Around 1992, I was literally given a Telrex Monarch Yagi.
It was the largest Multi-Band Yagi that Telrex made 10 years earlier in
1982, when it was originally purchased
for a whopping $2200 by retired marine colonel Ralph Crossman K6HAV ( SK )
( Weighed 225 lBs and had 33 foot 4 inch diameter 0.25 wall boom with 7
elements that
worked 40-20-15-10 mtrs - the larger elements were about 1.5 inches in
diameter where they passed through the boom )
( The $2200 1982 price would make the $4,000 I paid a couple years ago for a
MonstIR SteppIR Yagi, a bargain
in today's dollars !...and my MonstIR actually weighs a few lBs less !)
In 1992, Ralph K6HAV, had literally gifted me a 72 foot LM-470D by selling
me the tower with the
Telrex Monarch Yagi and a rotator for $900 when he left the San Diego area.
When I got the antenna down, I discovered that several traps on driven
element were toasted and needed repair .
I attempted to get in touch with Mike Ercolino's son who was then running
Telrex ( part time )
and from the lack of communication from the him at that time, I suspected
the company
was on it's death bed. ( Within a couple years Telrex was out of business,
at least in the amateur
market )
I was in touch with Glen K6NA who knew much about the Telrex antenna line
and had some brochures and other
archived info on these antennas. At that time Glen informed me that I had
inherited a real "slug" of an antenna,
compared to what was on the market then, but, not having much money to buy a
new or used antenna
with the capability of this beast, I decided I would repair it and try it
out.
The antenna served me well from 1992 til a few years ago when I retired it
and installed the MostIR SteppIR
in it's place. Living on a small suburban lot ( 50 X 100 ft ) in San Diego,
and not wanting to put up a
Christmas tree of Yagis on 1 tower, I decided I'd go with a single Yagi
covering 40 thru 6 meters including WARC
bands - the MonstIR StepIR. I have been exceptionally pleased with the
performance of the SteppIR.
With the Telrex ( and now confirmed with it's SteppIR replacement ) I found
that the performance of the Telrex
on 10, 15 and 40 mtrs, kept up with just about all other yagis of same
amount of elements and
boom length, but it performed marginally on 20 meters. ( The 7 element
Telrex Monarch employed 3 elements on 40 and 20
and 4 elements on 15 and 10 mtrs ).
For anyone who still has a trapped Telrex antenna or comes across one that
needs trap repair, I wrote an article about 15 years
ago detailing trap repair that still resides on AC6V.com web site.
( Now maintained by Rod's son after Rod became SK in early part of 2008 )
http://www.ac6v.com/telrex.htm
If you live in an area of the world with bad wind storms or winter ice
loading, it would be hard to find an antenna
today that would hold up better mechanically and although the electrical
performance is somewhat marginal
by todays antenna designs, especially for the trapped Telrex multiband
antennas, go ahead and give them a try,
especially if you are on a tight budget and someone gives you one of these
beasts or you trip over one at a local flea market !!!
73, Dennis N6KI
San Diego
On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 5:15 AM, jim Jarvis <jimjarvis@optonline.net> wrote:
> Steve,
>
> W6TR said it quite nicely.
>
> Back in the day, when Mike Ercolino founded Telrex, yagis were built
> by formula,
> by guess, and by golly. His principal market was the military,
> with K2USA at Fort
> Monmouth being his 'test platform'. I was a young nipper at the
> time, just getting
> involved in ham radio, and a member of the K2USA ham club, ca 1958-59.
>
> The Telrex yagi 'reputation' is an historical artifact. The
> published data is all suspect,
> as we didn't have computer modelling then, nor did Mike have a real
> antenna range to
> take data on.
>
> Physically, the design is not optimized for ease of manufacture.
> It's heavy.
> If you were to find the yagis you're looking for, they would most
> likely be weathered by now,
> and a cleanup job.
>
> And if they weren't weathered... if they were of a more recent
> vintage, nobody quite knows
> what Ercolino's son (also Mike) might have done to improve margins,
> as the company's
> flag was lowered, slowly, over the last few years of its operation.
>
>
> N2EA/Jim
>
> Jim Jarvis, MBA
> President - Executive Coach
> The Morse Group, LLC
>
> People-Process-Strategy: Achieving Results in a Changing World
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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