A friend just sent me this photo of a 1950 RCA service truck with what looks to be a stacked conical on roof.
RCA truck 1950.jpg
Some more of the RCA antennas, a corner reflector from 1967 that performs very well.
This design was carried over for years afterward and is being sold by Digitenna.
RCA corner reflector1.jpgRCA corner reflector 2.jpg
This is the last of the real RCA-branded antennas, assumed to be made by Gavin in NJ. Some retain the signature green anodizing even after 35+ years! I would hate to see the haz-mat report on the site where these were made.
They sure do last as I still see many around.
The main issue with these was the poor UHF response due to the " very notchy" trap that attempted to trap the out-of-phase UHF received by the VHF section behind it.
RCA U-V trap.jpg Many a job re-used these as a VHF antenna and adding a separate corner reflector with amp on the mast.
Recently, I just had to experiment on digital using these designs and removed two of them from houses bought by Amish folks who were overjoyed that somebody wanted to remove this worldly symbol from thier chimney. This mid-size model performed only after isolating the UHF from the VHF and feeding them to an amp with separate U-V inputs (winegard AP2870) The curlicue-loaded VHF elements also set these apart.
RCA 4G30.jpg