• You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.

My Latest Antenna Project

unit_399

EL CAPO
Jun 17, 2008
2,087
2,882
273
ALEJANDRIA, COLOMBIA SA
About 9 months ago, I built a 2-element quad antenna. It worked well until the plastic wire retainers on the ends of the spreader arms broke. I pulled down the antenna and made heavier retainers. 3 weeks later one of the bamboo spreader arms broke, so I hauled it down again. All of the bamboo spreaders were brittle and cracked even though I had given them several coats of spar varnish. So, I decided to redo the whole thing. 6 months have passed, and it's finally done.

PICT0045a.JPG

The new quad has spreaders made from extruded aluminum tubing and fiberglas rod. Also, it's a direct feed, but I made a connection box so I can add a 1/4 wavelength of 75 ohm cable if it's necessary. I'm going to put it up on Monday. Hopefully this one will last a little longer.

PICT0041a.JPG

PICT0035A.JPG

PICT0043a.JPG

- 399
 
Last edited:

399: Love it...looking good OM....
Nice scenery at your place too...long way from INDY "ye"!;)
All the Best
BJ

No kidding.

We have cows and horses here, but mountains? Here at the lake, we have MT. Baldy, but it's just a big sandpile.

What band is the antenna for, without a reference point, it's hard to tell it's size.

Looks very well built.
 
What band is the antenna for, without a reference point, it's hard to tell it's size.

11 meters.

BTW ... on the initial build I used #12 enameled wire that I got from a motor rewind shop. When I pulled the antenna down, a lot of the enamel was missing and the bare copper was corroded. I handled the wire very carefully when assembling the antenna (no kinks, stretching, etc.) I guess the combo of mucho rain and sun down here was too much for it. So this time I used wire with thin teflon insulation. We'll see how it holds up.

- J.J.
 
very nice and clean looking . im really looking forward to hearing your results with it (y)
nice piece of gods country you got there , beautiful mountain view too . (y)
 
Finally got caught up enough to pull the guys out of the fields for half a day to get the quad put up. Night and day difference between it and my dipole. 1.3:1 swr on 27.385. I'm very satisfied with the way this project worked out

- 399


IMG_1035a.JPG

FINISHED UP JUST BEFORE THE STORM BLEW IN

IMG_1033a.JPG
 
looks good. how did you tune it for best performance? ill have to listen for you. what freq do you use for sideband? when i bilt my quad i just drilled a 5/8 inch hole all the way thru the 1 3/4 inch boom and used 2 feet of 5/8 16th wall tubing and drilled crosswise next to it for the other spreader tube. i had to drill thru the boom crosswise in the middle of each 5/8 tube for a small bolt to lock them from sliding out of the boom holes. i slotted the ends of the 5/8 tubing and used a automotive compresson clamp to squeez down on the 6 foot long 1/2 inch around fiberglass rod spreaders to tighten the wire. it looks real clean and works perfect
 
man that looks nice . did you notice much or any difference in the noise floor ? did you wind up needing to use 9 ft of 75 ohm coax for it to tune ? what are your wire lengths for the elements ?
 
man that looks nice . did you notice much or any difference in the noise floor ? did you wind up needing to use 9 ft of 75 ohm coax for it to tune ? what are your wire lengths for the elements ?

Booty -

I designed the antenna for 27.385, and the wire length (driven element) is 36.699 feet. Reflector is about 10% longer. At first, swr was off the scale, but when I added the 75 ohm stub it dropped down to 1.3. The 75 ohm stub is 9.2 feet long. I haven't done any tests, but weak signals came up by about 1 to 2 S-units or so over my dipole. Guys I talk to all the time in the US said I also came up by 1 - 2 S-units on their meters. F/B Ratio isn't important to me because there are very few other (if any) 11 meter operators here.

- 399
 
399 i think you maybe missed my post above bootys. my wire was 432 inches for the driven and 448 for the reflecter. a 1/4 wave of 75ohm should be 9 feet times its velocity facter or more like 81 inches if its vf is 75%. stations in front would hit with 20 and in back they would hit about a s4. the better the tuning of the reflecter the more forward gain you get
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • dxBot:
    Tucker442 has left the room.
  • @ BJ radionut:
    LIVE 10:00 AM EST :cool:
  • @ Charles Edwards:
    I'm looking for factory settings 1 through 59 for a AT 5555 n2 or AT500 M2 I only wrote down half the values feel like a idiot I need help will be appreciated