Quick arrival. However, after getting all setup on the roof to solder, etc, I discover that the crimp tube will not slide over the RG6. I go to the garage where there’s two rolls, two different mfg. Will not slip over. I did manage to get the tip soldered on, cable sized up right to push the connector on. All is good except no crimp. Well, I came this far and really want to see if my non-weatherproof, two adapter connection was harming me. I wrapped the cable in several layers of aluminum foil, then two pieces of self amalg tape, then zip ties. It’s all self-supporting anyways (the cable) so it won’t come off.
Will monitor and see if my old connections were compromised.
RG6, RG8x and LMR-240 are very close in size, but RG59 is a bit smaller regarding the crimp collar for sure. The discription on the plug you ordered is maybe a bit decieving. Doing a quick check on Ebay try N Male LMR-240 RG8x connector finds some. Sometimes I think some sellers really don’t know what they are selling. Make sure you include a review on the product saying it wasn’t what you expected.
Hope your connection works well in any case.
It’s a good connection for sure. Think I’m getting a bit more range. Regardless, got rid of another adapter. Waterproofed it. Sweated out 5 lbs while up there.
I’ll run with this for a few weeks.
I have another antenna coming from China. Will put that up on the same post. It’s SMA so I have to think that through some more (connector and cable -wize).
I thought the same thing. There may be ‘black magic’ with antennas, but no miracles.
My experience shows that it’s either a Quick Spider, if money is tight, or the FA antenna. All others are nice experiments, but duplicating results is not a guaranteed outcome.
There are a number of those PCB antennas being offered on the auction site, they all seem to be offshoots of two basic designs- although I saw one that also had an integrated LNA and included Bias T at $30-40 US. They make no claim as to gain on that one although it seems to have the same 6Dbi sticker as the photo posted above.
Probably of interest to tinker with, but I cannot see them being any serious challenger to FAs antenna performance, which is a very nice product at a reasonable price.
Have to agree with that statement… Playing around with various pre-amps, filtering, etc… very difficult to beat the basic setup, flightaware antenna up high in the open, decent feedline, and pro-stick plus.
My next step is four runs of LMR400 UF from the basement shack to the peak. Discard the RG8X and RG6 (scanner, dual band 2M/440 and two ADS-B antennas). Plus hoping for a new weather station that will install in the general area. One trip up would be nice…
Likely another disadvantage of a vertical dipole antenna is the “gain” pattern is equal below the horizon, so it might pick up a bit more site noise/interference from other local devices. Something like the 1090 cantenna has slightly more gain above the horizon due to the ground plane effect.
