K7LXC's recent comment about yagis vs. 4 square arrays got me
thinking. Has someone done a careful comparison of these two antennas for
40 meters?
I have relocated and have to build a new station and I am torn between
these two alternatives. Although performance is important, the station
will not necessarily be used for contesting. The initial cost is not as
important as reliability and freedom from maintenance.
I have previously had a 40M 4 square that was carefully installed with the
DX Engineering phasing network. I was never tremendously impressed with
the performance but I never had the opportunity to compare it to a
yagi. And it certainly didn't require much care and feeding-- it just worked.
I had decided to replace the vertical array at the new station with a 2
element yagi at 70 or 80 feet, perhaps 12 feet above my five band
beam. But the 40M yagi means that the total installation will be much
higher than the 50 or 60 feet tower I could get by with if 20 meters was my
lowest freq antenna. The tower and rotor must be significantly
beefier, and I am concerned that it will add to the maintenance
needs. (The tower must be self supporting.)
So why did ON4UN's 1998 survey indicate that among the top 100 DXers who
responded about 40M antennas, 35% of them used 2 el yagis and only 7% used
phased verticals? ON4UN said his survey indicated that at that time
Cushcraft and Hy-Gain 2 element yagis were "extremely popular on 40meters".
Wes, WZ7I
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