This is the Antenna Specialists

This is the Antenna Specialists "Super Scanner", Electrically phased combination beam/omni antenna.

This antenna was marketed as the answer for those people who wanted to run both a directional beam antenna, and an omni-directional ground plane antenna, but either could not afford to, did not have the space to put two separate antennas up or did not want to be bothered with the high upkeep of a rotor. This antenna design, through the "magic" of electronic phasing, allowed it to operate as both an omni-directional antenna, or as a directional antenna with a choice of 3 major lobes spaced 120 degrees apart (typically North, Southwest and Southeast). This switching was accomplished by a control box connected to the antenna by multi-conductor cable. The antenna had an impressive gain of 5.75 db in the omni mode, and 8.75 db in directional mode. These gain numbers impressed a great many people who then went out and bought the antenna. But the real world proved to be much less kind to the owners of these antennas.....

As an omni, its performance was less than a typical 5/8th wave ground plane. Switch the Super Scanner to the beam mode and it would edge out a ground plane very well but not like a 3 element beam would. Then there is the rejection feature. A directional beam typically can reduce a signal by about 25 db when it is turned away, thereby significantly reducing interference from stations in other directions. The Super Scanner, due to its relatively wide lobes, tended to only drop signals 12 db when pointed away.

It’s wasn't the best omni, or the best beam but, it was very good at what it did. The older versions of the antenna used a coaxial stub to match the impedance when in the omni mode. You could run a fairly good amount of power through it with no problem. But the newer version used a different impedance transforming scheme, which reportedly only could take about 50 watts before burning it out. However, running it in the directional mode you could run up to 1500 watts with no problems. But you only had to forget once and switch back to omni and Poof! You also had to refrain from running high power and switching the antenna to a different direction while keyed, or you risked welding the switching relay contacts, which was also what usually happened if one of these antennas was the unfortunate victim of a lightning strike.

Otherwise, it’s a good value at the cost of the time.