My buddy has had his up just over a year and has had nothing but trouble with it, very badly engineered antenna. The alloy tubes that hold the elements flex in the holes in the boom and the boom cuts right through them, his element wires are breaking regularly too. It has spent more time on the ground being repaired than it has in the air.
Maco 7 elements,, direct fed via a balun ,, driven element cut dead center , measured , tuned , isolated with a fiberglass tube in the saddle ,, etc ,, best choice I ever made . Very broadbanded ,, no tuner needed from 26.300 to 33.000 MHz as long as I’m only running my 100 watt rig . That is hard to beat . And the Maco is made very well . Other than the element clamps ,, I predrilled and self tapped every single element once I tuned it ,, also some of the saddle clamps wouldn’t secure tight enough , so I used self tapping 1/4 inch screws on them as well ,, everywhere, from front to back , side to side . It isn’t moving or going anywhere ! Once I learned about direct fed with a balun versus the factory gamma match ,, there’s no comparison if you want to talk all over the band , 10/11 meter in my situation anyway
@@Dallas-Rife-UDX-347-Tennessee Nothing like a well-engineered antenna to stay up and perform as intended for a long time, however, a 12' long 3-el Quad I built in '88 with only 75w PEP gave Derrick in Queensland 20-over S9 at the same time a neighbor with a 24' boom 5-el Hy-Gain "Long John" Yagi and 150w PEP gave Derick S9, and the local noise dropped to near zero from a normal consistent S3-S5. - It was always like that, I was the first to hear DX coming in and the last to hear it fading out, and I can't say for certain what it is about the Quad which delivers so much more real-world performance [ _than the mere 2dB gain over a similar size Yagi it calculates out to be on paper/computer_ ] - but once you own one *_you can never go back_* to noisy & comparatively weak Yagi performance. I know, I had 7 different Yagis/Quagis prior to building my 3 El Quad. ...now the 5-element, well that's a whole 'nuther story - what a MONSTER! ...and 8 elements? Well that should bring them from Australia to a town about 5 miles from you - lol
@@JAFO. I’ll have to look into that ,, never heard of them I don’t think ,, but I’m new to flatside beams and still learning something new all the time . I’m gonna pull it back down and do some re-tuning this spring ,, I want to be able to run a little fire in the wire on 11 meter ,, and legal limit on 10 meter ,, Well ,, legal limit as far as they know 🤫,, I can run channels 1-40 on 11 meter with my amp ,, but barely ,, channels 30 to 40 a bit more reflect than I’m comfortable with ,, so ,, I’m gonna use an analyzer and tune out my coax correctly,, and my jumpers ,, etc ,, I’ve learned a lot the last year , that I didn’t know 13 months ago , it’s amazing my equipment hasn’t gotten damaged ,, boy did I see some errors once I got someone over here with an analyzer and pulled up some websites ,, etc and etc ,, so ,, back to the drawing board this spring ,, but that’s what this hobby is , learning , tuning , and spending money lol 73’s
@@Dallas-Rife-UDX-347-Tennessee If you replaced it with a 3 element Dual-polarization Quad you'd be happier, plus you could add vertical-gain beaming to your radio world.
Hey Ric, if you're still on the air on that monster, (albeit probably with some new wires) I'd like to hear you on it and make contact at some point sooner than later. Do you frequent L38 or...??
1100$ way to much just go to Lowes buy you some 2 inch pipe for your boom tractor supply also sells electric fence post cheap and the wire can be found online
I got to say you are a true new comer...no body wants to see you...we wanted to see how to put together the antenna...since the instructions are writen in greek...and yes your zoom works...how about a slow scan of before, during and after assembly of each major part...true after you have put it together it seems fairly easy...but in the begining...
My grand father is BAD ASS😂 miss you grand dad can’t wait to see you!!
30 yrs ago I ran a lightning 4 and it was killer so I can imagine a lightning 8 (true quad) enjoyed the video
Shaka🤙
Hi. How's the antenna holding up? And can you make a video on how to to attach the coax. Thanks 73's
My buddy has had his up just over a year and has had nothing but trouble with it, very badly engineered antenna. The alloy tubes that hold the elements flex in the holes in the boom and the boom cuts right through them, his element wires are breaking regularly too. It has spent more time on the ground being repaired than it has in the air.
Maco 7 elements,, direct fed via a balun ,, driven element cut dead center , measured , tuned , isolated with a fiberglass tube in the saddle ,, etc ,, best choice I ever made . Very broadbanded ,, no tuner needed from 26.300 to 33.000 MHz as long as I’m only running my 100 watt rig . That is hard to beat . And the Maco is made very well . Other than the element clamps ,, I predrilled and self tapped every single element once I tuned it ,, also some of the saddle clamps wouldn’t secure tight enough , so I used self tapping 1/4 inch screws on them as well ,, everywhere, from front to back , side to side . It isn’t moving or going anywhere ! Once I learned about direct fed with a balun versus the factory gamma match ,, there’s no comparison if you want to talk all over the band , 10/11 meter in my situation anyway
@@Dallas-Rife-UDX-347-Tennessee Nothing like a well-engineered antenna to stay up and perform as intended for a long time,
however,
a 12' long 3-el Quad I built in '88 with only 75w PEP gave Derrick in Queensland 20-over S9 at the same time a neighbor with a 24' boom 5-el Hy-Gain "Long John" Yagi and 150w PEP gave Derick S9, and the local noise dropped to near zero from a normal consistent S3-S5.
- It was always like that, I was the first to hear DX coming in and the last to hear it fading out, and I can't say for certain what it is about the Quad which delivers so much more real-world performance [ _than the mere 2dB gain over a similar size Yagi it calculates out to be on paper/computer_ ] - but once you own one *_you can never go back_* to noisy & comparatively weak Yagi performance.
I know, I had 7 different Yagis/Quagis prior to building my 3 El Quad. ...now the 5-element, well that's a whole 'nuther story - what a MONSTER!
...and 8 elements? Well that should bring them from Australia to a town about 5 miles from you - lol
@@JAFO.
I’ll have to look into that ,, never heard of them I don’t think ,, but I’m new to flatside beams and still learning something new all the time . I’m gonna pull it back down and do some re-tuning this spring ,, I want to be able to run a little fire in the wire on 11 meter ,, and legal limit on 10 meter ,,
Well ,, legal limit as far as they know 🤫,,
I can run channels 1-40 on 11 meter with my amp ,, but barely ,, channels 30 to 40 a bit more reflect than I’m comfortable with ,, so ,, I’m gonna use an analyzer and tune out my coax correctly,, and my jumpers ,, etc ,, I’ve learned a lot the last year , that I didn’t know 13 months ago , it’s amazing my equipment hasn’t gotten damaged ,, boy did I see some errors once I got someone over here with an analyzer and pulled up some websites ,, etc and etc ,, so ,, back to the drawing board this spring ,, but that’s what this hobby is , learning , tuning , and spending money lol
73’s
@@Dallas-Rife-UDX-347-Tennessee If you replaced it with a 3 element Dual-polarization Quad you'd be happier, plus you could add vertical-gain beaming to your radio world.
@@JAFO.
Those are the antennas that look like the old laser 400 ? But obviously just shorter ?
What brand you recommend?
Awesome I’m working on building me a similar set up. 73’s
you looked like a kid in a candy store. great video catcha on the air i hope.
Hello,I really enjoyed your video,your antenna is awesome,what kind of distance on ground wave have you worked.many thanks
About 50/70 miles
What size tower did you use and did you use guy wires?
you got any follow up vids for this ?
Crazy Yankee!
Nice instrumental version of *Fields Of Gold* - (Sting)
Hey Ric, if you're still on the air on that monster, (albeit probably with some new wires) I'd like to hear you on it and make contact at some point sooner than later.
Do you frequent L38 or...??
You skipped right over how to wire the driven element
1100$ way to much just go to Lowes buy you some 2 inch pipe for your boom tractor supply also sells electric fence post cheap and the wire can be found online
I got to say you are a true new comer...no body wants to see you...we wanted to see how to put together the antenna...since the instructions are writen in greek...and yes your zoom works...how about a slow scan of before, during and after assembly of each major part...true after you have put it together it seems fairly easy...but in the begining...
@oldNbrokeNcranky: It arrives with instructions.