[TowerTalk] 160m 8-circle BSEF array

[Tom Rauch]

> You might want to ask K9DX and K4JA about that.  I used
the K4JA 9-circle,
> and it did a darned good imitation of a 2-3 element yagi.
Compared to a
> 4-square, it was night and day.
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR
>> >Or, pare it back further to a standard four-square.  If
land is not a
> >limiting factor, you can always do a pair of four-squares
to enhance the
> >signal incrementally in the four additional
sub-directions.  Hardly anyone
> >would think it would be a good bang for the buck, I don't
think, versus a
> >single four-square.
> >
> >73 - Rich, KE3Q

Pete,

Perhaps something was wrong with the four square?

An eight circle of proper dimension (using only four
elements at a time) has about 4dB gain over a conventional
4-square.  A nine vertical array winds up with basically the
same gain as the eight circle array (or slightly less when
losses are included). The nine square has more losses in the
feed and phasing system, there is no way around that!

My four square (using 120/240 phase) would often beat a
two-element phased array at 280 ft on 160 meters, so in my
opinion it does a good imitation of a two or three element
Yagi. An eight vertical array would have about the same gain
as two traditional four squares spaced 5/8th wave and
co-phased, or a couple dB over my 120/240 degree phase four
square. Including all losses of course.

2 dB isn't day and night to me.  a cloudy day and twilight
difference. Hi hi.

73 Tom