[VHFcontesting] 432 collinear array setup

[David Vondrasek]

At the moment I am building a array of DX-420 collinear antennas. I have  4
each of the DX-420s (20 ele) Giving me 80 elements.  At present I have an
frame that stacks them as such..


____     ____    
__|__    __|__
__|__    __|__
__|__    __|__
____     ____
__|__     __|__
__|__     __|__
__|__     __|__


A bay of 4 antennas, with a height of around 9 feet, about 5 feet wide on 2
cross booms, one at the center, and one across the bottom area. I didn't
see a need for a 3rd across the top as the arrays are small and not much
wind load. the bottom give it a little more stability and keeps the 2
stacks in line with each other. While standing back and looking at it. I
had thoughts of running them side to side instead.. Such as this

____      ____     ____      ____
__|__    __|__    __|__     __|__
__|__    __|__    __|__     __|__
__|__    __|__    __|__     __|__

This would give them less height while on top of the 60 foot tower and
cause less strain on the hazer,rotor,thrust barring, etc I assume..  Anyone
have comments on the alternate layout ? Pros, cons ? Suggestions ?


One another note, I have 80 eles for 220mhz also that I have no use for and
had thoughts of converting them to 432 mhz ( to small for 144) this would
give me 160 eles on 432 to play with.  This would most defiantly have to me
a 4X4 stack I assume..


Dave
N5ITO
The 144 array is next.....