A cubical quad antenna is a four sided, square version of a folded dipole. Design and construction of a quad that will last steve root, kosr a 2element quad has fullsized elements. Like a yagiuda antenna yagi, a quad consists of a driven element and one or more parasitic elements. It works by letting the quad loops swivel out of the way. Describe your experience with the quad antennas by rquad and tell us why you give it the rating you did required. Na7us cubex 5band quad after many years of using a modified lightning bolt quad for 201510 meters, i upgraded to a cubex 5bander. After 10 years my quad needed some extra fixtures and roger volunteered to send them in. Find cubical quad hf antennas related suppliers, manufacturers, products and specifications on globalspec a trusted source of cubical quad hf antennas information. All about cubical quad antennas by william i orr, stuart d. On 903, 1296, 2304, and 3456mhz, the loops are mounted in electrical contact with the boom, unbalancing them. Design and construction of a national contest journal. Quad 2e11 gain 7 dbd frontrear 33 db frontback 31 db gamma match so239 50 ohm swr 1. Years ago i built the spider out of pipe and angle iron but never got the material for the spreaders. According to bob heil in his book, heil ham radio handbook, there were articles in qst and cq magazine showing how to build a 10 meter quad.
Radiowavz manufacturers of many wire antennas, including hex antennas that cover 40 meters. High performance cubical quad antennas 3rd edition by john. If you are interested in a quad, check out the cubex quad website. Feb 25, 2012 basics of building hfvhf cubical quad antennas. A fiveelement quad antenna for 2 meters by jim reynante. Many months were spent searching for the best model dimensions shown in various antenna handbooks, and information found on the internet. Another advantage is that you still dont need a big rotator a small tv rotor beneath this antenna is a long lasting solution. When we launched our dxantenna project in the summer of 1987. The quad uses a single, centralfed frame with a feederline. All have delivered the goods with no adjustment of element size, giving good gain, fb, and bandwidth. The statement often made is a single quad element has 2 db gain over a dipole, and that 2 db gain difference carries over into arrays of quad elements. If we are building a 2 element quad we would need to use a 2. As with many antennas the level of gain for the cubical quad beam antenna is an important factor of its overall performance.
This wellknown classic on quad theory, design, constructi. If we look at antenna books and articles about quad antennas, we will often find references to quad antennas having 2 db gain over a comparable boom length yagi antenna. Quad antenna javascript calculator for cb and amateur. Cubical quad antenna antennas radios amplifiers baluns. The characteristic impedance of a loop depends on its shape. All of our antennas are hand built with the highest quality materials available and should give you many years of service. The quad reflector gives excellent front to back ratio of 2530 db along with excellent forward gain. This gave the antenna more gain than a simple quad. In early december, 2005 i learned that lightning bolt antennas has gone out of business after 17 years.
A fiveelement quad antenna for 2 meters by jim reynante, kd6glfpo box 27856san diego, ca 92198 if your station is located on the fringe of the repeaters coverage area. On 10 and 15 meters, the dual band quad i built in 1979 had the feedpoint hanging in the air. Summer contests are a great reason to get away from it all and enjoy the pleasures of amateur radio. All about cubical quad antennas the famous handbook on quad theory, design, construction and operation. So, the purpose of sharing this information has become somewhat moot. Other useful information would include your experience with similar products, infomation on a product that you would purchase instead of this one, and so on. May 20, 2015 ive built both balanced and unbalanced loop antennas. Small beam antenna maco yquad dual polarity quality. The lb quad was always a bit of a maintenance problem due to the less expensive construction i got what i paid for.
The top countries of suppliers are china, hong kong s. Embed embed for hosted blogs and item cubical quad beam antenna gain. The quad reflector assures low angle of radiation even at. However the cubical quad beam antenna is able to provide some advantages in a number of circumstances. It is stored in the garage with hopes of some day actually getting it in the air. Both antennas were peaked to a fundamental frequency of 14,220 kc. Youll love the skye quad cube bookcase at wayfair great deals on all furniture products with free shipping on most stuff, even the big stuff. Ive built both balanced and unbalanced loop antennas. Quad are been joined toghether so to strengthen the whole system, the mart boom lenght supporting elements originally was 33 feet, it has been lengthened to 47 feet, due to the necessity of guying 40m. A quad has a smaller turning radius that a yagi it has a lower noise level and a slight higher gain.
Quad antenna design having successfully operated for many years with various types of three element beams, mainly for convenience, i decided to try and build a two element three band cubical quad. If youre looking to purchase a cubical quad antenna, youve come to the right place. I like to combine the vhf and field day events with camping so my antennas need to be portable. Since our antenna the 4 element quad has a feedpoint impedance around 50 ohms and our coax is 50 ohms, that means we want a 1. If you are limited in space a 2 elements quad could be what you were looking for. Enter center frequency to be calculated for a quad. Pkw antenna system hf vhf uhf antennas for ham radio cb military commercial using. This antenna does not need a 75 ohm transformer as quads do at lower frequencies. The basic cubical quad driven element on its own has a gain of about 2db over a dipole because it is essentially a pair of stacked dipoles. Any cubical quad owner who has ever put one up properly and tuned it, never would complain about its performance.
However, most of what is great about the lightning bolt quad applies to just about any well built quad antenna. What is a quadlock the quadlock is a device that will let you tilt your tower all the way to the ground to work on your cubical quad antenna, rotator, or tower. This means high levels of suppression to both the sides and the rear of the antenna can be achieved. I emphasize once more, that if you use insulated wire, or bare copper, different to what i have used, the above measurements. Antennas con tinue to satisfy many a hams desire to build a part of their stations equipment, and homemade antennas can compete with commercial ones. The hf quad antenna works very well at a low height. The maco v quad is a directionalcombined verticalhorizontal polarization plus high gain of 11 db makes the v quad an ideal inexpensive beam for pushup mounting. Cubical quad antenna antennas radios amplifiers baluns and.
They have lots of info on quads and they also make fine antennas. All about cubical quad antennas out of printlimited availability. When the tower is in the operational position the elements are locked into position. His support is important as hardware sold in some stores as stainless rusts in a few months. The maco vquad is a directionalcombined verticalhorizontal polarization plus high gain of 11 db makes the vquad an ideal inexpensive beam for.
There are no shortage of old school yagi guys who will come up with some arcane nonsense as to why a quad isnt that good, and that would be because they never had one. Horizontal or vertical polarization of an cubical quadantenna is determined by placement of the feed point feed gap on the driven element parasitic elements need to. The cubical quad or quad antenna has traditionally not been as widely used as its more popular cousin the yagi. Since a loop radiates broadside, concentric elements are not in each others way. Like a yagiuda antenna yagi, a quad consists of a driven. A fiveelement quad antenna for 2 meters by jim reynante, kd6glfpo box 27856san diego, ca 92198. John koszeghy, k3bb exk2ob has had a love affair with quad beams for 45 years. I could not locate an example of a computergenerated gain plot radiation pattern for the swiss quad, so if you know where one exists, please let me know so i can post a hyperlink. If your station is located on the fringe of the repeaters coverage area, youve come to the right place. Buy all about cubical quad antennas by william i orr, stuart d cowan photographer online at alibris. The photos alone are a worthwhile addition to the amateur bookshelf, since they provide a perspective on amateur antenna construction that we rarely see. Since its first introduction in the 1940s, the quad antenna has found uses in a number of areas. The swiss quad antenna at zs6pp, september 1967 qst rf cafe.
In 1947, cubical quads began gaining popularity with amateur radio operators. Inspired by an antique bookcase from a london library, our reproduction echoes the beauty and restraint of neoclassicism. A number of these quads have been built, using these formulae, with slight variations in wire diameter, but always using bare hard drawn copper wire. A fiveelement quad antenna for 2 meters by jim reynante, kd6glfpo box 27856san diego, ca 92198 if your station is located on the fringe of the repeaters coverage area, youve come to the right place.
Using a spider quad, such as the gem quad, is one way to ad. Therefore you must use an atu for operating this antenna. Using a quad reflector with a yagi driven element, the y quad combines the advantages of both designs to give the best performing lightweight antenna available, with switchable polarity. Antenna, ve3sqb ham radio antenna design software programs. A quad antenna is a type of directional wire radio antenna used on the hf and vhf bands. High performance cubical quad antennas 3rd edition by. Using a quad reflector with a yagi driven element, the yquad combines the advantages of both designs to give the best performing lightweight antenna available, with switchable polarity. It has monoband gain, is relatively light, and it can be fixed in no time. The biggest compromise with a 2element quad is in terms of boom length element spacing. A wide variety of mini quad band antenna options are available to you, there are 707 suppliers who sells mini quad band antenna on, mainly located in asia. Its coinductive secret was that it used a folded dipole to feed the quad. I added late 1998, 2 elements cubical quad full size for 40m.
Qtenna boomless quad hubs and quad hardware boomless quad hubs and quad hardware by steve narducci, w9sn. Hf quad antenna manufacturers category is a curation of 15 web resources on, rquad antennas, t. Since its first introduction in the 1940s, the quad. Vhfuhf quad antenna the information in this article has come from many amateur sources, the most notable was from wa6tey sk 1985 ray frost, who was a pioneer of vhf quad designs and one of the best southern california transmitter hunters of the 1980s. Any length of a good quality rg58x will suffice as the primary feedline. If you want to use it between 144mhz and 146mhz enter 145 in the mhz box. High performance cubical quad antennas 3rd edition by john koszeghy, k3bb. Ei7ba multiband cubical quad antenna, ve3sqb ham radio. It is used by radio amateurs on the hf and vhf amateur bands. Indeed, he subtitles his latest volume with just those words.
Nn4zz tiltplate llc a limited liability corporation updated on. Smallest beam antenna maco vquad dual polarity 14x. Quad 3e11 gain 10 dbd frontrear 33 db frontback 31 db gamma match so239 50 ohm swr 1. Very quick shipping from georges who is very kind to think about us, cbers. Then you can start reading kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or. See if you can find a copy of bill orrs w6sai book all about cubical quad antennas.
The quad is mounted on a 30foot boom in a diamond configuration and was originally installed using the dimensions given in a previous qst article 1 and in use by a number of hams. The quad reflector assures low angle of radiation even at low heights for real long distance performance. After many years of using a modified lightning bolt quad for 201510 meters, i upgraded to a cubex 5bander. This quad,fed by 2 coax lines, was able to work both vertical and horizontal. Save products on your wishlist to buy them later or share with your friends. Enter your mobile number or email address below and well send you a link to download the free kindle app. Jun 25, 2008 see if you can find a copy of bill orrs w6sai book all about cubical quad antennas. It has plans for a 3 band spider quad with a boom that is just 2 long.
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