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3 ELEMENT CUBICAL QUAD HOME BREW !

curlyjo

curlyjo

Supporting Member
Nov 13, 2009
169
39
38
Southern Calidornia
Earlier this year I ordered CUBEX 2 element quad antenna. They never came through. Something to do with a vender having a fire? Oh well. So much for instant gradifacation. Plan B. Down loaded "Building a 4 Element Cubical Quad" from The Ultimate Guide to 11 meter CB Antennas. Inspired buy a couple forum members I decided to build a fully adjustable antenna that I could put up myself. Adapted the plans for a 3 element antenna. Went to work peicing it together with parts purchased from DX engineering, ebay and a gardering supplier. This quad sports a 12' X 2" aluminum boom. 6' X 1/2" fiberglass stakes. 12g copper wire. 3 custom made spreader brackets. 1:1 current balum. LMR 240 coax. Alliance T-45 rotor. 1 3/8" top rail. Just put it up today. I cut it to be centered on 27.405 MHz. Horzitally fead. Got lucky the first time with swr's less than 1:5. Good enough for me. It is mounted on a eve about 22' up. That is the best I can do with all the space limitations I have. Pointed it east this afternoon and made contacts to the mid-west. Seems to make some stations come in a little better than my LW-150 vertical. Have not had it up long enough to see it's full potential and limitations. 73's. P.S. Have several pictures to share but I get an error message saying the file is to large for server! That's werd because when this site changed over I was able to upload pics from this very phone. No problem. Thought I was good to go. Sorry.
 
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curlyjo said:
Earlier this year I ordered CUBEX 2 element quad antenna. They never came through. Something to do with a vender having a fire? Oh well. So much for instant gradifacation. Plan B. Down loaded "Building a 4 Element Cubical Quad" from The Ultimate Guide to 11 meter CB Antennas. Inspired buy a couple forum members I decided to build a fully adjustable antenna that I could put up myself. Adapted the plans for a 3 element antenna. Went to work peicing it together with parts purchased from DX engineering, ebay and a gardering supplier. This quad sports a 12' X 2" aluminum boom. 6' X 1/2" fiberglass stakes. 12g copper wire. 3 custom made spreader brackets. 1:1 current balum. LMR 240 coax. Alliance T-45 rotor. 1 3/8" top rail. Just put it up today. I cut it to be centered on 27.405 MHz. Horzitally fead. Got lucky the first time with swr's less than 1:5. Good enough for me. It is mounted on a eve about 22' up. That is the best I can do with all the space limitations I have. Pointed it east this afternoon and made contacts to the mid-west. Seems to make some stations come in a little better than my LW-150 vertical. Have not had it up long enough to see it's full potential and limitations. 73's. P.S. Have several pictures to share but I get an error message saying the file is to large for server! That's werd because when this site changed over I was able to upload pics from this very phone. No problem. Thought I was good to go. Sorry.
Click to expand...

Sounds fun! It's always encouraging to hear those with good results on diy antennas.
I've had problems trying to upload pictures too. You can still host and link the image from somewhere else.
73s
 
Congrats an the homebrew.
Contacts are so sweet on an antenna you built yourself
 
309hellinois said:
Sounds fun! It's always encouraging to hear those with good results on diy antennas.
I've had problems trying to upload pictures too. You can still host and link the image from somewhere else.
73s
Click to expand...

My camera's, which I only know how to click and shoot, always make image very large and I often have to resize them. I right click on the image and a window pops up and I select Windows Picture Manage file to edit the image. I click on this file and then select resize from the task bar. Follow instructions and then click on SAVE and that will resave the image to a suitable size and then you can post it to many sites that won't handle the larger images your camera might be producing.

Right click on an image on your hard drive and check the edit options you might have and then follow instructions for resizing your images. I typically use about 600 x 400 or in that range.

Good luck,
 
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Curlyjo, I think we talked about your using your LW 150 during the contest. As I recall you were giving me a good 5 by 9 signal or better and your audio was nice and loud.

If you recall how was my New Top One working for you?
 
Marconi said:
Curlyjo, I think we talked about your using your LW 150 during the contest. As I recall you were giving me a good 5 by 9 signal or better and your audio was nice and loud.

If you recall how was my New Top One working for you?
Click to expand...
Sorry. Did not partipate in the contest. We talked a couple of weeks ago on a Monday. You were on the Gain Master. I will try to post pics latter.
 
curlyjo said:
Earlier this year I ordered CUBEX 2 element quad antenna. They never came through. Something to do with a vender having a fire? Oh well. So much for instant gradifacation. Plan B. Down loaded "Building a 4 Element Cubical Quad" from The Ultimate Guide to 11 meter CB Antennas. Inspired buy a couple forum members I decided to build a fully adjustable antenna that I could put up myself. Adapted the plans for a 3 element antenna. Went to work peicing it together with parts purchased from DX engineering, ebay and a gardering supplier. This quad sports a 12' X 2" aluminum boom. 6' X 1/2" fiberglass stakes. 12g copper wire. 3 custom made spreader brackets. 1:1 current balum. LMR 240 coax. Alliance T-45 rotor. 1 3/8" top rail. Just put it up today. I cut it to be centered on 27.405 MHz. Horzitally fead. Got lucky the first time with swr's less than 1:5. Good enough for me. It is mounted on a eve about 22' up. That is the best I can do with all the space limitations I have. Pointed it east this afternoon and made contacts to the mid-west. Seems to make some stations come in a little better than my LW-150 vertical. Have not had it up long enough to see it's full potential and limitations. 73's. P.S. Have several pictures to share but I get an error message saying the file is to large for server! That's werd because when this site changed over I was able to upload pics from this very phone. No problem. Thought I was good to go. Sorry.
Click to expand...
Could not upload pics from this phone here anymore. So I posted a video on YouTube. Look for Cubical Quad Antenna.
 
curlyjo said:
Could not upload pics from this phone here anymore. So I posted a video on YouTube. Look for Cubical Quad Antenna.
Click to expand...
Just an FYI;
The reflector tuning on a Quad is incredibly important!!
If you take the time to set up a beacon on your center frequency, (or maybe 100-150Khz lower so you know when you've slightly passed up peak and are probably close to perfect on your center freq...) and some distance away, then tune by trimming little by little as you point toward, then away from the beacon, looking for the greatest gain AND F-B, you'll experience "Quad Nirvana" once dialed.
Same goes for the director, but 1st is the reflector.
Each usually about 2.5%-3.25%, depending upon your element spacing.
 
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Needle Bender said:
Just an FYI;
The reflector tuning on a Quad is incredibly important!!
If you take the time to set up a beacon on your center frequency, (or maybe 100-150Khz lower so you know when you've slightly passed up peak and are probably close to perfect on your center freq...) and some distance away, then tune by trimming little by little as you point toward, then away from the beacon, looking for the greatest gain AND F-B, you'll experience "Quad Nirvana" once dialed.
Same goes for the director, but 1st is the reflector.
Each usually about 2.5%-3.25%, depending upon your element spacing.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I will need assistance in pulling that off. Would like to get it dailed in to be all it can be. Had to build and install by myself. Surprised I pulled it off. Have been told by a couple locals that it seems to derect signals. From California I can be pointed East in the mornings and afternoons and pick up anything out there. Later when I hear the skip starts to fade I flip it around and pick up Hawaii and Australia. You can actually hear them come in as the antenna turns around. As I said earlier that I got lucky with a good match from the start. Elements are spaced five feet apart. Feed line matched with a 50 ohm current balum from DX Engineering. You can see a three minute clip of it on YouTube. Look under cubical quad antenna. It's paired with a Vector 4k style antenna in the back ground. Thanks for your input ! 73's
 
curlyjo said:
Earlier this year I ordered CUBEX 2 element quad antenna. They never came through. Something to do with a vender having a fire? Oh well. So much for instant gradifacation. Plan B. Down loaded "Building a 4 Element Cubical Quad" from The Ultimate Guide to 11 meter CB Antennas. Inspired buy a couple forum members I decided to build a fully adjustable antenna that I could put up myself. Adapted the plans for a 3 element antenna. Went to work peicing it together with parts purchased from DX engineering, ebay and a gardering supplier. This quad sports a 12' X 2" aluminum boom. 6' X 1/2" fiberglass stakes. 12g copper wire. 3 custom made spreader brackets. 1:1 current balum. LMR 240 coax. Alliance T-45 rotor. 1 3/8" top rail. Just put it up today. I cut it to be centered on 27.405 MHz. Horzitally fead. Got lucky the first time with swr's less than 1:5. Good enough for me. It is mounted on a eve about 22' up. That is the best I can do with all the space limitations I have. Pointed it east this afternoon and made contacts to the mid-west. Seems to make some stations come in a little better than my LW-150 vertical. Have not had it up long enough to see it's full potential and limitations. 73's. P.S. Have several pictures to share but I get an error message saying the file is to large for server! That's werd because when this site changed over I was able to upload pics from this very phone. No problem. Thought I was good to go. Sorry.
Click to expand...
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Looks good curlyjo!! Now get it dialed in and you'll have a rocking antenna there man!! How much total space does the antenna take up?? Approx. anyway. A 2 element one might be small enough for me to swing, but 3 elements looks kind of big for my area. At any rate. Great job man! Like said, nothing like making contacts on an antenna you built yourself!! Keep up the good work and keep at it as well. (y)
 
222DBFL said:
Looks good curlyjo!! Now get it dialed in and you'll have a rocking antenna there man!! How much total space does the antenna take up?? Approx. anyway. A 2 element one might be small enough for me to swing, but 3 elements looks kind of big for my area. At any rate. Great job man! Like said, nothing like making contacts on an antenna you built yourself!! Keep up the good work and keep at it as well. (y)
Click to expand...
It is on a 12' boom. Can easliy go larger. That is all I could go with being I had no help with the instal. Thank's for looking.
 
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Does the Comtek 1 x 1 balum noted below also tune the mismatch that a 3 element Quad shows at the feed point?

I thought a yagi or a quad with a low feed point impedance match needed some matching device like a gamma match, or beta match, and a 1 x 1 balun simply balanced the unbalanced coax to the balance radiator element?

http://www.dxengineering.com/parts/com-bal-11150dt
 

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