Assembling and installing a Grid Antenna - Part 1

A short course on assembling and installing a grid antenna. As you probably know by now this antenna is superior to any others for a fixed location and is by far the best "bang" for the buck.

First, the package:

The antenna comes in two sections in one box that measures 25 x 22 x 8 and weighs 11 lbs.

Inside the box are two smaller packages and documentation:

One of the smaller boxes contains the assembly hardware and the other contains this nifty little socket set to put it together, an unexpected bonus:

The reflector grid is held together with 4 bolts and the pre-assembled feed horn with 4 as well. Very simple to put together. This is the fully assembled antenna with a yard stick to show dimension:


It has a nice powder-coated finish and appears to be durable and well made. No sharp edges to cut yourself. Note the way the antenna is orientated. You want the ribs and feedhorn running vertically like this for EVDO ... not like it is pictured in the accompanied directions.

This view shows the mounting bracket that is assembled using the same bolts the feedhorn uses:


Here is another view of the mounting bracket with a section of galvanized pipe showing how this will mount to a pole. This is 1" pipe. Note the short length of LMR400 cable with a N-female connector:

This is the single page directions that came with it. umm...pretty simple :-)

This particular grid antenna is a 2.4 GHz model which works just fine on a 1900 MHz EVDO system. There is also a 900 MHz model which will work just as well on a 850 MHz system.

In my next post I will put this antenna up and run it through some signal tests.

Stay tuned .....