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Jo Gunn 3x3 beam
- Thread starter Zman
- Start date
Zman Marconi is not being sarcastic hes actually one of our antenna know how and guru members that has ALOT of knowledge on antennas from the simple info to the extreme technical please dont misunderstand him
Marconi please share as alot of others are also interested
Marconi please share as alot of others are also interested
Zman Marconi is not being sarcastic hes actually one of our antenna know how and guru members that has ALOT of knowledge on antennas from the simple info to the extreme technical please dont misunderstand him
Marconi please share as alot of others are also interested
You're right Tony and thanks for the kind words. I wasn't trying to be uppity with Zman, I thought maybe he knew what the basic complaints were and maybe could tell us what some tech savvy had said to him.
We've all heard plenty of folks complain about the Star design, but I can't say whether they were tech savvy or not, and I thought this might be a chance to hear a real description from the horses mouth, so-to-speak, and not just an unfounded claim.
I don't have any specifics, but I think JoGunn has a different idea about their antennas...relative to bandwidth, gain, and "Q", and in particular with this model. And, maybe that idea just flies in the face of most, that tend to like newer ideas for optimizing their beams.
The big objection might be the short boom and the close spacing JG tends to use. I would sure be interested in some more details, but I realize most would not. I'm just curious about stuff that might be discussing the specifics of my interests.
Personally I don't like the star design either, but it probably saves money and is a useful compromise when using conservative design ideas.
My best working 4 element design uses Moonraker settings for spacing with horizontal elements using a gamma match and few probably argue much about the Moonraker not being effective. I find in my limited space for a beam, and limits to height as well, this conservative design works better for me. Otherwise there is likely not much difference with the 4 Star JoGunn, and my antenna...they're both more well balanced along the shorter boom than an optimized version.
I have a 5 element Hygain Long John pictured below that didn't work nearly as well at my location.
My 4 element mounted on my roof deck in the foreground and a 3 element Maco in the back yard, both are about 30' feet high.
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Yeah I went today with my wife and son and NO BOOM WAS FOUND!! Im discusted but not really mad. Im gonna have to order a new boom for this new JoGunn 4 + 4 STAR Everything else is here but the damn boom!! I am happy with my Dual polarity Gizmotchy and if I were to even think of running a different beram antenna I dig out my 4 element (8 element dual polarity) Maco Shooting Star and use that one forsure. I am however going to add the (power booster) extra element kit to my gizmotchy atleast thats what I want to do anyways.
Marconi I agree, the many yagi's I have built/experimented with the moonraker settings worked best all around for F/B.
Tony, do you have the Star manual that you could post on the forum or email me, I would like to add it to my files. I would ask you what the spacing is along the boom, but you don't have it. I would like to know if I'm right on my assumptions regarding the 4 Star model I sumitted to Zman.
That it is: a close space at Dr-D1 (maybe 48" or less) and that the other two spaces R-Dr, and D1-D2 are somewhat close together than typical for a 4 element beam, and close to being balanced along the boom to each end, with possibly the space for the R-Dr being a bit wider spacing than that for D1-D2.
Thanks wavrider, it is always good to hear someone support our words a little bit on a subject.
My old 4 element yagi was build from parts from an old Wilson Y-quad that I couldn't stand the way it didn't work. My Starduster at 60' feet at the time, made a bit better signals that the Y-quad on a 50' crank-up.
I first made it with a 4 element Maco boom and I could never get it to working like I wanted. It worked pretty good, but the rejection was not good, and I questioned the gain as well, as I tried optimized setting after optimized setting with some settings responding no more than a glorified omni antenna. You should have seen that old beam that I finally put on a Moodraker boom and that is when I first got it to working as I expected, and it worked good inspite of the fact the elements varied in size from reflector to d2. The old Y-Quad was made of 3/4" - 5/8" on the reflector and 5/8" - 1/2" on the driven elements, so you can see...it was a Rube Goldberg styled antenna, but it worked and that is what counted, and Dxman can probably support that claim too. DXman use to collaborate with me on our beams, when I was building mine. I think he'll remember our efforts back then when he had a 4 element Maco, that he was trying to optimize instead of the 5 element he has today.
I know Jo Gunn uses off the wall gain claims and the "audio gain" claim is the most absurd thing ive ever heard!!! Id like to lenthen my 3x3 but with the sqaure boom i cant do that. Ive fiddled with beams for years and one time i even made a 4 element quad with a 20' boom out of a Moonraker 4 that works AWESOME! But here in Indiana quads dont last very long.
QTH has quad spreaders in their classified section under antennas. Mount to a round boom, 2" or 3". they are heavy duty and work great, I used four of them to make the jo gunn copy.
It seems you had some good luck using a Moonraker boom too. For me, the boom is designed with a mast support section in the middle that I think is 54". That tends to provide a spacing length dimension for the driven element. That is the spacing the Moonraker uses, and that might make a very good Dr-D1 spacing for a 4 element. The spacing on the ends seem to be pretty balance as to space too, and that is the conservative design idea I talked about above.
If you have a manual for the 3x3 and/or the 4x4, could you post a copy in a PDF file?
Well here it is, so you can read it again and get what I said right. I try hard to never be categorical in my post. Try it sometimes.
Marconi said:
Naw Zman, you didn't miss it, you just ignored the key words I used for assumption.