[TowerTalk] 80M 4-sq questions

[N2TK, Tony]

Presently I have an 80M wire 4-square with elevated feeds, about 10’ high.
It surrounds an 80’ topband shunt fed tower with assorted HF antennas.

I am feeding the 4-sq using a Comtek box with ¼ wave (cut for 3.65MHZ) RG-6
Commscope F660BEF PE jacket, flooded and copper clad steel center conductor
with 100 #43 beads .188” (18.8” in of beads) length at the feedpoints.

The verticals are cut for 3.75MHZ. I have 5 elevated radials that I have
shortened to 41’ which helped significantly with the pattern over ¼ wave
radials. I use a coil between the coax shield and the 5 radials to have
minimum wasted power at 3.760MHZ.

I use a relay to add an additional coil at each feed point for minimum
wasted power at 3.530 MHZ.

Overall the antenna seems to work okay and has a decent pattern.

 

Here are my plans:

Bury the coax

-          Instead of using ¼ wave lengths will use ¾ wave lengths as can’t
reach the feed points with ¼ wave length.

-          Replace the beads with Big-Clamps #31 with 8 turns of RG6 as per
K9YC’s tutorial.

-          I plan on using RG6. To date I have not had any issues for
several years except for one burnt F-connector. Maybe poor installation or
water got in the connector?

 

Questions:

-          Any issues with first measuring the length of the ¾ length of
feed lines then adding the ferrite core? Does this have any impact on the
electrical length of the feed line?

-          There had been some talk about copper clad steel not as good as
solid copper for the low bands. Is this really an issue on 80M?

-          Any tips or suggestions appreciated.

 

73,

N2TK, Tony