[TowerTalk] 80 meter quad loops

Cqtestk4xs@aol.com Cqtestk4xs at aol.com
Fri Nov 4 08:28:35 EST 2005


For the last few years I have been using four sets of rope supported quads..a 
two element facing JA, a two element facing VK, a two element facing SA, and 
a four element facing EU.  All are tuned for the SSB part of the band.

To operate CW contests, I lower the ends of the ropes supporting them screw 
in the extra pieces of wire, and raise them again.  It's a pretty simple method 
but it doesn't solve the day to day excursions into the CW band.

The loops are actually flattop delta loops so the pointed end faces toward 
the ground.  The ends either have coax at the bottom or a rope at the bottom to 
keep it from blowing around.
So what I would like to do is to put a relay and a coil at the bottom of each 
element to make the element resonant around 3725.  They are currently 
resonant around 3775.

Any idea of what kind of inductance would be required to make this happen?  I 
know I would need to choke the relay wires.  Would the old "coil it up" 
method work on the relay wires?  Any special caveats on using this system?

The system kicks butt on 80, but I would like the ability to switch back and 
forth between SSB and CW.  Just using a tuner doesn't work, since the 
reflector isn't a very good reflector when you go down 250kHz.  Any ideas?

Bill K4XS


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