Antenna Genius Observations and Thougts

Mark Griffin

Good Morning,

I was batting back and forth about installing a one radio Antenna Genius to my Tower/Station. But the more I looked at it, I decided it was not for me. Here are the reasons, 1. Antenna Genius is not Waterproof to have outside, unless you are mounting it in some sort of container. 2. It cannot be mounted on the tower where the Antenna Connections would be facing downward. 3. One must have not only an ethernet/lan connection and also a 12V power supply connection to power the unit.

I did my research and found a much easier installation that fit my needs. I was able to keep my DXE 8 port switch. I was able to connect the control cable from my antenna switch to the connections on another Radio Band Connector. I was able to connect via USB cable my Flexradio 6400M directly to the Radio Band Connector. The only programming I had to do with the Flexradio USB connection was to make sure that it was looking specifically at the TX Band that I was on. I was then able to program the Radio Band Connector to automatically change to the proper antenna for each band when I changed the slice frequency on my radio.

And it works just fine. I am not saying that the Antenna Genius is not a good device. But in my situation, too many additions/alterations would have to be done. Do I think 403A could make the Antenna Genius easier to mount on one's tower like other antenna switches are? Yes, I do. Do I think they could make it more weather proof? Yes, I do.

The installation I saw on Youtube, was where the person mounted the Antenna Genius inside and had to lead all of his coax cables inside the house. For me, that definitely would have not been an option. These are just my thoughts and if you are presently using the Antenna Genius with good success, that's great. I just found a simpler easy way to achieve the same results with an easier more cost effective result.

Mark Griffin, KB3Z

David Decoons, wo2x

Hi Mark,

In your situation the AG was not the switch of choice, and that is fine. You found what is best for you.

I have the AG but mine is mounted in the garage where the antennas enter the house so it was not a big deal. I also have the Power Genius amp. and Tuner Genius in the garage, leaving the 6600m in the shack. The fan in the 6600m is the loudest thing now. The PC was built several months ago to be as quiet as possible.

73 and see you in the PAQP!

Dave wo2x

n8wrl

Mark I totally agree. I went to the trouble to get power and ethernet out to the tower and I already had a weather box out there. And it works great. But a better solution would be a "smart" controller that takes power and ethernet in the shack connected to a traditional, "dumb" water-proof/resistant switch remotely mounted.

I made it worse because I installed an "OM Module" to control my 4-square. I've eliminated 3 control cables back to the shack, which is great, but the OM Module is even less water-tight than the AG.

I guess it would be best to mount the AG at the house but I can't run 8 coax lines 200' from the tower.

In short, I'm done, it works and its great, but I sure had to get a lot of infrastructure out to the tower.

73

-Brian n8wrl

Ignacy

Running PG and TG, there is not much choice but to use the AG as TG works with AG to easily support multiple antennas per band.

Would POE work?

Aside from PG/TG/AG I also have a GHE 8x1 switch. It changes antennas using UDP from FRStack or N1MM for slice A. I don't know how to automate it with for slice B in SO2R.

Ignacy, NO9E