Wimo X-Quad 70cms issue

[@nine7295]

Very interesting. And also good to know that WIMO doesn't care about their customers. Great that you fixed it.

[@gi4sjq]

Thanks for the comment. Yes indeed WIMO are not very helpful. They are not very good at getting in contact. Hope to be removing mine and I have a pare of M2s ready to go up which are much better. No socket issues.

[@brianjenkins5092]

I would be very interested to know what the problem is as I am considering buying the VHF/UHF pair for satellite ops.

[@gi4sjq]

The problem I had on the 70cms antennas was. The sockets are 50ohm N types but one of the plugs on the harness is a 75ohm plug. The 75ohm center pin is much smaller diameter that a 50 ohm center pin and so its a very poor or non existent connection.

[@tekspeditionplanet9109]

Thanks very much for the video. I'm about to pull the trigger on a pair of these WiMO antennas for satellite, but you had me hesitating. Glad you found a solution. Did you try reversing the phasing harness? Maybe one N female is 75 ohm and the other 50 ohm.

[@gi4sjq]

Hi. I have had them in use for a year now and no issues. Once 70cms was resolved by me and not WIMO its worked without a flaw. Unfortunately you cannot reverse the cables in the phasing harness. The manual goes into detail about connecting for right hand circular polarization. If they had fitted a 75ohm N type socked on the right hand side it would not have been an issue. Never looked at the 2m antenna as it did not have any issues. I guess they made a mistake with the 70cms driven element assembly and fitted a 50ohm socked by accident. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt.

[@tekspeditionplanet9109]

@@gi4sjq just now assembling my WiMo pair of satellite antennas, after having them shipped from Germany to the US, then I shipped them from the US to Asia. I've looked at my connections and there doesn't seem to be any issues with the plugs and sockets, so maybe you got a one-off defect, or WiMo corrected the problem. Thanks for the video, it made me check over the antennas in great detail.

[@gi4sjq]

@@tekspeditionplanet9109 HI. Thats good news that you had no issues. I did get mys sorted but I had to do it myself. WIMO were uesless. There must have been a mistake in the factory and they fitted a 50 ohm socket when they should have fitted a 75 ohm socket. Because its all sealed up its not easy changed. I fixed it by shimming out the socker center pin so when the 75 ohm plug was inserted it made an excellent connection. Just my luck I guess. Excellent antennas and easy to assemble and work well. Good luch on the Sats. Its great fun. George GI4SJQ

[@stevelowe9990]

Do you have the UHF phasing harness - Wimo part No. 18049 ? They make a different one for 2M. I'm about to install the 2m and the 70cm X quad in the next few week but have bought the polarization switches for each band

[@gi4sjq]

Hi Steve. Yes. I used the correct phasing harnesses from WIMO. All bought from the DX-Shop so they kept me right. I now, no thanks to WIMO have the antenna working. The right hand N-type socket is a 50ohm connector but the plug for it on the WIMO phasing harness is a 75ohm plug. 75 ohm center pin diameter is much smaller than the 50ohm equivalent. My fix. I cut some 1/4 watt resistor leads off and dropped them into the center of the socket. Fitted the plug and it worked. The resistor cutoffs are shimming the socket center female socket so the center pin of the plug actually makes a good electrical contact with the metal of the center of the socket. The antenna has now been in use for about 3 months since late January and its working well and the SWR bandwidth is now very good across the 70cms band and not up at 450MHZ. Good antennas and work well but that one threw me for a long time. Tried contacting WIMO support a couple of times but the were useless. I must post an update to the video. 73 George

[@stevelowe9990]

@GI4SJQ Thanks George for the update, glad you got it working, not good that you had to sort a fix like that though. 73's Steve

[@mikemc4759]

@@gi4sjq Very interesting! Thank you for this information. I will try it also.

[@mikemc4759]

Interesting! Have you solved the problem? I have assembled my antenna today and the minimum SWR is around 425 MHz. I am using the same SWR meter. The left socket is horizontal, the right is the vertical polarisation. You can also measure each socket separately.

[@gi4sjq]

HI Mike. I moved the first director element about 10mm forward, away from the driven element which dropped the resonant frequency by about 10Mhz into the low 440s Mhz but have not gone back to it since. I was not so keen on bending the driven element to make adjustments. If yours in low in frequency then I guess you might need to move it closer to the driven element. I must get back to it. I have tested both the horizontal and vertical separately and they are resonant in the 70cms band but are low. Must have another go. Like the look of the antenna but now using a pair of M2s which are working well.

[@mikemc4759]

@@gi4sjq Thanks a lot for your feedback. Yes, I like M2 antennas also, but they are not longer available in Germany. I have to import it from US directly. I do not unterstand why, because this are really great antennas. I guess your problem is a faulty connector. Once you have screw tightly, the DC connection is lost. I assume the N-socket is moving a bit outwards because the nut of the N-connector is applying force to the junction box case. I had a simelar problem with a 70cm big wheel of Wimo. One element was not fixed properly. However Wimo exchanged it without any problem.

[@gi4sjq]

@@mikemc4759 Yes. I had a long yagi years ago and was impressed with them. I got mine from Martin Lynch & Sons www.hamradio.co.uk George

[@mikemc4759]

@@gi4sjq Thanks for the info. Import from UK to Germany is much easier as shipping from US.

[@gi4sjq]

Hi Mike. Yes fixed the problem 3 months ago no thanks to WIMO who were of no assistance. I must post an update. 73 George

[@russturner3454]

Audio way too low