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Postal Trucker
11-06-2016, 11:51 AM
Hello all, I'm new here to this site and would like your opinion on these two radios.

I am currently running a DX33hp2 in a 2015 Freightliner Cascadia (using a Firestick 5 ft antenna and also trying a Francis 5 1/2 ft, have also tried a Sirio 5000). With this setup I only seem to be receiving about 4 to 5 miles with low back ground noise, the Sirio seemed to get less reception.

My question is will the Galaxy DX94HP preform better than the DX33HP2 or would I just be wasting my money?

I had considered the Galaxy DX98HP but was concerned about running new power wires to the battery should I switch to another style of truck, so the reason for considering the DX94HP.

222DBFL
11-06-2016, 02:56 PM
Your antenna system will determine how well your transmit and receive are. Have you looked into the Sirio trucker 5000 with a longer bottom shaft of like 12" or more. Wilson makes a longer bottom shaft and so do some of the antenna builders that make mobile antennas. The radio won't make a difference if the antenna setup isn't at its best. JMO.

Postal Trucker
11-06-2016, 05:17 PM
I do have the Wilson 10 inch extension, but it didn't take it out past the cab of the truck (at 22 deg). I may have to try and find the sleeve connector for the Wilson and add the 8 inch maybe that will help.

222DBFL
11-06-2016, 06:31 PM
You want to try to keep the antenna as straight as possible and get the coil above the cab. Then cut the whip to match the addition of the longer bottom section.

222DBFL
11-07-2016, 02:40 AM
Don't place the antenna at at slant. Place the antenna straight up or very and I mean very slightly forward. Think a few degrees. Then find a longer bottom section. I've seen up to 36" bottom shaft being used on one of the Sirio trucker 5000 antennas and a shortened whip. Got the coil above the roofline of the cab. Antenna worked well from what I remember the person posting about it. Then use an antenna analyzer to tune the antenna. Or a decent VSWR meter. Not the truck stop junk. Again, these are JMHO's, but slanting the antenna down 22 degrees is way too much. 3-5 degrees of slant max is all that is needed. I have used my setup like this and made many contacts around the world while going down the highway at 70+ mph. Any way you can post a pic of how your antenna is mounted and where it's mounted and such? Would help to help you.
Hope you get it resolved and working correctly. I've had really good luck with the Sirio line of antennas as well as many others have. Just have to set them up correctly and tune them right as well. Yes your truck can be a hard one to get an antenna to tune on, but it's not impossible. Again, hope you get it working correctly! Good luck and keep us posted as to how things are going.

Postal Trucker
11-11-2016, 08:10 AM
222DBFL

I mounted the antenna as suggested with a combination of a 25" and 10" shaft, and tried several different size whips (36", 48" and the original) on the Sirio 5000. I had no success getting the SWR's below 2.5. I went back to the 5 ft Firestick and the SWR's dropped to 1.3 across all channels.

I did purchase the Galaxy DX98VHP and cheched the SWR's and they were 1.3 on the lowest channel and 1.1 on the highest.

I will be getting my Tech license for use with this radio. Used it yesterday for the first time on the CB band and am impressed with the radio.

Again thanks for the input. It may just be this particular truck, as I've talked to other drivers using different antennas and they had success. I talked to Walcott CB Shop about the Predator 10k vs the Firestick and they said there would be no noticeable difference in performance.

I will have a couple of antenna options should my company purchase different trucks.

222DBFL
11-11-2016, 08:45 AM
With a longer bottom shaft you would need to cut the whip down to get the SWR reading down as you have physically changed the length of the antenna with the addition of the longer bottom shaft. You can't use a longer bottom shaft and leave the top whip the same length. Won't work like that. What you need to do is to make the antenna the same length as it was before you added the extra length of bottom shafts. I've seen this done quite a few times and it does work, but like I said, you cake just stick a long whip in the top and not cut it to compensate for the added length of the extra bottom shaft you have added. So if the antenna is 6.5ft before adding any more bottom shaft length that is what you need to make it after you have added the extra length to the bottom shaft.

222DBFL
11-12-2016, 03:49 AM
Here is a photo (posted at the end of my post), of a truck that did a Sirio trucker 5000 with a 36" bottom shaft he had made or bought from someone that makes antennas like Predator Antennas , Monkey Made Antennas, Mr. Coily Antennas and so on. Let me see if I can find the longer 36" shaft. He did mount his to the mirror and not the factory mount on the upper portion of the left side of the body. Above the sleeper area. Not sure if your truck is set up like this or not. But since you were placing longer shafts together I figured these photos might help as far as whip length and also bottom shaft, both where to buy a long one and also how it looks mounted as well as the whip length. Here are the pics. Notice how short the top whip is compared to a stock one. He used approx. approx overall length of 7ft. So that would be a 36" or 3ft. bottom shaft, and not including the coil which on my regular Sirio 5000 is approx. 6" or so that the top whip is about 3.5ft give or take. It depends on where you want to tune it for resonance. If you want it cut for 27.205, start with the whip at about 42" for the top whip and this is with using a 36" bottom shaft. For your 2 shafts placed together, you would need the whip to be approx. the same length as what I posted. Basically with the whips you used, if you would have used the 48" whip and cut it down to about 42" then fine tune it from there, you could have gotten the VSWR down. But the way you had it both whips were either too short or too long and this is what most likely resulted in the SWR readings you saw of 2.5:1. I would think that with a proper length whip that you could get the VSWR almost flat or flat if you really take your time. I cut in 1/8" increments, but for a starting cut I will cut 1/4" and then step it down to roughly 1/8" cuts. Yes it takes longer, but I retain my whip length being all the what down in the hole also don't cut it too short as well. If you don't feel like messing with the firestick I understand, but I will say that a 7ft antenna should perform better then a 5ft one. With 2ft. more antenna it should make a difference in overall transmit and received signals. JMHO. But like I said, you have cut your whip accordingly to get it to be the correct length. You want it to be approx the same length as it is stock. Which is about 7ft total length. I hope this clears some things up and hope the pics help a little. Have a good one.

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