Mobile Antennas

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The Scorpion Mobile Antenna will cover 10-80 meters. Our antennas are designed to be mounted on any vehicle including Cars, Vans, Pick-Ups, Buses, or RV’s.
We also offer a tripod mounting known as our Home Package for Backyard, Camping or Field Day Use.

Scorpion Antenna Mobile Package

Mobile applications set the focus for the initial requirements in the design of the Scorpion Antennas. Mobile operators need an antenna that will perform in all the different orientations a vehicle may operate, the highly interactive variable RF environment, and of course survive those “bird strikes”.

This antenna is built with physical security and survivability. Wind resistance, rotational and linear momentum forces, along with the “tugs” and “bumps” the antenna may encounter by people, tree branches, birds, other things that go “bump” in the night.

The Scorpion Antenna sits on a mount that is customer provided and must be rigid and securely attached to the vehicle frame. Mounting to a bumper clamp on mount or directly on car body sheet metal is NOT a secure mount point and NOT recommended by Scorpion Antennas. See the article “Mobile Antenna Mounts” for an example of a “pickup bed” and also the Gallery “Customer Mobile Installations” for visual ideas for mounting. Remember, the Scorpion Antenna will take a beating but to take advantage of it’s strength, it needs a secure and stable mount point.

Another point about mounting to the vehicle is a ground plane for the antenna. Remembering that the vehicle is the other half of the antenna! Not having the antenna mounted in an electrically sound fashion using good RF bonding of the vehicle sheet metal to the frame can be of a concern for “any” antenna’s performance mounted on any vehicle.

Scorpion Mobile Antenna
Price$1,245.00

THE SCORPION MOBILE ANTENNA

LET'S TALK PERFORMANCE

The high Q of the antenna coil is one part of the reason this antenna performs extremely well. The High Q coil means when the antenna is tuned to resonant operating frequency, all off center frequencies (noisy stuff) are reduced and the center frequency is stronger entering the receiver. That’s the trick, having a High Q coil and by using the right coil length and diameter, the proper shunt coil for impedance matching, and good vehicle bonding technique.

Speaking of Ground, your mobile vehicle is not all connected together, electrically, that is. All body panels are painted then bolted together. From a DC continuity stand point, just because the vehicle lights work, does not mean you have a good RF bond on the vehicle. “Bonding” is a must for any HF installation on a vehicle.

The other side of having a High Q coil is it can couple much easier to it’s environment. As the Scorpion Antenna moves down the road there are all kinds of objects that enter it’s near field signal and become coupled.

Objects can be other vehicles, trees, light poles & terrain. All of these things will effect the resonance of the operating frequency and will be seen in an VSWR change. And this does what? This means all the variables that define an antenna become dynamically changing. The High Q coil on the plus side means the swings in values have a “sharp” time impact and come and go quickly. That’s not a negative Q factor but a positive Q characteristic on side of performance.

The above is what we have experienced over the years using our antennas in a mobile environment 7 days a week.

Reviewing all the products in the Mobile group will explain some of the differences in design considerations. Review the other groups of antennas will give even more insight on performance and why we have different models. Not any “one” antenna covers all design considerations. It’s a compromise of how we adapt our High Q coil and manufacturing construction techniques that makes best fits for performance with Customer needs.

The Black Widow™

High Gloss Powder Coat Finish is available on our Antenna for an Additional $60.00

As far as paint goes, nothing will last longer or is more durable than powder coating. Motorcycle manufacturers through out the world use powder coating on their frames.

Our NEW Lexan® coil cover is a High Gloss Black solid pigment, not paint.

Mobile or Backyard Typical VSWR 1.5:1 or Less
Antenna Rated at 1500 Watts PEP SSB
Total Weight: 18 Lbs
Our Antenna Line is Supplied with an UHF connector

OUR #1 SELLING ANTENNA INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING

Standard Finish: Stainless Steel / Also Available in Gloss Black Finish
Length Retracted: 39” / Length Extended: 57”
3 Inch Diameter Coil with 10 Gage Tinned Copper Wire Wound at 6 Turns Per Inch

WHAT IS SUPPLIED WITH OUR MOBILE PACKAGES

18 Feet of Antenna Control Cable
Antenna Control Box
Two 31 Material Chokes for the Antenna Coax and Control Cable
A Cigarette Lighter Adapter with Fuse Holder for Power to the Antenna Control Box
A Four Pin Weatherproof Connector for Power to the Antenna
A Shunt Coil for Impedance Matching “Don’t let your shunt coil become damaged. Look at our sealed shunt coil enclosure listed in our accessories.”
Supplied whip is 58 inches in length.
6" Dia. by 60 inch cardboard tube is used for shipping the main antenna.

We also install a 3/8 by 24 thread heavy duty Stainless coupling nut at the top of the antenna for mounting the whip. This is a plug and play system. The customer supplies a rigid mount with a 3/4 inch hole and 12 volts!

I recently acquired a Scorpion SA 680 antenna. The antenna is installed on a diesel powered Land Rover 110 vehicle.

First let me provide a background about my experience with mobile HF antennas. I started operating mobile HF in the early 1970’s with many different antennas- some of these were the Hustler standard and high power models, Outbacker standard model, Swan model 45, Texas Bugcatcher, High Sierra, Tarheel, Yaesu ATAS-120, Hi-Q, and the Hamstick. As far as performance, the Scorpion is the overall leader. The Swan model 45 and the Texas Bugcatcher are the next best performers, but have their limitations. The Swan 45 is a somewhat fragile antenna and must be carefully installed and operated. The Texas Bugcatcher is a single band antenna that is somewhat quirky to install and operate.

The build quality of the Scorpion is by far the finest I have encountered in my 50yrs. as an amateur. To mention a few things- The Scorpion is a very robust antenna, weighing over 18lbs. The construction uses only the highest quality materials- Delrin coil support, 2 sealed ball bearings, tin plated beryllium copper finger stock, machined finger stock housing, .065” wall stainless steel body, 1/4” wall phenolic coil form, and the coil cover is .125” lexan, the antenna coil drive motor is a quality Pittman motor that uses steel gears, not plastic. Also the Scorpion uses reed switches that prevents the motor from stalling at end of travel.

To finish this review I need to give Ron Douglas, NI7J credit for offering a lifetime warranty for this antenna. Ron also lists his company address and phone number for product support. This is becoming less common in today’s world- Hi-Q does not provide a factory location or phone number! Contact with them is via email only!

The only downside to the Scorpion antenna is it’s physical size and weight- installation with the antenna as high as possible with as much metal under the mount will yield best efficiency.

Stephen G | Scorpion SA680 Review