Sirio 145 Magnetic Mount Antenna

Reviewed By: Steve N

Review Date: 11/02/03

The last 6 months (since I put a rig in the car) I’ve been using a small Moonraker mag-mount antenna.   Commuting from Bristol to Portishead on a daily basis, it’s been great keeping in touch with the morning net on channel 10, and again with other local breakers during the journey back late afternoon.    However, North Bristol to Portishead is only about 7 miles – and we’d had difficulty maintaining contact past the 5 mile mark.    This is partly due to a hill located directly between the two locations – and probably in part due to the tiny Moonraker antenna.

 Replacing the Moonraker with the Sirio 145 presented some initial problems.   Firstly, the supplied cable is slightly shorter than that supplied with the Moonraker, and hence the coax had to bre re-routed to keep things tidy.   Secondly, adjustment of the SWR required more than simply adjusting the length.   The whip turned out to be about about 3cm too long – requiring several trips indoors, each time trimming off 5mm.   Incidentally – I couldn’t cut this with standard wire cutters, so had to resort to a small hobby drill with cutting disc attachment!

 Anyway – 15 minutes later and I had a perfect SWR – the meter wasn’t even twitching.    Shouting for a radio check, a breaker who could never hear me before (Mike Barbarian) now reported a full +30!    This must have been a 5 mile trip at least – plus he’s on the wrong side of a hill!    I was especially impressed – as he was only hitting me at a 7…

 Driving around the local area, I found everyone I could hear – I could now talk back to.   This being a major improvement over the Moonraker!

 Anyway – come Monday morning, I have good reports from the local net during the journey to Portishead – even when traveling down the hill on the M5 (a known black spot).    I reach my destination in Portishead high street – and I’m still talking to North Bristol without any problems.    Signal reports each way are around the 5 pound mark.

 I’m still very impressed with its performance.     It also seems to be built very well – with a strong magnet and a spring-loaded top half to reduce the overall strain when traveling at speeds.     I don’t have any complaints – apart from perhaps the physical size, which is going to be a nightmare when I need to use a carpark!   However, performance easily outweighs this … and currently I’d have to give this antenna a full 10/10.

I’m sure there’s other better performing antennas out there – but for the money, in my opinion – you really can’t beat the Sirio 145.