[TowerTalk] Lightning Bolt quad antenna information

[Richard Thorne]

I had this very quad back in the early 90's when I lived in NC.  I sold 
it to a friend here in Texas when I decided to go with yagi's.  The quad 
was/is a great antenna.

The aluminum wire really shouldn't be all that soft as its some sort of 
wire used in welding.  I picked up a couple of spools from  a local 
welding shop when my buddy bought it.

Here's a link I found that may help.  It has a picture of the wire spool 
so you can get a part number.

http://wb9dlc.com/Lightningbolt.htm
http://www.qsl.net/w3df/quad2/quad.html

Rich - N5ZC

On 3/2/2012 10:17 AM, Brad Anbro wrote:
> A long-time ham friend of mine (Gene, W9GD) is a resident in a nursing
> home in Sterling, IL. The management has let him have a short self-
> supporting tower outside of his room and on the tower is a Lightning Bolt
> 2-element quad antenna.
>
> The quad was made with soft aluminum wire and I have had to repair
> the wires two times. Luckily, I was able to reach the damaged portions
> of the wires from the tower.
>
> I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with these antennas,
> in replacing the aluminum wire with copperweld wire. I am guessing that
> the aluminum wire on Gene's quad is around 16 ga. and if I was going
> to replace the wire with Copperweld, I would probably use 18 ga. wire.
>
> Would this reduction in wire size detune the antenna any appreciable
> amount? What would one do to compensate for it? I am hoping to be
> able to convert the aluminum wires to Copperweld this coming spring
> or summer. Thank you very much for any help with this.
>
> 73,
>
> Brad, N9EN
> Roscoe (Rockford), IL
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