Getting ready for dual SCUs

Rich McCabe

I am pretty excited about picking up the second SCU. I have a 6600M on order to replace my 6500.

With the exception of my SteppIR bigIR I use all multi-band wire antennas. Having the second SCU opens up a lot of possibilities for me.  Looking for good solutions for being able to switch out any antenna to any SCU (antenna port).

I have a pretty nice patch panel but would like something a little more high tech.  Maybe some sort of SO2R setup.

I have a small acreage and will continue to add wire antennas. Of course they all have personalities as far as radiation angle and noise floor so being able to swap those out is important.


Anyone have a solution for this?

Rich

AH0U

Look the Antenna Genius by 4O3A pricy but works great... fully auto but I added the relay board so I can switch directions of the phases arrays off the computer screen

Mike VE3CKO

I know what you mean Rich. When I got my 6500 I really didn't think I'd want or need 2 SCUs so instead of getting an 6700, I got an Icom 7600 at the same time I got the 6500. At that time there was no hint of a Maestro coming so the 7600 would be my knob radio backup. Besides having a few broken tows from kicking myself I have very rarely used the 7600 still have but it's now up for sale. I did get a Maestro, sold the 6500 and got a 6700 for double the fun 2 SCUs. I also have a 3 element SteppIR and though it served me well, is kinda useless on a 2nd SCU. I'm really not knocking the SteppIR but it's resonant on one band at a time in this case is a disadvantage. So additional antennas had to go up, and then yes the Antenna Genius, love it. If I ever move somewhere with more antenna room, I will be putting up a tri-bander so to work multi-band digital.

Rich McCabe

Yea the SteppIR is a disadvantage in this case for sure.

The Antenna Genius is cool but I would never use it to its potential because I really dont care about automated switching as I typically use 1 of 3 antennas on a band based on conditions.

For now my patch panel with work but lots of manual messing around.

Rich McCabe

I think I am going to buy a 4o3a 6x2. Probably order tomorrow.

I really dont need or want the LAN control so two rotary switches (one for each ANT/SCU) should work great for me.

Seems that I should be able to get any ANT output on the Flex to any of the 6 antennas  using this setup.  If I want to run amp I will have to use ANT2 on the flex if I have it configured like below.

Does this make sense?

73,

Rich

HCampbell WB4IVF

I used 5 Tx antennas (on one 6x1 switch) and 4 Rx antennas (on another 6x1 switch) with my 6700.  My main concern was spacing between the antennas to prevent overload of the Rx antennas.  I have good spacing between the Tx and Rx antenna fields, so no problem connecting a Tx and a Rx antenna to the SCUs.  But my Tx antennas are too close together to be comfortable connecting 2 Tx antennas to the SCUs, especially when I add the PowerGenius.     

Howard

AH0U

I use the Antenna Genius 8 port with my 6700 but use the 4O3A 1A2R so my Alpha automatically switches to the active slice... one amp and two radios... works like a charm

Rich McCabe

My needs are pretty basic. No full duplex that I plan. Just want the ability to mix and match any six multiband antenna to either Flex ANT/SCU.   Think I am on the right track. Waiting on Scott Robbins to call me back so I can get a 6x2 ordered.

73

Mike VE3CKO

Before I got the Antenna Genius 8 x 2, I used the Array Solutions Eight Pak. I do have it for sale (EightPak 8x2 with controller) and currently asking $600 Canadian dollars, about $455 US. I used it to manual switch the 2 antenna inputs on my 6500 which I believe is what you want to do. I've also since upgrade to the 6700.

Not sure if we can post a for sale link but I have seen others:
http://www.kwarc.org/swapshop/
scroll past the warnings and click on the Recent Listing (7 days) button. Hit CTRL-F to bring up search bar and enter my callsign VE3CKO and it will jump the browser to my listing.
I can ship from Niagara Falls, New York to be paid by purchaser. If this for sale info is inappropriate please delete it as I won't be able to once someone else posts after me.

Rich McCabe

Will keep that in mind if Vibroplex does not reply to me...

73