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Ron Smith G17 heading for eBay: any assembly instruction?

andrewsutton

pfm Member
Hi I am moving house and my G 17 is not going to fit in the loft. I am not keen to put it on the roof as it will involve hassle with planning/conservation people.
I am going to put it on eBay and wondered if any one has a set of assembly instructions they could let me have??
I could write some up but the original ones would be more reliable.
I see the G17 is now listed on the Ron Smith website at £215 plus vat and delivery at about £40!
Cheers Andy.
 
I am not keen to put it on the roof as it will involve hassle with planning/conservation people.

Interesting, as surely a TV aerial is allowed; the G17 is just another (very fine) antenna. You'll get much better s.q. from your (presumably tasty) tuner if you stick the G17 on a 12 foot mast on a chimney as opposed to inside a loft, assuming local reception is similar. Re. instructions, you really don't need any; just a picture of the assembled G17 and/or a diagram of the element placement, and that doesn't exactly require quantum physics ! ;)
 
Be aware that a member on here was trying to sell one in the classifieds for ages for peanuts.

I've got one on the roof and it provides a great signal to my Meridian 104 but I don't think the world will beat a path to your door at anything more than a fraction of the new price, sorry!
 
Tell them to fit a sturdy mast, the wind loading on these must be quite something, as mine blew over in a storm!
 
I've got one that I bought second-hand about 15 years ago. Never used it, and it's still sitting in the box in my garage.

I don't listen to radio anymore (except occasionally in the car). All TV is via the Internet. Really no use for it!

I probably I'll toss it one of these days. :oops:
 
I had a G23, which is more or less a G17 with lots more bits; total monstrosity on an h/d rotator on 12' mast 60' + above the road in Ramsgate. Pity I only had a NAT 101 then; got a NAT 01 later, but it had to cope with an ordinary six element array. Change of domicile from massive 1870 house to 1964 3-bed house !!!! My friend has had his G17 for around 20 years with his two 01s (greedy bas***d).
 
I've found my old paperwork from when I bought my G 17 from Ron in 1999!

It includes a single A4 sheet of assembly "instructions", if you pm me your email address I'll send you a pdf.
 
I was looking out for one of these a little while ago, as I'd acquired a decent tuner and probably listen to radio more than anything else.
Paradoxically, I live in an area which - though flat to the horizon - is so far from the nearest transmitters that reception is pretty poor, even from the existing rooftop aerials, so thought a Ron Smith would be the only way forward.

As I'm waiting to start renovation work on the house which will require scaffolding and I don't fancy hauling my flabby old carcase up a ladder onto the roof of 3-story house, I tried the well-reviewed Monarch 50 HDTV antenna from RG Tech - a transparent piece of plastic with a conductive plastic grid painted thereupon about the size of an A4 sheet of paper.

monarch-50-device.png


I expected little from this device, and assumed I'd be sending it straight back to Amazon, but I stuck it at the top of a downstairs window facing roughly in the direction of the nearest transmitter - and found I now have near-100% signal strength and dropout-free DAB...

Still want a proper big-boy aerial at some point (don't we all, dear...).
 
I was looking out for one of these a little while ago, as I'd acquired a decent tuner and probably listen to radio more than anything else.
Paradoxically, I live in an area which - though flat to the horizon - is so far from the nearest transmitters that reception is pretty poor, even from the existing rooftop aerials, so thought a Ron Smith would be the only way forward.

As I'm waiting to start renovation work on the house which will require scaffolding and I don't fancy hauling my flabby old carcase up a ladder onto the roof of 3-story house, I tried the well-reviewed Monarch 50 HDTV antenna from RG Tech - a transparent piece of plastic with a conductive plastic grid painted thereupon about the size of an A4 sheet of paper.

monarch-50-device.png


I expected little from this device, and assumed I'd be sending it straight back to Amazon, but I stuck it at the top of a downstairs window facing roughly in the direction of the nearest transmitter - and found I now have near-100% signal strength and dropout-free DAB...

Still want a proper big-boy aerial at some point (don't we all, dear...).

I bought the Chi-Fi version of that for £8, thinking it would be going back and its been the best aerial I've ever had for both dab and tv.
 
DAB and TV is much higher frequency than FM, so an effective antenna is much smaller.

There has been some debate about just how well Galaxies work considering their enormous size.
 
Perhaps more surprising is how well it works with FM as well. No question you could do better, but plenty good enough for modern equipment with plenty of gain.
 
I am not keen to put it on the roof as it will involve hassle with planning/conservation people.

In the US, many municipalities and homeowners associations have bans on outdoor antennas. This is unenforceable as the FCC (Federal Communications commission) clearly states no no one or body can prevent the reception of broadcast signals by banning outdoor receivers (antennae). Do you have a similar body in the UK?

Of course, If you don't want to pi$$ off your neighbors, that's a different matter.
 
I bought a 17 from Ron and had it installed on my house in Tring. It needed a taller mast to 'get over' Amersham but the installer refused any increase in height because of the possible wind load. I asked about the 23 but was told it would be far too directional and useless without a rotator which they would not install on my chimney. My neighbours thought we were an embassy for a few months after we'd moved in. DGP
 
If interested in FM antenna I would suggest looking at InnovaAntenna who have great reputation in the Amateur Radio community but also do Products covering broadcast frequencies

https://www.innovantennas.com/en/shop-page/26/88mhz-108mhz-broadcast.html

Proper engineering and design from people who know their stuff

Don't know anything about them. But from a quick look at their site, encouraging that they're willing to point out the value of a balun, etc.
 
Interesting how little extra gain going from 8 to 11 elements, which is as expected for Yagis. This is why the Galaxies claims are suspect

Gain in beam antenna is a function of boom length not number of elements also ‘gain’ is often a misquoted figure so can be both used and abused on occasions*


*takes off Ham Radio hat
 


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