Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Imax2000 destruction

The Imax2000 is originally a fiberglass CB antenna which is used by many radioamateurs on HF worldwide. The original Imax2000 can be used from 17-10m with a tuner. Find more info on: 

https://radioaficion.com/cms/solarcon-i-max-2000/

http://cbradiomagazine.com/the-imax-2000-exposed/

The Imax2000 is eventually replaced by the max2000 which is shortened and only for the 10m band. I used a defective Imax2000 as a holder for a copperwire covered by coppertape which was fed with a CG3000 autotuner for a few years. Till a couple of weeks ago it did finally break during a storm. I decided to dismantle the antenna to get rid of it. I really don't know how they did dismantle the matching coil without breaking it. I found it impossible. If this antenna breaks it is not repairable from my point of view. But if you look at the pictures on the sites from the links above there has to be a way to dismantle things in one piece. Of course mine was years old, everything was corroded and there was water inside the bottom of the antenna. Here are some pictures I took during the process:








I especially had problems removing the PL connector at the bottom due to corrosion. Well, at least I had some fun taking it apart to see what is in it. The last picture is not a pretty sight. Everything went into the garbage after all...even the PL connector was damaged and could not be used again.

2 comments:

Paul Stam PAØK said...

Hallo Bas, en zo gaat uiteindelijk alles kapot, het zal ook wel te maken hebben met de zout in de lucht zoals wij aan de kust wonen. 73 Paul

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hallo Paul, deze Imax2000 was al kapot toen ik hem kreeg. Maar inderdaad, dit soort antennes lijkt stevig maar het valt erg tegen. Het kan hier ook erg waaien. En omdat het hier allemaal vlak is met weinig windbrekers zoals bomen en huizen komt het vaak extra hard aan. 73, Bas