[TowerTalk] quads
Alan Gray
agray@voicenet.com
Fri, 26 May 2000 17:26:12 -0400
Sorry for the typo, meant ex-W2SAI
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Gray" <agray@voicenet.com>
To: <thompson@mindspring.com>; <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, May 26, 2000 11:48 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] quads
>
> Dave-
>
> You say: "Dunc even helped K3MBF [ex-W6SAI]design his 2 el 75 quad that
was
> featured in QST mounted as part of his Telrex christmas tree array on a
Big
> Bertha rotating tower."
>
> Just as a point of reference, I believe that the Bertha you are referring
to
> was the one Joe Hertzberg (K3JH and later, N3EA) had in Bryn Mawr, PA. By
> the way, Joe's tower, like all Bertha's, was actually made by Lingo, Inc.,
> not Telrex. And Joe's antennas weren't Telrex either, they were the
> "original" Hygain Long Johns- the big commercial models (same ones the
K7UGA
> had on his Hygain RP-100 pole).
>
> Alan, W3BV
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <thompson@mindspring.com>
> To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2000 01:18 PM
> Subject: [TowerTalk] quads
>
>
> >
> > The discussion seems to have gotten around to quads and it seems they
take
> a
> > bad rap every time.
> >
> > My first quad was the awful Skylane 3 element tri-band quad. The boom
was
> > ribbed aluminum and if you stood on it
> > flattened out (like the old Gotham beam series). As awful as it was it
> > worked fair on 10 and 20 but was a real killer
> > on 15. I could work JA's from Eastern W5 even over such contest
stations
> as
> > W6RW and W6HJT (later K6PU). Boom length was 16 feet. My only
comparison
> > was the old Gonset Tri-bander modified to W1PDF and W1ONK specs. Boom
> > length was 18 feet. This antenna was a killer on 20 during the ARRL SS
> but
> > was only fair for DXing. The Skylane was about the same on 20 and 10,
> but
> > was far superior on 15. The rub was the beam stayed up and the quad
blew
> > off in a spring storm.
> >
> > My next quad was the W5HVV/7 version in QST in 1966. This was a 3 el o
n
> 20
> > and 4 el on 15 and 10 on a 20 foot boom. This was an improvement on
20
> > and 10 over either of the previous antennas. On 15 the W5HVV was the
> equal
> > of the Skylane. Even though this antenna was heavy, well built, and I
> had
> > the assistance of a mechanical engineer the W5HVV disappeared in another
> > spring storm into the Bayou behind the house. The mast snapped off just
> > above the rotor so any antenna would have probably gone into the wind.
> > I had a Mosley TA-36 and for two years I used this with a 40 meter
> > extension. The Mosley did not even measure up to the Gonset beam
except
> on
> > 10 where it worked very well. All the above antennas were at 49.5
feet
> on
> > a telephone pole.
> >
> > I moved to another nearby city and got both a 71' crank up (still use)
and
> a
> > 4 el GEM Quad. I was disappointed in the GEM Quad as being mounted on
a
> > metal tower detuned the antenna on each band. The Dx gang in the city
> told
> > me the only partial remedy was to
> > get the quad above the metal tower. W5AO (EX W5CKY) got me a 15 foot
> > piece of aluminum thick wall mast and putting the antenna 10 feet above
> the
> > top of the tower did improve front to back but not performance. With
> > W5AO's help we measured front to back as minus on 20 and 15 and 5 Dbd on
> 10.
> > Raising the quad improved this to 6 dbd on 20 and 15 and to 11 dbd on
15.
> > This was measured at 250 feet with a commercial field strength meter
with
> a
> > Db meter (Motorola). I watched the quad through Hurricane Camille and
> > became so worried that back up went the TA-36 and 40 meter extension.
> >
> > During this same time frame Dunc Carter W5IOU was building his big quads
> at
> > his station and W5WMU. Dunc swore by big quads
> > (multi element on Rohn 25 booms). Dunc even helped K3MBF design his 2
el
> 75
> > quad that was featured in QST mounted as part of his Telrex christmas
tree
> > array on a Big Bertha rotating tower. Funny, W5WMU really liked the
> quads
> > but living in South Louisiana took its toll and he switched to long boom
> > yagis.
> >
> > Recently W8JI pointed out that the quad does not exist in commercial and
> > military applications (99% yagi). The only place I saw quads was at
> Mitre
> > Labs near Boston. They are non-existent in military installations
which
> do
> > often have curtain arrays or Yagis.
> >
> > The first real bashing of the quads was done by N6NB (Ex K6YNB) in the
> early
> > 80's. Others like K4JC could not tell ant difference between a 5 el
mono
> > bander and a 4 el quad on 80 foot telephone poles. So I guess the
bottom
> > line is Quads and Yagis are both high performance endfire antennas.
The
> > place where the quad (loop) shines in that it is better than a yagi
dipole
> > (single element). W7RM uses his 160 loop on all the bands and it works
> very
> > well. The construction required for a quad or delta loop is more
> rigorous
> > than for a yagi and both work very well when tuned and matched.
> >
> > Dave K4JRB
> >
> >
> >
> > --
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> >
> >
>
>
> --
> FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
> Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
> Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
> Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
> Search: http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search.htm
>
>
--
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