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Reviews For: Lightning Bolt 5 band 2 element quad

Category: Antennas: HF: Yagi, Quad, Rotary dipole, LPDA

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Review Summary For : Lightning Bolt 5 band 2 element quad
Reviews: 43MSRP: 340.
Description:
NOTE: I AM MIKE DUDDY FORMALLY LIGHTNING BOLT ANTENNAS. WE ARE NO LONGER IN BUSINESS. WE ARE OUT OF BUSINESS AND WE DO NOT WISH TO SELL THE BUSINESS OR THE NAME. WE HAVE REMOVED OUR WEB PAGE. THANK YOU.
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00434.9
NZ0T Rating: 2017-08-28
Excellent quad beam Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It's really too bad that this quad design is no longer in production. I was given one by a friend about 4 years ago and after a QTH move was finally able to put it up atop my 40' tower about 6 weeks ago. Band conditions have been poor on the upper bands but I have found that this quad performs as well as any 3 element triband yagi I have used and works 12 and 17 meters to boot. I assembled it by myself including the wire elements. If one follows the excellent directions by W3DF found online one person can easily assemble the antenna. It is large, though not heavy, so help is needed to get it up onto the tower. With the help of a gin pole, my XYL N0HLV and our son the quad was installed on top of the tower in about 2 hours time. SWR is excellent on all bands and for some reason is low on 6 meters even though it does not have the optional 6 meter elements. I feed it as designed with one coax feedline though the supplied balun. If you can find one of these antennas, try it!
ZL2TZE Rating: 2010-03-07
Help with this antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Hi,
If this is in the wrong area I apologize.
I am helping out a friend set up this antenna and it goes together very well, but in transit the balun has been destroyed beyond repair . Can someone please tell me what the balun is ? 1:1 or 2:1 ??

73 Phillip
ZL2TZE
M0HDX Rating: 2006-11-10
AWESOME ANTENNA Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Had my quad up for six months and the antenna is fantastic.swr is fantastic on all 5 bands and i would say it works like a 3 element monoband yagi on everyband if not better.The antenna was very simple to build with the help of my friend ian 2E1RDX and i have it on a 40ft tower on the farm,I am feeding the antenna with single feed coax to the transformer/2.1 balum and the dx worked with the quad as been amazing considering we are at the bottom of the sunspot cycle.I had a th6-dxx up at 100ft and i can honestly say the lightning bolt quad is performing as good at 40ft and seems to be a lot quieter on back ground noise than the th6-dxx.

my only regret was not putting a lightning bolt quad up years ago.

jim,M0HDX
EA8AY Rating: 2006-09-11
Fantastic antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Really a fantastic antenna, I bought this antenna more than one year ago. And now I´m very happy with this one, mounted in tower 30 feet up. With my K2 and very poor condx worked G, Ik, US stations with very good reports. In my web you can see how we mount the antenna www.ea8ay.com.
Mike thanks for this antenna we hope you back again.
WR8D Rating: 2006-08-02
There's not an antenna made that can take its place. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Come back to us Mike we need your products. I've had mine up now for a few years and it still looks like new at the top of my tower. All i can say here at the bottom of this sun cycle is i can still hear them. They don't make the s-meter move at all, and i'm still working them thanks to Mikes quad design. Today is aug 8, 2006 at the complete bottom of this sun cycle and i worked Russia, Africia and several stations in Europe on 20m this afternoon. While Mike was making these he always took time to answer every question i had, you Mike and your products will saddly be missed. Thanks again pal for such a fine antenna and customer service. 73 John WR8D
NN2X Rating: 2005-12-30
Great Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased two antennas from Mike, the 6 element (20M,17M,15M) and 11 element on 10M and 12M on one single 40FT boom. My first purchase was a 2 Element Quad / 5 Band HF.

I actually helped Mike in the beginning to analyze his antennas, and provided Antenna patterns, and comparisons. I had the test equipment and the property at the time to help him. I was very happy to do so.

If what I read is true about the lightning Bolt closing down, I am truly disappointed, Another great antenna manufacturer, with super people owning the company decided to close down the business.


You could not find a better price / performance ratio! Just no other system, for $350 to compete with his products!

For the new HAM operators desiring to have a five band HF system, with great performance at a very affordable price, this option is taken off the menu!

SV2GWY Rating: 2005-12-26
Better than I expected Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Merry Xmas & Happy New year 2006 to all of you.

Before I purchased any ham product I read and printed alot of pages of the eham.net's reviews,
for my transceiver,my PA and of course the 2 el Q.Q 6 band with the 3" boom.

So I THANK everybody who wrote down and send his comment to this forum (positive or negative opinion).

Only few weeks that this antenna is on my tower. Till now its' performance is better than my 4 el yagi, quiter and lighter. If you are looking the antenna towards is uglier, but as they say "NO pain NO gain". I didn't regret for the change (and I will not).


The future buyers of this excellent antennas should read the following suggestions:

-You must have some helpers (over 2) and
E N O U G H space for constraction and installation on the mast.
- Wear gloves for the fiberglass and protecting glasses for the Alu-wire
- The SWR is real a DEAD LINE (---) on the 6 bands, the Kenwood's TS-2000 Auto Antenna Tuner managed to tune the antenna on 30,40 and 80meters, but don't drive the antenna on those bands over 100W,as I did.

Remember the antenna is the Alfa and Omega of your station. Invest on it.

73s DE SV2GWY (=Demetrius)

PS: The final costs reached 1.000Euros for the antenna, transportation, custom taxes, VAT etc, to Greece. (The only negative spot) but as I said before "NO pain, NO gain".

N8DOD Rating: 2005-12-23
Many Undertstood my query Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Thanks to the many hams that answered my query, Via email as a result of my post I was contacted by a ham less than 100 miles away with a brand new Lightning bolt and was not going to be able to use because of health problems he had to move into a antenna restricted residence, He offered it to me for 1/2 price, needless to say I jumped at the chance and drove to his QTH and I am now the owner of a brand new 5 band 2 element Lightning bolt Quad and am impressed with the quality.

I am sorry one gentleman was upset with me but
the message here worked out great thanks to all the other helpfull hams.

Merry Christmas
WB9DLC Rating: 2005-12-22
Great Antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I put my quad up at the end of August. Performance is great (as predicted) but wanted to wait and see how it held up. Now it is mid December and it has been fine in 70+ MPH winds and 1 ice storm. This antenna really works well and is easy on the rotor. Assembly was pretty easy. The boom material could have been a little heavier - I would have paid a little more.

I guess the review is moot at this point. Too bad....
N2NFG Rating: 2005-12-20
GREAT ANTENNAS AND SERVICE. WE'LL MISS YOU Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I'm writing this review mainly to offset the 3 star "non-review" posted by the idiot N8DOD. I spoke to Mike this morning and he comfirmed that Lightning Bolt is indeed out of business. Reasons he cited for the demise were lack of business and problems with suppliers. For the 17 years they produced antennas, the price/performance ratio was unbeatable by any other antenna manufacturer. Low cost did not mean low quality either. These antennas were built to last, both in design and materials quality. (ie. an inovative wire holder design eliminating potentially weakening holes in the fiberglass spreaders) Mike was always available to answer any questions; no phone tag or unanswered email with Lightning Bolt. Their product line was extensive also. Quads and delta loops from 7 mhz through 440 mhz were available in many configurations. For the folks who swear by the Quad antenna, this is a major loss in availability. For those thinking of buying a Quad, be prepared to spend a lot more money. Glad I have mine.