Topband: Easy way to lay out a 4 square?

W0MU Mike Fatchett w0mu at w0mu.com
Mon Jul 1 17:08:27 EDT 2019


If you use a line level on the ropes you can put the bases at the proper 
place and raise them above ground as needed, if needed. You flat landers 
need not worry about such nonsense :)

W0MU


On 7/1/2019 1:17 PM, Tree wrote:
> While visiting another topband operator (I won't mention any names), I
> noticed his 80 meter 4 square looked funny...  and after lots of thought, I
> asked if it was really square.  It seems it wasn't.
>
> While thinking about how hard it can be to layout a 4 square (like a
> receiving one), I thought of perhaps an easy way to do it that doesn't
> require a laser (which is what I have used in the past).
>
> Step 1: Determine the heading you want to point the diagonal for the array
> (say from SW to NE).  This dimension will be something like 193 feet if you
> are making a 4 square on 160 with 1/4 wave element spacing.  Put a stake in
> the ground at each end of this line.
>
> Step 2: Construct a piece of small rope or wire that is the length of two
> sides of the array.  For the above case - that would be about 273 feet.
> Determine where the middle is and put a knot or something there.
>
> Step 3: Secure the ends of the rope to your two end points and then stretch
> it out in the two possible directions so both sections are tight.
>
> You should now have a pretty good layout with equal spacing between the
> elements.
>
> I am sure some people have used this method - but I hadn't seen it
> documented before - so I thought I would share it here.
>
> 73 Tree N6TR
> _________________
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