Lava OmniPro HD-8000

[Lewis]

Hi , Is anyone familiar with what the inside of this antenna is supposed to look like? I firstly wanted to say I think the unit is working fine but I have one of these OmniPro HD-8000 units as a backup for an 8 bay bow tie antenna for about 3 to 4 months now and had one of the antenna masts down putting a 2 meter yagi on it & I decided I wanted to look under the cover of the OmniPro HD-8000 out of curiosity before I put it all back up & when I took the cover off I noticed the red wire running around the perimeter of the casing was open relatively for a few inches as per the attached file picture which brings me to the question I wanted to ask. Is this the way the antenna is designed or is that red wire supposed to be a complete loop?

[GroundUrMast]

Looks like a modified dipole... Which can work as a folded, closed loop or as two separate elements.

I hope you didn't pay too much. The advertised prices I've seen for this are outrageous for the real performance and build quality.

[teleview]

+=>
-----
The copper wire is a director element.

The copper wire receives and re radiates the Tv signal to the rest of the metal reception elements and acts to distribute the received Tv signal more evenly to the other metal reception elements.

[ADTech]

Most likely the wire is intended to be the VHF reception element.

You'd have to provide a photo of the rest of the internals including the area where that wire attaches to know for certain.

[Lewis]

Looks like a modified dipole... Which can work as a folded, closed loop or as two separate elements.

I hope you didn't pay too much. The advertised prices I've seen for this are outrageous for the real performance and build quality.
Ty for the reply, yes I bought new & paid way too much for what it is & can do @ around $70. The advertised Antenna Gain: VHF: 28dB UHF: 30dB @ website http://www.lavasat.com/en/upload/proimg/HD-8000_Manual.pdf is a big laugh & it is not recommended from my end as what a homeowner might want for a ground plane antenna but it might please a traveler with a mount on an RV due to the size. Lava did reply to me & said it was designed that way but no elaboration of what purpose the little wire achieved.

[Lewis]

+=>
-----
The copper wire is a director element.

The copper wire receives and re radiates the Tv signal to the rest of the metal reception elements and acts to distribute the received Tv signal more evenly to the other metal reception elements.
I am pretty sure a 9" aluminum pie pan has more metal than this thing.

[Lewis]

Most likely the wire is intended to be the VHF reception element.

You'd have to provide a photo of the rest of the internals including the area where that wire attaches to know for certain.
The wire connected to an internal pc board on each end, which I presume was also part of an amplifier.