[TowerTalk] Lightning Bolt Quad

[Jim Lux]

At 04:43 AM 4/20/2006, Jim Rhodes wrote:
>I asked the Lightning Bolt guy about that once and he got very
>defensive about his feed system. Said the tuning would be all off and
>he wouldn't be responsible. Others have said the opposite, that
>quarter wave lengths to a switch were needed. I am sure there are
>many opinions on this.


This is a question that could be answered by modeling it. (that is, what's 
the sensitivity of the design to this change)  There are some tricks to 
accurately modeling quads (the corners), but I think that Cebik's web pages 
cover it.  You also need to choose segment lengths that line up nicely.



>At 12:02 AM 4/20/2006, denis coolican wrote:
> >This four element Lightning Bolt Quad covers 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10
> >meters. It is fed by a common balum. (one input PL259 and 5 output
> >pairs of conductors)
> >
> >Does anyone know what type of balum this is and what would be the
> >replacement for it?
> >
> >I imagine the driven elements for each band has an impedance of
> >about 80 to 100 ohms.  The feed into the balum is 50 ohms.
> >
> >If a person provides a 2:1 balum for each feed, would the unused
> >balums be terminated in 50 ohms or left open?
> >
> >Any more thoughts on this antenna?
> >
> >Denis Ve6aq