative being grounded to earth ground . Optionally I found using double shieldef with copper foil outer of coaxial feeder help reduce "induced no use" getting into RF feeder cable. Above tests were to optimise line of sight (LOS) On VHF lowband 25-88mhz Using a similar 1/4wave ground plane antenna. Dxing skywave is a slightly different approach. Great video! Your suggest height in video of 18m ,Yes will give you outanding LOS operations!😁 Rob P

Hey cal 😜. What about a half wave over five eight over five eight…… ultimately would have to be the best Dx vertical around … cheers from 🇦🇺

The Starduster if I remember was also used a lot in Lofts and on Bedroom floors, for the people who were not allowed an external aerial by the landlord, I remember quite a few who had them outside were accused of using a burner. Its like the difference between a Avanti Sigma 4 & Sigma 2, Personally I always favoured the Sigma 2 because of the Radials, where as the Sigma 4 was more of a J Pole, not that J Poles dont work well, I use one now on 11m band even now.

Back in the '80's in Ohio Stardusters were everywhere. It was one of the cheaper ground planes one could put up. I avoided them because thunderstorms could (and did) wipe the radials right off of them, going to an Antron 99 instead. Most CB'ers in the States went to yagis, mine was a four element with two rotors to flip it over to horizontal polarization if needed. Back then I didn't know about take-off angles. I can see how a standard 1/4 wave ground plane could be useful for that.

Your the only guy that makes the subject of Antennas excellent

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is about 4 degrees now. If I erect a vertical dipole on the side of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, will that lower the take off angle of the main lobe in the direction of the lean 4 degrees?

¼ ground plane antenna with 4 radials bend down at a 45degree angle.

Very interested.

Did you build one of these Stardusters in a video? If so, can you share the link?