Up Your Short Wave Radio Game With This Giant Discone! 

How about a series ... kinda like the ... " idiots guide to getting ham independant." Basically the starter packet for complete newbies , to simple equipment, set up, price targets, best recommendations. Thanks.

I'm just laughing at this video title because when I hear it all I can think of is up your shortwave radio, buddy! With a magic middle finger salute! Lol!

I had their older HF discone up on the roof for the last 5 years. Nice to see they have sprung for some locking nuts on this model, the old one didn't have them and the lower radials unscrewed themselves pretty sharpish. I'm in the market for a new one now anyway since the HF hat on it was blown loose in the recent batch of storms. Not sure I'll go for a discone again though since their wind loading isn't the best

Thanks for another informative video on the discone antenna, Lewis! The tuner is very interesting - may have to look into that one. Really enjoy your channel for all the interesting narrative content and the excellent photos and videography. Looking forward to more!

Nice work on this video, Lewis. This antenna looks like it would be a good choice to put in my RV for mobile/portable use. Thanks!

Thanks for the Excellent Review, looks like the Antenna is Back in Stock, appreciate your detail analysis on this product, i have one on the way, it has convinced me.

Wish they made a scanner antenna like that. Looks really professional...

Thank you for the good instructional video.

People who don’t have space for a wire antenna most likely live in a densely populated area. This means a lot of man made electrical noise from power supplies, computers and household appliances. This drives the noice level up to S9 and often above making it unable to hear anything! You might want to demonstrate and test some Magnetic loop antenna’s on the channel. These are less sensitive for noise and you can turn them o optimize reception.

It was through your original Moonraker discone video that I discovered your channel!

Ok we need to have an HF chat across the pond on that antenna! All the best my friend!

Thanks RM. Nice Video. Take Care and radio On****

Thank you for this. Might look into one for my scanner I use once a month or so. Thinking put it in my attic. I can wire it to my handheld scanner and use my Bluetooth mini jack adaptor and an ear bud. Then I can have one less excuse to try and listen to shortwave someday

Thank you for this video

Great antenna 👍 I was listening to a very strong UK amateur today G3POT or G3VOT - I didn’t quite get his call sign talking to a George a farmer on the 60m band. He was blasting through to Northern Finland here. Shame I’m struggling to get my licence due to the language barrier….. I’m trying!

Good stuff.

Thanks Lewis

Great topic lewis

I use websdr for most of my hf monitoring but I also use a physical radio as well for am reception. I use mostly the whip antenna but I sometimes use a long wire connected to the tip via a pop can tab I affixed to the wire using just electrical tape and it seems to work fairly well for the design that I chose. I even use to do with tv antennas minus the pop can tab back in the analog days just so I could watch the brewers games out of Milwaukee Wisconsin via TMJ4 while living in South Beloit. On how I miss doing that. Digital tv is nowhere as easy to do that like analog. Lol.

Yes, I have the ATM-100 tuner which I use it with my FT-818ND. I can use it with a micro 50 watt amp as a portable. The Moonraker multiband discone reminds me of a Maldol multiband HF antenna, without the downward elements of the discone, and an MFJ antenna for multiple bands with a connector using ham stick type elements. 73 de W2CH Ray, New Hampshire. 😊

Nice, I never knew of any discone that had any gain.👍

Nice twig tho lots of potentials to go wrong.. for sure in the lopht imho and past experience with similar set up Great channel

I have that antenna, its actually another antenna split in half, MFJ-2389

would recommend a W6LVP loop antenna - made in the US....awesome antenna

Thanks!

Forgive the obtuse nature of this comment, (relative noob to the whole scene.) but i was surprised at just how small & portable this is. It looked bigger in the, thumbnail. 🤨 Informative post, as usual. Gratitude Lewis. 👍

😃I have been using the Sirio SD 1300 U, RX disco antenna for years: 25-1300 MHz, also used in HF amateur radio bands 40/80 meters as well as in VHF - UHF, then I purchased the Diamond D303, a disappointment or perhaps my expectations they were too high on HF. Ciao

1:12 a gain of 2.1dBi is not over a standard discone! dBi is dB over Isotopic radiator!

If you’re in a big city, it’s going to be tough no matter what, because noise is going to be your biggest issue. A multi band antenna is going to make that even worse. I would recommend something that’s tunable or using a tuner.

It might start off a bit of a death wobble if i screwed it to the helmet box on the back of my Honda 50.

That was great. I haven't herd that antenna on the air yet. would be great for parks on the air . looks like ham sticks put into a hub. I do hear them from time to time. they do DX at times . I am in NY and from UK I usually get long wire or DX commander antenna's coming into NY sometimes S9 at times. best bad for me is 10/12/15 meters NY to UK am gray line skip. and winter months . nice tuner. I have the 7300 with tuner bult in. Moonraker has many nice antenna's . I got one for my scanner. the Uniden BC 125AT . the 125 rubber duck for that scanner . works super . I have herd and talked some CB from NY to England on SSB . early morning for me. 73's

2:17 is the catch. Plus it's flimsy construction and you can only have 4 out of the 5 bands active at anyone time makes this a portable or loft antenna at best. Would be no good up on the roof, unless you've got good access and can take it down in high winds.

Hi good video how much is that antenna you showing in your video my place is only small so I can't have anything to big

I was wondering do you have to screw in all the radials for it to work or can you just use 2 or 3 antenna radials on specific bands

We made one, they work OK but we were trying to get gain, a simple base/mid loaded dipole mobile whip gave us omnidirectional gain desired for the ham bands we needed both fixed and mobile. You can't get near these things once put together; must be like petting a Porcupine and Discones are Not Good in rain or Ice!

Totally off topic but I’m listening to HM01 on 11635.000 rn so it’s started back up again! Idk who else to tell about this haha

4:10 You mention fine-tuning the SWR with the grub screws. Is there any more information on this process? I have the "desktop" version of the Moonraker discone and would love to be less disappointed in it! 😅

I am not convinced that this antenna can be called a discone. Without looking it up I seem to remember the the slope elements should be a quarter wave on the lowest frequency and the horizontal top a tenth of the length of slope elements. This setup should do a frequency coverage of 10:1 these dimensions are from the dark reaches of my brain so could be wrong but the general idea is correct. Manufactures started to diverge from a classic discone when they started sticking whips on top. A true discone can be used for tx but remember your harmonics will be transmitted well too.

newb question I suppose but would this be any good as the antenna on a D-808 radio? Would I need to buy anything else to plug it into the radio?

Great video. Pretty sure I'm a channel member as well though :)

Does thst auto tuner work for receive only?

Hey Lewis. Always love the antenna vids, but I wanted to ask where you find yourself buying them? I have to buy them online, we only have a few local shops with CB rig parts and odds, nothing like this.

1st to comment 😅 will check out vid later m8 am out at mo x😊

Dont know how its called a discone tho the lower freq "grounds" radials would have to be very long [I think its in loaded dipole mode]?

Can i Use a wire dipole 2x 5m ?

220cm diameter will always be 110cm radius 😂

I feel labeling this a discone is marketing gone wrong. A true discone does not rely on loading coils at different frequencies. This is more akin to a nest of dipoles or fan dipole ( quarter waves this case.) A true discone would be flat across 10s of megahertz. One could make a true hf discone but the top hat would be 8.5m wide at a start freq of 7mhz.. have a hight of 10m and have radials of 11m. From arrl handbook calculator

👍👍👍

A long-shot. Anyone on here able to program my WhistlerTRX-1? Stretford area. Struggling. 🤔 Great video.

Something I've wondered is, if someone were to get into ham, is there anything that says you can't make a fake number station? I think it'd be cool to make up codes and see if anyone can pick them up and decipher them!

Any chance of a comparison between this antenna and a magnetic loop?

Interesting

PL239*':]' I remember them from the 80s':]

Looks like a decent antenna. But the failure to label the holes or even include a diagram is a perfect example of everything wrong with ham radio today.

Shows out of stock...

Dont buy the gain figures You're better off with a circular fan dipole made from hamsticks

That's not a discone at all