Pivoting 8-bay?

[TickingMind]

Does anyone know of the advantages of using such an antenna, if any, giving that being able to point each panel in a different direction, effectively ganging two antennas together, I think requires there to be more separation between the two than that shown.

(After reading the posting about spacing from GroundUrMast I am very skeptical that this would offer any improvement)



Neat concept, but I doubt this would work no better than one antenna point "halfway" between the transmitters you wish to pull in.

Anyone use one of these or similar?

[GroundUrMast]

I've seen this online recently, with no technical specifications provided. That triggers skepticism for me. So that leaves me with only speculation based on what I know of general antenna theory.

My speculation is that when both the fixed and adjustable panels are aimed at the same point on the horizon, one should expect performance roughly similar to that of the DB8, CM4228, HD8800 or U8000.

If the adjustable panel is not aimed at the same point, I would expect the antenna to perform like two separate 4-bay antennas, combined into a common down lead. The usual performance of such an arrangement is quite unpredictable (unsatisfactory to one degree or another), given the effects of external sources of multipath. A few people get lucky with a combination of two antennas, however it's only by chance unless there has been complex engineering implemented with the aid of professional quality test and measurement tools. A project well beyond the skill level of any but the best in the broadcast antenna engineering field.

My gut tells me that this is just another gimmick antenna.

[John Candle]

Ask the seller/manufacture what advantage and disadvantage of this antenna is/are. Get a straight answer out of them , not technospeak.

[TickingMind]

Given that these things went on a weekend sale a few months ago, I picked one up just for the sake of trying it out.

You can understand my need for such a setup given my TV Fool report; I have a beamwidth requirement of at least 88 degrees, to pull in Buffalo & Toronto something that a 8 bay would natively not be able to cover with it's narrower beamwidth.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...9e74ff0d4234dc

The actual setup of the antenna is attached; I used the "max coverage" setup, however, when I first hooked up the antenna I had literally no reception. Reason? the cheap coax that they include to tie into the combiner was shorted out with a crimp that was far too overdone. And this was on both patch cables.
Replacing them with equal lengths, the TV lit up and reception began. I have this tied into an AntennaCraft 10G201 out of the combiner, 25 feet AGL, one panel facing Buffalo, the other towards Toronto.

Reception has been good, but I do have multipath problems with CHCH Hamilton - does not worry me though as I don't watch that channel anyways.

The mounting hardware has rusted, it's made from sub-par material. I've coated it with a thin layer of grease that seems to do the trick. Rochester (Ion) has been pretty steady as well, except in bad weather. In all, I'm pretty happy, especially with WGRZ having such a bad noise figure for my area - that was the one I was really hoping for and it's been consistently good.
My 2 cents. Your mileage may vary.

[GroundUrMast]

Your anecdotal report is quite consistent with that of other attempts at combining identical antennas aimed in different directions.

Low gain & poor multipath rejection.

Disappointing to hear that the build quality is also poor.

Thanks for the update.

[John Candle]

I know about the antenna. I do not recommend them. The reason is , question askers need to get Tv reception with as few problems and situations as possible. If I recommend the antenna then the question asker and I would end up going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth with questions and answers. The customer / question asker would be very unhappy and so would I.