Gentlemen,
I built a 4-square in my adjacent swamp (swamp thing?) last fall. Went
with Gladiator center (really base) loaded verticals because of clean
appearance and adjacent trees/brush making top load wires a major pain.
Ground system is near ideal - 72 1/4 wave radials per element bonded to
"buss" wires bisecting the square.
RX performance is the best I have ever experienced, due to lack of real
estate for real Beverages. TX performance was probably a bit down from
my previous inverted L. I actually heard many more DX stations than I
could work, a first for me. It appears the low efficiency of the base
loaded Gladiators and absorption by adjacent trees more that cancelled
out the gain of the array.
I would like to replace the Gladiators, and would appreciate any
suggestions. I could run steep guy ropes if necessary, but would really
like to have self-supporting elements. I need a mechanical design that
would allow some capacitive top loading, to get the efficiency up. It
would have to withstand wet, heavy snowfalls.
Ron - WA9IRV
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