[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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