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Old 14-Jun-2013, 8:03 PM   #31
Pete Higgins
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Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: California, 58 miles @112 degrees from Mt. Wilson
Posts: 83
329049,

Based on earlier posts and posts in other forums, I thought the DIGIWAVE ANT-7288 and Solid Signal antennas were the same. After looking at your pictures it appears they are not. What I bought was a “Solid Signal Xtreme Signal HDB8X High Definition Blade 8 Bay Xtreme Antenna (HDB8X)” for $59.99 with $0.05 shipping.”

While very similar at a glance, it appears our two antennas have completely different elements and mounting frames. Your elements appear to be made from wire, similar to my CM-4228 while mine are made from much wider 1.66 mm (~0.065”) thick stamped, or die-cut, 8” lengths of sheet aluminum. Please look at post #22 above for a better comparison. This may explain why our CM-4228 comparisons yielded such different results?

The picture you posted of the combiner you opened got me thinking that it might pass power through both ports. I just got down from the roof, after pulling mine off the cross brace. I show open from the case (ground) to all of the center conductors and continuity between all three center conductors. Not knowing this, I ran separate (different length) powered coax’s to each amplifier and combined their outputs in the garage. Later today, I’ll rewire taking advantage of the power passing this style combiner affords. Thanks for sharing that picture.

My combiner is labeled “FREQUENCY MIXER, 470-862 MHz, INSERTION LOSS less than or equal to 4.8 dB”. If accurate, that seems like an excessive amount of loss to incur for combining two 4-Bay outputs, especially in a flat panel configuration, but might explain why you saw so much improvement when you substituted a different type of transformer combiner?

At least if I can amplify each panels signal pick-up before it reaches the combiner it should help compensate for that 4.8 dB of loss.
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