@giqcass regarding the Cantenna, basically I just created a 7 inch diameter (1/2 wavelength) tube out of the same sheet metal i used for the reflector. Closed one end and then hung the Gotenna through a hole in the top near the back which allowed me to adjust the distance forward/backwards and up/down.
I expected it to work as well, obviously this was a simple/quick build which probably factored into the poor results however I was expecting at least something remotely close to the range from the reflector. Over the three different iterations (only have photos of #1 & #3) i probably sent 60+ test messages from 3.8km away to my 24/7 node and all failed to get delivered. This range/location is very easy for the reflector (fast confirms) therefore i would have thought at least a couple of messages would have been delivered out of the 60+ tests.
Obviously something (diameter, length, distance from back, up/down) is wrong. When i have some more time I will probably revisit this to a least understand what went wrong.
here are some photos