eBay Antenna Reviews, Ratings, and Discussion
Ther Rotor may work, but its useless without a working remote....which has a power problem. I may try to fix the remote first, but Id just assume strip away all the riffraff from this antenna, and analyze its performance. I have a sneaking suspicion that the amplifier isnt working properly either and thus is acting as an attenuator.
I walked the A Aneutronics outside using its 45 feet of coax to find sweet spots on the North side of the house. The others were just tested on the sweet spot lamp in the wall of windows to the West and North corner by the TV. (the usual spot).
Believe it or not, the first time Ive tried VHF DIGITAL with indoor antennas is just the other day with these 3 antennas. With the good atmospherics the RS 1880 did great on VHF High Real Channel 7 for the very short time I had it connected.
The RCA ANT108 doesnt allow you to fold the Rabbit Ears all the way down horizontal (probably to about 30 or 45 degrees up from horizontal each)...which I dont like. And also only allows the Rabbit Ears to fold out inline with the loop which is a feature I actually like. The way its done with the walls of the base also acting as guides gives structural strength and reinforment to the Rabbit Ears and therefore tougher....making it even better as a backpackable portable solution.
I walked the A Aneutronics outside using its 45 feet of coax to find sweet spots on the North side of the house. The others were just tested on the sweet spot lamp in the wall of windows to the West and North corner by the TV. (the usual spot).
Believe it or not, the first time Ive tried VHF DIGITAL with indoor antennas is just the other day with these 3 antennas. With the good atmospherics the RS 1880 did great on VHF High Real Channel 7 for the very short time I had it connected.
The RCA ANT108 doesnt allow you to fold the Rabbit Ears all the way down horizontal (probably to about 30 or 45 degrees up from horizontal each)...which I dont like. And also only allows the Rabbit Ears to fold out inline with the loop which is a feature I actually like. The way its done with the walls of the base also acting as guides gives structural strength and reinforment to the Rabbit Ears and therefore tougher....making it even better as a backpackable portable solution.
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Two more things about the RCA ANT108 that make it a great little antenna, especially for backpackability and portable usage. Its loop is thick and its stationary, it doesnt adjust move....very strong. And the Rabbit Ears are also sturdy as far as those things go, compared to a lot of others Ive seen. They are tightish within each other to hold their extension at the desired length. And also when you fold them out, they move into grooves (hard to explain) but at 3 or 4 locations they snap into place almost...so they will stay put in that position if they are knocked about a bit....and you can fold them straight up vertical running parrallel to each other, fully retracted in this vertical position...they make a tight sturdy packable antenna.
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Pics of dissassembled A Neutronics...
Maybe some of the more electronically inclined can comment. The amp is definitely in the controller box. If I could get the remote working Id have a working light duty rotor...perhaps I could take the amp out of the loop too....so Id just have a rotor.
Dont know whats wrong with the remote. The power leads seem to be connected properly. And yes I tried different batteries.
I really like the antenna, in the clear. I need to get an F connector for the VHF coax, do I need a crimping tool? Then I can use my UVSJ and test the antenna. I may test the UHF by itself as Im anxious to find out if the electronics really were messing up the antenna.
Dissassembled everything with one extra small screwdriver....well I had to cut the coax too.
Naked A Neutronics The rotor unit came right off with 2 screws (also had to cut the VHF coax which is hardwired unlike the UHF side...wonder why they couldnt add a male F connector to the backside where the VHF comes into the rotor unit).
Rotor unit
Rotor interior close up
Rotor interior close up
Box at bottom of mast of rotor unit
Controller/Amplifier/Power Supply/Cable Connections Box
Remote Control
Remote Control Close Up
Maybe some of the more electronically inclined can comment. The amp is definitely in the controller box. If I could get the remote working Id have a working light duty rotor...perhaps I could take the amp out of the loop too....so Id just have a rotor.
Dont know whats wrong with the remote. The power leads seem to be connected properly. And yes I tried different batteries.
I really like the antenna, in the clear. I need to get an F connector for the VHF coax, do I need a crimping tool? Then I can use my UVSJ and test the antenna. I may test the UHF by itself as Im anxious to find out if the electronics really were messing up the antenna.
Dissassembled everything with one extra small screwdriver....well I had to cut the coax too.
Naked A Neutronics The rotor unit came right off with 2 screws (also had to cut the VHF coax which is hardwired unlike the UHF side...wonder why they couldnt add a male F connector to the backside where the VHF comes into the rotor unit).
Rotor unit
Rotor interior close up
Rotor interior close up
Box at bottom of mast of rotor unit
Controller/Amplifier/Power Supply/Cable Connections Box
Remote Control
Remote Control Close Up
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The loops with the twistup wire adjustability, seemed to be useful for old analog signals, IIRC.
I also remember that those things were abused and often failed at the weak joints....back in the day. But for digital? I dont know if your average person could benefit from it. It would be more like an excercise in voodoo, perhaps more frustrating.
I like the limited options of the RCA ANT108 which gives it some of its sturdiness. It gives you an upper limit to the voodoo reception dance.
I also remember that those things were abused and often failed at the weak joints....back in the day. But for digital? I dont know if your average person could benefit from it. It would be more like an excercise in voodoo, perhaps more frustrating.
I like the limited options of the RCA ANT108 which gives it some of its sturdiness. It gives you an upper limit to the voodoo reception dance.
You might look into one of these Jay....Rhembrandt branding Ive seen on those dual loop styles though there are probably others. I think like the FM crossed folded dipoles you lose about 2db gain from a standard loop but gain omni directional functionality as opposed to bi-directionality of the single loop.
@Piggie
I wonder how the smaller loop (which I suppose was for better gain on the upper part of the old UHF television spectrum Ch. 69-83 or perhaps 51-69) affects the larger loop. This is similar to the situation with the A Neutronics VHF loops.
@Piggie
I wonder how the smaller loop (which I suppose was for better gain on the upper part of the old UHF television spectrum Ch. 69-83 or perhaps 51-69) affects the larger loop. This is similar to the situation with the A Neutronics VHF loops.
You might look into one of these Jay....Rhembrandt branding Ive seen on those dual loop styles though there are probably others. I think like the FM crossed folded dipoles you lose about 2db gain from a standard loop but gain omni directional functionality as opposed to bi-directionality of the single loop.
Good Question! Let's ask Piggie.
Capacitance Hats? Insulators? SWR Killers?
Ive seen stuff like these on Ham antennas, where you put insulators or some such on the antenna to shorten the length and tune the antenna or some such. Then you remove them and lengthen the line for another frequency band. Or maybe it had to do with resistance and ohms.
Piggie where are you? We need your expertise.
.
Capacitance Hats? Insulators? SWR Killers?
Ive seen stuff like these on Ham antennas, where you put insulators or some such on the antenna to shorten the length and tune the antenna or some such. Then you remove them and lengthen the line for another frequency band. Or maybe it had to do with resistance and ohms.
Piggie where are you? We need your expertise.
.
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Update on the A Neutronics...
Review continued....
Without most of the suspect Chinese electronics between the naked antenna and the tuner, this antenna is performing great (at least on UHF).
Its hooked up to a 6 foot coax with an F-connector adaptor to the short coax lead out of the UHF balun box of the A Neutronics front loops.
Picked up all stations....including my most troublesome Channel 4 WCIV (RC 34)....solid no pixelation......except for VHF High channel 7 WITV (RC 7).....but I didnt have the VHF loops hooked up, yet! This was UHF double loops only. Channel 16 off the backside....solid.
I referenced against the RCA ANT108 basic RE&Loop in the same location directly afterwards. The RCA was giving 16,24,36 (all with same RCs as call numbers) solid. Also it was giving bad unwatchable pixelation, basically frozen pixelated images from time to time, on 2 (RC 50), 5 (RC 47), and 7 (RC 7) and nothing on 4 (RC 34)
Cant wait to wire up the VHF loops and combine them into a UVSJ to see how it does on VHF High!
Its a shame the electronics are so shoddy on this thing. If everything worked as advertised, low noise amp, rotor control etc....then this thing would sing! Perhaps others got luckier than I. If so they got a very good antenna.
Perhaps I should update the original review?
Review continued....
Without most of the suspect Chinese electronics between the naked antenna and the tuner, this antenna is performing great (at least on UHF).
Its hooked up to a 6 foot coax with an F-connector adaptor to the short coax lead out of the UHF balun box of the A Neutronics front loops.
Picked up all stations....including my most troublesome Channel 4 WCIV (RC 34)....solid no pixelation......except for VHF High channel 7 WITV (RC 7).....but I didnt have the VHF loops hooked up, yet! This was UHF double loops only. Channel 16 off the backside....solid.
I referenced against the RCA ANT108 basic RE&Loop in the same location directly afterwards. The RCA was giving 16,24,36 (all with same RCs as call numbers) solid. Also it was giving bad unwatchable pixelation, basically frozen pixelated images from time to time, on 2 (RC 50), 5 (RC 47), and 7 (RC 7) and nothing on 4 (RC 34)
Cant wait to wire up the VHF loops and combine them into a UVSJ to see how it does on VHF High!
Its a shame the electronics are so shoddy on this thing. If everything worked as advertised, low noise amp, rotor control etc....then this thing would sing! Perhaps others got luckier than I. If so they got a very good antenna.
Perhaps I should update the original review?
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Quantum FX ANT-104 Review
Comments coming soon!
Here is the box, along with the A Neutronics for comparison.
Box and contents. You can see the rotor is hard wired with about 45 ft of what Im calling RG59.
Here are the 2 pre-assembled boom sections that you join together. Notice the driven UHF loop is on the backside boom.
It slides up and you put a small screw into its plastic mount and the boom, after you join the 2 booms together.
Looking down the barrel, of fully assembled Quantum FX ANT-104.
Topside view. All the elements are thinnish walled aluminum tubing.
Seen here next to naked A Neutronics 891 for comparison.
Another side view, notice the stamped wing nuts on top to secure the booms together and the rotor to the boom. These would collect and hold water....probably should be replaced with regular nuts. Then again this antenna doesnt seem particularly outdoor weather worthy.
Here is the remote and controller box which contains the amplifier. This box is made of tougher plastic than the A Neutronics....and has the on/off and reset button on the top of the unit. The remote is made of the same tough plastic. The remotes battery compartment seems ill shaped, having too much volume, but a very tight squeeze for the batteries from end to end. I had some difficulty getting them to seat properly, but eventually strong armed them in there, where they stayed firmly with use.
Here is the backside of the controller box. Unlike the A Neutronics, it uses standard F connectors on all parts. 2 TV outputs (one pre-wired 6 ft. coax), 1 Antenna in, and the 6 ft. power cord. Labelled with raised lettering (back of top of box), kind of hard to see, but the over exposed picture makes it seem more difficult. I liked this box/remote design and function better than the A Neutronics.
-----
Rotor Control
The rotor control worked pretty well on this unit. It seems a bit under-engineered and imprecise. I think its probaby a similar pulse driven motor that divxhacker uncoverd on the first page of this thread. But it works, which is more than I can say for the A Neutronics. I might try the A Neutronics rotor with this units box and remote....speaking of which, see the zip lock bag they are in in the 2nd picture from the top....it looks like maybe these are an add in for the US market or some such....which is a step up from the straight Chinese product that the A Neutronics (which has been around since at least 2003) seems to be. Many of these recent Chinese antenna invaders with rotors seem to be shipping with this remote/box combo....and as replacements for the original remotes/boxes...which as far as I can tell, is desireable.
Construction Quality
Generally the quality is fair. The assembly was a bit complicated but not terribly. The elements are all pre-attached to the boom except for the one driven UHF element which is on the boom and just needs to be slid into place and screwed into the pre drilled holes. The plastic frames are work good for the smaller UHF elements, but the for the longer VHF elements in the rear, they are undersized, and would easily be blow out of whack by moderately strong winds if mounted outside. That is a big fumble IMO. If you just twist the antenna back and forth they move around abit and can sit kindof cock-eyed in relation to each other. But kudos for aluminum tubing elements and boom..although I think a little higher wall thickness would have been good on the aluminum tubing. This thing couldnt take a fall from shoulder high very well, with extended elements.
Performance
Tuner used is Vizio GV42LF LCD. Here is My TVfool at the Window Lamp location to help understand the review. I am 45 miles South of the tower cluster, flat land, over water for a good part. I also have one station WJWJ 16 that is in the other direction and closer at 23 miles or so.
This antenna was great on UHF....bringing in all of my UHF stations and even 16 (RC 16) off the backside. Just right there in the window on the sweet spot lamp.
However it didnt pick up channel 7 WITV PBS (RC 7). So I investigated further. During assembly the twinlead wire (seen below in the photographs) was connected as per instructions to the largest rear element. There are dual folded dipole elements directly in front of the large rear element. I thought that maybe they were having a deliterious effect on the rear element and VHF Hi reception.....so I spun the antenna around and faced the backside of the atenna toward the Ch. 7 tower and bam, locked a signal but right on the digital cliff. So I walked the unit outside and right out the door aiming the antenna "backwards" picked up Ch. 7, then I spun the antenna around facing "frontwards" toward the broadcast towers and lost tuner lock on the signal immediately.
How to solve this problem?
I decided to disconnect the VHF twinlead from the rear element and attach it to the upper longish folded dipole directly in front of the long rear element. This improved forward VHF High performance allowing me to get an image on the screen. However performance was better on Ch. 7 using the larger rear element and pointing the backside of the antenna towards the tower.
Im thinking about removing the 2 midsized longish elements and seeing how that works. It may affect UHF performance negatively (or it could feasibly improve it). Anyways, the other Chinese antenna I have coming with the single VHF Hi dipole and the UHF reflector screen behind it (seen directly below), may be a better solution, increasing both forward UHF and forward VHF reception. Should be interesting.
Regardless, the UHF performance on this antenna was very good.
Here you can see the twinlead VHF connectors, they slide up between the plastic fitting and the aluminum tubing, and you drop the screws through them to secure. It was easy to change from the rear element to one of the forward elements.
Notice also the closeup of the stamped steel wingnut I was talking about earlier, that would tend to hold water.
Comments coming soon!
Here is the box, along with the A Neutronics for comparison.
Box and contents. You can see the rotor is hard wired with about 45 ft of what Im calling RG59.
Here are the 2 pre-assembled boom sections that you join together. Notice the driven UHF loop is on the backside boom.
It slides up and you put a small screw into its plastic mount and the boom, after you join the 2 booms together.
Looking down the barrel, of fully assembled Quantum FX ANT-104.
Topside view. All the elements are thinnish walled aluminum tubing.
Seen here next to naked A Neutronics 891 for comparison.
Another side view, notice the stamped wing nuts on top to secure the booms together and the rotor to the boom. These would collect and hold water....probably should be replaced with regular nuts. Then again this antenna doesnt seem particularly outdoor weather worthy.
Here is the remote and controller box which contains the amplifier. This box is made of tougher plastic than the A Neutronics....and has the on/off and reset button on the top of the unit. The remote is made of the same tough plastic. The remotes battery compartment seems ill shaped, having too much volume, but a very tight squeeze for the batteries from end to end. I had some difficulty getting them to seat properly, but eventually strong armed them in there, where they stayed firmly with use.
Here is the backside of the controller box. Unlike the A Neutronics, it uses standard F connectors on all parts. 2 TV outputs (one pre-wired 6 ft. coax), 1 Antenna in, and the 6 ft. power cord. Labelled with raised lettering (back of top of box), kind of hard to see, but the over exposed picture makes it seem more difficult. I liked this box/remote design and function better than the A Neutronics.
-----
Rotor Control
The rotor control worked pretty well on this unit. It seems a bit under-engineered and imprecise. I think its probaby a similar pulse driven motor that divxhacker uncoverd on the first page of this thread. But it works, which is more than I can say for the A Neutronics. I might try the A Neutronics rotor with this units box and remote....speaking of which, see the zip lock bag they are in in the 2nd picture from the top....it looks like maybe these are an add in for the US market or some such....which is a step up from the straight Chinese product that the A Neutronics (which has been around since at least 2003) seems to be. Many of these recent Chinese antenna invaders with rotors seem to be shipping with this remote/box combo....and as replacements for the original remotes/boxes...which as far as I can tell, is desireable.
Construction Quality
Generally the quality is fair. The assembly was a bit complicated but not terribly. The elements are all pre-attached to the boom except for the one driven UHF element which is on the boom and just needs to be slid into place and screwed into the pre drilled holes. The plastic frames are work good for the smaller UHF elements, but the for the longer VHF elements in the rear, they are undersized, and would easily be blow out of whack by moderately strong winds if mounted outside. That is a big fumble IMO. If you just twist the antenna back and forth they move around abit and can sit kindof cock-eyed in relation to each other. But kudos for aluminum tubing elements and boom..although I think a little higher wall thickness would have been good on the aluminum tubing. This thing couldnt take a fall from shoulder high very well, with extended elements.
Performance
Tuner used is Vizio GV42LF LCD. Here is My TVfool at the Window Lamp location to help understand the review. I am 45 miles South of the tower cluster, flat land, over water for a good part. I also have one station WJWJ 16 that is in the other direction and closer at 23 miles or so.
This antenna was great on UHF....bringing in all of my UHF stations and even 16 (RC 16) off the backside. Just right there in the window on the sweet spot lamp.
However it didnt pick up channel 7 WITV PBS (RC 7). So I investigated further. During assembly the twinlead wire (seen below in the photographs) was connected as per instructions to the largest rear element. There are dual folded dipole elements directly in front of the large rear element. I thought that maybe they were having a deliterious effect on the rear element and VHF Hi reception.....so I spun the antenna around and faced the backside of the atenna toward the Ch. 7 tower and bam, locked a signal but right on the digital cliff. So I walked the unit outside and right out the door aiming the antenna "backwards" picked up Ch. 7, then I spun the antenna around facing "frontwards" toward the broadcast towers and lost tuner lock on the signal immediately.
How to solve this problem?
I decided to disconnect the VHF twinlead from the rear element and attach it to the upper longish folded dipole directly in front of the long rear element. This improved forward VHF High performance allowing me to get an image on the screen. However performance was better on Ch. 7 using the larger rear element and pointing the backside of the antenna towards the tower.
Im thinking about removing the 2 midsized longish elements and seeing how that works. It may affect UHF performance negatively (or it could feasibly improve it). Anyways, the other Chinese antenna I have coming with the single VHF Hi dipole and the UHF reflector screen behind it (seen directly below), may be a better solution, increasing both forward UHF and forward VHF reception. Should be interesting.
Regardless, the UHF performance on this antenna was very good.
Here you can see the twinlead VHF connectors, they slide up between the plastic fitting and the aluminum tubing, and you drop the screws through them to secure. It was easy to change from the rear element to one of the forward elements.
Notice also the closeup of the stamped steel wingnut I was talking about earlier, that would tend to hold water.
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