[TowerTalk] 80 meter antenna comparison

[Doug Renwick]

Tonno,

Thank you for this excellent objective comparison.

Doug


Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] 80 meter antenna comparison

I have right now on 80 meters 3 element coil loaded Optibeam Yagi at 36m
height on rotating tower and also full size 4 Square with 64 ground
mounted
1/4wl radials per each tube vertical using Comtek hybrid coupler.

I was very interested myself about how they compare. The yagi has been
up
now for ca 3 months. 

I would say most of the time yagi is the winner by ca 3db for DX
stations on
average and more to EU (up to 2 S units) where the radiation angle is
higher. Still the difference is not as big as I was maybe
hoping/expecting.
For some DX there is no difference. Of course it depends a lot on
radiation
angle. I would think the 4 Square outperforms yagi at some lower angles
maybe. I wish I could have the yagi a bit higher.

Then again all this matches the models very well as modelling suggests
that
well built 4Square over average ground has just about the same gain and
pattern as 2 element yagi at 1/2wl. This seems to be very true.

Another thing I see is the different QSB on two antennas. This is very
exiting and amazing. I can listen to the DX station and as the signal
incoming angle changes at one moment yagi is 2 S units better and at
next
moment 4Square is 1 S unit better!!

As a conclusion I say that I would prefer 4Square to 2 element yagi for
sure
as it is just SO VALUABLE to be able to switch the directions instantly
and
the cost is also much lower if you have space! Then again having two
antennas is always the best option!:)

73
tonno
es5tv