[CQ-Contest] 4 Squares

[Malcolm Keown]

Re 4 squares.  I had one up for three years, and it did a pretty fair job of
working DX, but I always felt it acted a little "flaky."  In particular, low
angle signals from a given direction would sometimes peak in the wrong
direction.  I think this may have something to do with the fact that the
tower used to support the 4-Square was also used as one of the two towers
for my 160 phased array; I may have had just too many antennas close together.

Last winter I put up a two element folded dipole quarter wave phased array
at 110 ft pointed towards Europe (on another tower).  In all cases the
folded dipole beam was equal to or better than the 4-square.  In most cases
it was a honest 2 s-units better.  My 4-square is now rolled up in the
garage, and I'm making plans to be able to reverse the direction of the
dipole beam and put another one up for East-West. I have used the same type
of antenna on 40 for 20 plus years with great success. 73 de W5XX 



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