Antenna Genius - Interested, Questions.

n1ah

Hi!

I currently have a 6400 and have 4 or 5 antennas I use with it. My operation is 100% remote. To switch between antennas I use an internet controlled antenna switch I purchased from ebay years back. Its starting to flake on me, so I saw this antenna genius item here.

How is it controlled remotely? Do I just connect it to my lan and have an app to switch or does the flex control it somehow?

I see its an a 8x2? Would i connect each flex output to it? Or should I look at the 8x1 since my setup is very simple? My antennas are mainly wire. My main is an end fed wire which I have in Ant 1, and my various other antennas are in this “remote switch”. I guess Id be able to put all 5 into the genious and use Ant 1 or Ant 2 with combinations of whichever ants?

Hope that makes sense

Adam N1AH

Rich M5RIC

If you use the Flex to control the AG (it's on the same LAN as the flex) then once set-up it can switch automatically based on the flex's band/frequency it's on. No user input required - have a look at the AG manual and you will see how it's configured. Very simple just choose which bands/frequencies are used for each antenna port. If you have a tri band beam plugged in to port 1, whenever you select 10,15 or 20m, it will automatically use port 1 etc.

If you have multiple antennas for any one band, you can use the utility that 4O3A supply to click on whichever antenna you want - beam, vertical etc. If this sits on a PC at the site where the Flex sit's, remote to that pc and just click whichever antenna you want to use if there are multiple

The 6400 only has 1 SCU so you can't be on 2 bands using 2 antennas at the same time, so you will probably be fine with the 8x1.

73

Rich

Rick N4RZ

The 6400 will allow you to use separate antennas for receive and transmit. So, if you have a band where you have more than one antenna, you can use the 2X8 switch to set different antennas for transmit and receive. I have both a 6600M and a 6400M and have found that on DX often my 160M Inverted-L receives better than my 80M DIpole. By having the 2X8 switch and having both antennas 1 and 2 from the radio run to the switch I can use the computer to select the Inverted-L for receive and still have it available for use on 160M.

Tom OBoyle

Hi Rick -

Did you ever get an answer on this? I use a different ant (not a dedicated RX ant) for receive occassionally and want to use the AG.

73 de Tom

David Decoons, wo2x

The Antenna Genius 8x2 can be programmed for multiple antennas per band. It can follow band of Flex and select last antenna or you can use the AG app to select different antennas. The app can be set up to work remotely.

With a 6400 and non-Flex amp & tuner you would connect Ant1 to amp input, then amp to tuner , then the A side of AG.

Connect ANT2 of Flex to B side of AG.

Set slice for both RX and TX for Ant1 and select your TX antenna.

Set RX to Ant2 and the AG app will select a different antenna than Ant1 (if you defined more than one antenna for that band.)

You can now change RX between Ant1 and Ant2 to change between RX antennas.

73

Dave wo2x

Tom OBoyle

Hi Dave and all -

I just got my AG8x2 and hooked it up. My setup is 6600, PGXL, TGXL SO2R, and now AG8x2.

I have Output A hooked to A of AG and Output B hooked to B of AG. I have 3 antennas defined in AG (ANT1, ANT2, ANT3). I can transmit and receive on all of them when the VFO has ANT1 for TX and RX or ANT2 for TX and RX. All antennas are selected for TX and RX in the AG.

When I select a ANT1 for TX and ANT2 for RX in the VFO, I hear no signals. I regularly switch different antennas for RX and can't seem to get this to work.

Any ideas on what I need to change ? I've attached the config file in case that is useful?

73 de Tom, N9GUN

AG_N9GUN_12092024.zip

Tom OBoyle

I think I figured it out.. Need to uncheck Band Protection in Advanced options.