After a lot of procrastination, I am finally getting my station back on the air. My original plan was to build my own 4 element quad, and mount it on a guada pole like I always have done. But a friend told me of a local ham that was moving to a new home and was selling his antenna system. We discussed pricing and agreed to a price of $2,500,000 Colombian pesos ( about $550 USD).
The system consists of the following:
1 Hygain Explorer 14 Antenna for the 20, 15 and 10 Meter bands
6 Tower sections 3 meters each with their screws
9 steel guy lines for the winds
1 Ham IV Rotor with its table controller in perfect condition
90 meters of coaxial cable LMR400
90 meters of cable 4 pairs for rotor line
I was able to sell the antenna to another local amatuer for $500,000 COP which made the deal even better.
Instead of building my own quad, I bought a Lightning Antennas "White Lightning" 4-element quad. Received the antenna last Friday, unpacked it, and started putting it together. These are my first impressions.
LIKES:
The antenna was very well packed, and arrived here from the US undamaged.
High quality parts.
Everything predrilled so assembly is easy - only basic hand tools needed
Stainless steel hardware
Very good assembly instructions.
DISLIKES:
Hokey driven element and stub matching design. I discarded it and replaced the 2-piece driven element wire with a single wire for horizontal polarization only.
When the factory drilled the element support tubes, they distorted them slightly, so I had to file the holes in the boom so that they would fit. A real PITA.
No dimensions in the spec sheet for element wire lengths, element spacing, etc. So I had to measure everything to establish a baseline in case I wanted to change something. AGAIN, a real PITA.
That pretty much sums it up so far. I'll begin assembly tomorrow, AFTER I finish filing out the 32 element support tube holes in the boom sections.
I'll post assembly and install pics later.
.
Here's a photo of the antenna after unpacking.
Unused driven element wires and stub match.
- 399
The system consists of the following:
1 Hygain Explorer 14 Antenna for the 20, 15 and 10 Meter bands
6 Tower sections 3 meters each with their screws
9 steel guy lines for the winds
1 Ham IV Rotor with its table controller in perfect condition
90 meters of coaxial cable LMR400
90 meters of cable 4 pairs for rotor line
I was able to sell the antenna to another local amatuer for $500,000 COP which made the deal even better.
Instead of building my own quad, I bought a Lightning Antennas "White Lightning" 4-element quad. Received the antenna last Friday, unpacked it, and started putting it together. These are my first impressions.
LIKES:
The antenna was very well packed, and arrived here from the US undamaged.
High quality parts.
Everything predrilled so assembly is easy - only basic hand tools needed
Stainless steel hardware
Very good assembly instructions.
DISLIKES:
Hokey driven element and stub matching design. I discarded it and replaced the 2-piece driven element wire with a single wire for horizontal polarization only.
When the factory drilled the element support tubes, they distorted them slightly, so I had to file the holes in the boom so that they would fit. A real PITA.
No dimensions in the spec sheet for element wire lengths, element spacing, etc. So I had to measure everything to establish a baseline in case I wanted to change something. AGAIN, a real PITA.
That pretty much sums it up so far. I'll begin assembly tomorrow, AFTER I finish filing out the 32 element support tube holes in the boom sections.
I'll post assembly and install pics later.
.Here's a photo of the antenna after unpacking.
Unused driven element wires and stub match.
- 399
Last edited:
