Author
Derren Oliver
Categories
5G Outdoor Wireless Networks
You’ve probably heard the adage “why fix it, if it isn’t broken?”
For more than 50 years, CommScope had long-haul antennas in the market with minimal changes to the antenna design. These antennas, our industry famous TMW antennas, work well and it is not unusual to see them in operation long after their design life should have expired. The red flash proudly displayed on those antennas is an iconic symbol in the industry representing quality and world-class performance. So why change them?
CLICK TO TWEET: CommScope's Derren Oliver provides you with some insights into the upgrades made to the HX8 microwave antenna.
The answer is simple really – to make them better.
One of the biggest costs associated with large antennas is one most people do not think about– shipping and transport costs. Transporting large antennas can often cost more than the antenna itself. These are not small antennas!
We worked hard on our latest design to reduce that unseen cost without compromising product integrity and performance. In addition, we significantly improved RF performance for these antennas.
Let’s look at an example of where we improved freight costs by looking at the diagrams below.
You can see that with the older HSX8 one-piece reflector we could fit approximately four crated antennas in a 40-foot High Cube container. Due to the diameter of these antennas, they would not fit in a standard-height, 40-foot container. If we moved to a two-piece (split) reflector, we could fit eight units in a 40-foot standard container. With the new HX8 antenna, we can now fit 10 units, fully crated, into a 40-foot standard container—two more than a split reflector equivalent product and six more than the one-piece reflector.
We went through this exercise with one of our customers who typically purchases one-piece reflectors and found that this equates to a 20 percent freight saving over the cost of the antenna versus the older version. When it was compared to the split reflector, the freight savings are less (around 3-4 percent over the cost of the antenna) but there was an additional 3-4 percent savings due to reduced install time of a one-piece reflector versus a two-piece. In an industry that values total cost of ownership, these savings become significant.
CommScope product Newsflashes offer more details. Contact us to provide feedback on shipping costs and other product enhancements that would benefit your business.
And it’s worth pointing out – these new antennas will still show the iconic red flash as a testament to their heritage– why fix it if it isn’t broken.
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