[TowerTalk] 6 mtr quad
Jon Pearl - W4ABC
jonpearl at tampabay.rr.com
Tue Aug 30 23:03:30 EDT 2016
Hi Mike,
Cubex! http://www.cubex.com/6m.htm
I ordered a tri-band quad with a 3" dia., 30 ft. boom from Cubex'
original owner, Karl Sharping, back in the early 80's. This was before
the advent of the Internet and as such, a phone call got with the
question, "How do you want me to pay you?" got the ball rolling. Karl
said, "I'll ship it today. Just sent me a personal check when you get a
chance." Boy...those days are gone along with most of the quad
manufacturers:
Gotham
Skylane
Lightning Bolt
Gem-Quad
My first quad was a 2 element Gotham featuring a 2" X 2" wooden boom and
bamboo spreaders. One of the biggest thrills of my amateur existence
came when I worked the inventor of the quad, Clarence Moore - W9LZX in
the mid 70's before he passed in 1979. He too was a quad owner and we
rag chewed forever one evening on 20m, talking about, what else? -
quads. We finally wrapped things up as he had to go QRT. A moment
later another ham came on frequency and asked me if I knew who I'd just
worked. I said, "Yeah! W9LZX" He said, "No. Do you know *who* he
is?" I said, "No. Who is he?" He finished with, "He's the engineer
who invented your antenna while working at HCJB in Quito." I just about
fell over. HCJB was the first SW station that I'd ever heard on a old
multi-band Aircastle portable SW receiver.
I'm a firm believer that quads open the band in the morning and close
them down at night. 15m was a dream for me as a kid.
Clarence' legacy lives on today in Crown International -
http://www.crownaudio.com/en-US
73,
Jon Pearl - W4ABC
www.w4abc.com
On 8/30/2016 5:09 PM, Mike Smith VE9AA wrote:
> Wasn't there a company out there making a 6m Quad called the Killer Bee or
> something?
>
>
>
> Anyways, I also owned a Gem Quad once. I overloaded it by adding WARC, 6m
> and even 40m(with coils) to it.
>
> For the 6m part, I extended the boom and made it a 4el Quagi.
>
>
>
> I had a 5el yagi above it perhaps 15' higher and at no time (on Es, F2 or
> AU, tropo or MS) did I ever see the Quagi louder than the yagi.
>
> The only time the Quagi came into it's own was when it was really raining
> (or snowing) hard and there
>
> was S9 precip static on the slightly higher yagi. At those times the Quagi
> was either silent or at least
>
> much quieter than the yagi.
>
>
>
> Even though it was my own fault that the Gem Quad came down (ice storm and
> antenna was very overloaded) I really believe it was just a matter of time.
>
> It had failed a number of times (fiberglas repairs all over the poor beast)
> years before I got it)
>
>
>
> It was exactly as Kelly (VE4XT) said about VE4VV's,. a real nice antenna in
> its own right, but if you have high winds, or as we do here, ice , snow and
> wind with vy low temps
>
> then it's just a matter of time before it either needs spreader repairs, or
> broken wires soldered or something of that nature. BTDT, have the fiberglas
> imbedded in my hands to prove it.
>
>
>
> YMMV
>
>
>
> Mike VE9AA
>
>
>
> Mike, Coreen & Corey
>
> Keswick Ridge, NB
>
>
>
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