TopBand: 4 Square vs Beverage

[Richard Zwirko]

Jay,
  Regarding your question if Beverages are not needed if you have a
4-Square, I can tell you that this is NOT true, no matter who wrote
it in a book. Having operated the 160 Meter position at W3LPL for the past
three years during the CQWW & ARRL DX Contests, I've had the opportunity
to try all combinations of receive antennas. Frank has numerous Beverage
antennas, some single, some phased in the W3LPL array of antennas. Although
there are times when the 4-Square will outperform the Beverages, there are
even more times where the Beverage will hear better than the 4-Square.
This has been noted in noisey as well as relatively quiet conditions.
In addition to the 4-Square, other Top Band antennas include verticals
which favor NE, S, W & NW and the NE, E, S, W & NW Beverages.  As Frank
reminds us, a Ham never has enough antennas. With this in mind, I believe
that we be seeing a few more 160 Meter antennas in the next year or so,
hopefully a pair of low dipoles at W3LPL for those times when the high
angle signals predominate.

Bottom line....you never have enough of them. 
  73 de Rich - K1HTV
  dz@voa.gov

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