Why not many serious DX-ers and contesters consider Tri-band or even
Five-band quads is a mystery to me.
1) survivability - quads are much more fragile than yagis with regard
to icing.
2) survivability - wire flexing tends to cause premature failure in
windy environments
3) difficult to handle - a flexible three dimensional structure is
difficult to get on to a tower, particularly a guyed tower.
4) poor performer - the structural/survivability problems make very
long boom quads particularly problematic rendering quads uncompetitive
against very long boom yagis. The added dimension also makes it
difficult to stack quads.
All that aside, a two or three element quad can be an effective
alternative to a basic trapped tribander if the user has an unguyed
tower and lives in a benign environment (most don't <G>).
73,
... Joe, W4TV
On 2014-06-20 8:17 AM, Herbert Schoenbohm wrote:
Three bands no traps and great performance the three element Cubex Quad
wins hands down especially for price and wind load. Plus with proper
matching 75 ohm stubs on 10 and 15 I get both CW and SSB coverage below
1.5 to 1 over the range. Why not many serious DX-ers and contesters
consider Tri-band or even Five-band quads is a mystery to me.
Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ
On 6/20/2014 12:30 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
On 6/19/2014 7:44 PM, Edwin Karl wrote:
I would recommend Opitbeam over the others in a heart beat, no matter
the size. A
real class act.
I've not seen these antennas, but the designs look first rate.
From the looks of it, the 9-5 is two elements per band, equivalent to
the 2-element SteppIR. The 11-5 appears to be three elements per band,
equivalent to the 3-element SteppIR, and the 16-5 looks to be four per
band, equivalent to a 4-el SteppIR.
I'm very happy with my 3-el SteppIR, and use it all the way up to 6M.
Two really good features -- the straight SteppIRs weigh a lot less, so
are easier to handle on the tower and don't need as big a rotor.
Second, the reversing and bi-directional features are worth it's
weight in gold. Except on 6M, where it doesn't work that way, I rarely
turn the antenna more than about 100 degrees.
Here in CA, South America and Asia are approximately opposite of each
other, and the higher bands are often open to both at the same time.
Reverse takes something like 3-5 seconds. Likewise, EU and the east
coast of the US are opposite to VK/ZL. Very useful in a contest.
73, Jim K9YC
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|