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mikefromms
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2003 - 8:34 am: | 
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Signal Engineering is one of the very few new companies that is giving the Cber improved antennas and new designs. They are also very professional to deal with because if you have a problem they will talk to you on the phone, e-mail, etc. In their own words, they "want you to be happy with your purchase."
In a post concerning my purchase of a Thunder 8XB antenna from Signal Engineering, I said some things very negative (at least implied) about Signal Engineering which were based purely on misunderstanding and not facts. Everything was really ok. Just my preconceived
misunderstanding. In affect, "fighting a strawman." For this reason I'd like to apologize for the negative publicity I've given SE and will give more thought to what I say and how I say it in the future. I have also apologized to Anthony of SE both by phone and e-mail.
mikefromms |
Bullet
| | Posted on Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 3:15 am: |
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take a big man to admitt then your wrong.
i respect that in you mike.
even though i didnt really give it much thought at the time as we all have times that we need to vent a little.
at least i speak for myself.... |
RCI 2990
| | Posted on Saturday, August 16, 2003 - 11:24 pm: |
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Ive been really curious over the years as to how well the lightning 4 works in comparison to my old reliable moonraker 4. |
Tech808
| | Posted on Saturday, August 16, 2003 - 11:36 pm: |
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RCi 2990,
I have owned the Moonraker 4 & 6 and the White Lightning.
My Lightining 4 has out performed both of the Raker's on both transmit and receive in my opinion.
Lon
Tech808 |
RCI 2990
| | Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2003 - 12:58 pm: |
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They are not as narrow banded as the moonraker 4 are they? |
Bullet
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 1:49 am: |
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you might get around 2 mega cycles wide for band width.
bandwidth,gain,f/b are all dependant on (design) and thiers trade offs. as this is a compromise design on a short boom f/b and bandwidth should not be a problem.
i used to know thier specs but its been to long but i do know thier boom is about 15 feet for the 4 and 17 feet for the 4+ witch really makes little
differance as far as gain from one to the other.
thier good beams and will provide you with about one db gain over a yagi of similar size.
in most cases a "compromised design 4 elem quad" on a "short" boom will not outperform a six element beam twice its size.
now if you said you had a gain optimized 4 elem quad with a boom of around 27 ft and all the elements were cut to the right length and spaced properly for this condition, and compared it to a moonraker 6 i could buy it.
as my optimized 20' 4 element quad dose come fairly close but in turn to get that performance the trade off is it has a poor front to back ratio at freq of the hi gain.
and the six still had the edge and a good back door to boot.
this is some of the sizes of a few hi gain quads built on long booms the right way for performance and not for sales! or marketing.
3 elem quad boom 16ft elem/elem.
4 elem quad boom 27ft " / " gain: 12.36dbd*
5 elem quad boom 37ft " / "
6 elem quad boom 48ft " / "
7 elem quad boom 59ft " / "
8 elem quad boom 70ft " / "
*about 2db higher than the short boom version.
and can be read about on page 146 of the quad antenna a comprehensive guide to the construction,design and performance of quad antennas by w4mb.
elements are cut and spaced for "optimized performance". and yes these are for 27mhz....
"not the old standard"
a compromised design on short booms
1030~ for reflector.... spacing: 123~
1005~ for radiator
950~ for directors.... spacing: 165~
these for 27.205mhz would look like this for a four element beam
reflector: 37.86ft total.... spacing: 4.521ft
radiator: 36.94ft total
directors: 34.92ft total.... spacing: 6.065ft
antenna size elem to elem: 16feet 8 1/4"
boom:17ft at least
gain: 9.75dbd
these figures didnt come off a computer program but my pin/paper and calculator. i wish i had a nice program for this.....
this should rival any of the quads being manufactured for the cb market.
now my hands are cramping im out of here. |
RCI 2990
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 1:32 pm: |
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I dont get too rapped up in gain figures too far above my head i just want a good beam that gets outgood and is fairly broadbanded thats all im concerned with. Mighg get a SE lightin 4 someday to replace my old narrow banded Moonrakers.... |
Ca346
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 7:23 pm: |
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I am VERY happy with my Lightning 4+. It is on an 18 ft boom at 50 ft. One immediate noticable difference was that I had to turn off the pre-amp, because I did not need it anymore. My only complaint is that they make and sell them in California. I had to pay California sales tax. |
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