[TowerTalk] 4 SQ issue

[Lux, Jim]

On 11/2/21 11:41 AM, Mpridesti via TowerTalk wrote:
> My 80 m 4 SQ seems to work well in 3 positions. To the SW the signal drop in the favored direction where the other 3 directions appear to work well.
>
> SWR measurements seem normal around 2:1 at the end of the 1/4 wave 75 ohm lines except one which is 1.87. Haven’t made loss measurements yet but I suspect the lowest SWR line is the problem (low reading due to higher than normal loss making it the suspect line).
>
> Has anyone else experienced this type of behavior?  Also the suspect line is the NW element and the direction which has the problem is SW. Does this make sense? Effectively this lossy element is the other half of the “driven element “ if you thought of the 4 sq as a 3 el vertical beam.
>
> Keeping with this concept, one would think the NE direction would have similar loss but it doesn’t (or it’s not noticeable).


This is where a NanoVNA might be a useful tool.  Not only can you go out 
to the box and measure each element separately, but you could measure 
the element to element coupling, and I'll bet you'd see something.

You *might* be able to do a sweep from the shack, through the box, and 
figure something out too, but figuring out which of the 4 has a problem 
- I guess you could switch the direction of the beam and probably figure 
it out.