[TowerTalk] 160m 8-circle BSEF array

[Pete Smith]

For contest applications, 2 or 4 dB are indeed, night and day.  I perhaps 
should have mentioned that K4JA's 9-circle was on 80m, where the additional 
couple of dB meant a couple of layers of workable DX, as well as better 
receive performance due to greater directivity.

73, Pete N4ZR

At 09:44 AM 4/14/2005, Tom Rauch wrote:

> > 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