I LOVE the pac wireless j arms. I won't buy anything else. No one even comes close to the quality of those units. marlon
----- Original Message ----- From: "MDK" <[email protected]> To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 10:15 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] 24dB 2.4 gig grid antennas >I believe Advanced Antenna bought out the old Equinox company, and now it > appears they, too, have gone belly-up - or at least the old website is now > gone (www.advancedantennainc.com). Perhaps now there's yet another > operating under the old brand, or maybe they changed websites and I can't > find the new one. > > Over the years I've used a number of their antennas, and they were by far, > the most troublesome I have used. They were even heavier than the > pacwireless, and used the same flimsy bracket, with the dipole attached to > the BRACKET not the dish, and the L shaped bracket would bend in the wind, > leaving the dish and dipole out of alignment. We actually engineered a > cable retention system we used on both theirs and PW's large grids to keep > them pointed properly in high winds. > > They finally upgraded to a much heavier gauge bracket, but the design flaw > remained. Then sometime later, I bought a boxful of 2.4 samples (from > low to high gain), and found they simply weren't worth messing with. 2 > out > of 5 had bad dipoles - one failed on install, the other failed a few > months > later. The price was very cheap, however. And, they did appear to > have > roughly the gain they claimed. > > I took the dipoles apart and found that the construction was beyond bad. > They were just crude and poorly constructed and poorly designed in every > way > eXCEPT the dipole printed on a PCB, which was very nicely done. > THAT was my experience with the Equinox branded antennas. > > Later, I got quotes from Advanced Antenna, and bought bunch of the j-arm > universal mounts, which were great. Upon calling back, I got my call > answered by the same guy who used to be at Equinox... They raised the > prices of their antennas above pacwireless, so I never bought a thing from > them except j arm mounts. > > Some of the equinox guys left and started their own company, and I recall > they had a new name and new location, but I never bought anything from > them, > since my biggest use of antennas is 5 ghz and theirs cost more than > Pacwireless. I no longer recall the name they operated under. > > Lately, I've used a bunch of Arcwireless panels with the enclosure on the > back, and the performance from those has been better than any grids I've > used. Not to mention that compex finally got their certifications done > a > few years ago and that was the antenna of choice :) > > The 23 db panel gave us better RSSI than a 25 db PW grid for a given > distance. The 2.4 panel performance is also very good. > > We lately used mostly ubiquiti bullets (not hp) for cpe and have gone back > to the PW grids, because the standalone panel antenna mounts for > Arcwireless > totally suck. They're weak, clumsy, and even look strange. > > THere are two versions of PacWireless 5 ghz grids, there's a wideband and > a > narrow band. The wideband has an attached pigtail, and is cheaper by a > few bucks. We've had a number of them that didn't work right, found some > had the beam off to the side, or other quirks, like wildly varying RSSI > for > small frequency changes. The narrow band ones have no pigtail, but have > worked better and more reliably, but we find them VERY hard to waterproof. > We've found that some of the pigtails built onto the grids have leaked > water > right past the shrink wrap. A couple of temporary installs we used just > filled themselves with water, which apparently had to come through the > sheath of the cable, or through the shrink wrap itself. Still, we keep > using them by default, because we haven't found any good alternative. If > one of them behaves funny, we just toss it in the van and use it in some > location that's real short distance and the gain or odd beam isn't an > issue. > Still, the water issue was a problem that I am extremely concerned about, > though the failure rate has been small and only affects a few recent > installs. > > I got some ignition spec dielectric grease and filled the connector with > it > and it's been fine ever since... the temp install has now made it through > several more driving rainstorms with no issue, when it failed on the FIRST > big rain this summer. > > > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------- > From: "3-dB Networks" <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 9:16 PM > To: "'WISPA General List'" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [WISPA] 24dB 2.4 gig grid antennas > >> Try Advanced Antenna... I've sold a few and have not heard any >> complaints... >> have not seen them myself though. >> >> Daniel White >> 3-dB Networks >> http://www.3dbnetworks.com >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On >> Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer >> Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 10:14 PM >> To: WISPA General List >> Subject: [WISPA] 24dB 2.4 gig grid antennas >> >> Hi All, >> >> What are you using for grid antennas? I really don't like the Pac >> Wireless >> ones. But I need something new because the Andrew (can't remember the >> new >> name) ones are being discontinued. >> >> Suggestions? >> marlon >> >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> ---- >> WISPA Wants You! 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