Sunday, March 24, 2024

Lightning Bolt Antenna Catalog and Quad Assembly Manual


The Lighting Bolt Quad was a very popular antenna until about 2005 when it went out of production. In my view, it was the very best value in an HF gain antenna. I have posted the assembly manual here for those who might have acquired a used one without a manual or those who might want to homebrew one with parts from MaxGain. 

I built and installed the 5-band, 2-element version of the Lightning Bolt several decades ago for $260. I really love this antenna. It was very inexpensive and it's been a good performer. Since I have another telescoping tower with a Kt34XA tribander, I have been able to do many A/B comparisons, and the quad performs very comparably with each at 40 ft (the max height for the quad tower). 

I have read some quad users state that one should feed each band separately. I chose not to do that after testing the quad with all bands tied together against the big tribander. The additional complexity didn't seem worth it since the quad was so close in performance to the larger antenna, I concluded that there wasn't much to gain with separate feed lines. However, I did add 30 meters to the quad with a slight extension described on my page at QRZ.com. 


Lightning Bolt Quad Assembly Manual

Lightning Bolt Antenna Product Catalog