Stick vs. Beam

[Henry HPSD]

@ captain kilowatt,

Could you be so kind and show me a (couple) example....

Take for example that 1 el quad versus the dipole...the document i have provided on page 2.

Just to be clear..your statement is now: a quad "optimised" for bandwidth will have a wider bandwidth compared to a Yagi which is designed for bandwidth aswell.

If it was possible at all, let us think about what we are asking from a antenna...?
Maxium bandwidth ? Bandwidth does not mean efficiency.
A dummyload will show you a nice band width, but thats another angle of course.

So, im not looking for a antenna with 4 Mhz bandwidth. Im looking for the one who provides maximum gain maximum front to back over the bandwidth i want it to be.

@ Morse,
A 2elements Quad will never outperform a 3elements yagi.

Kind regareds, Henry

All about antennas

 

[Needle Bender]

people who like yagis and argue in there favor usually have a yagi but not a quad and if they did it wasnt tuned right. people who argue in favor of quads over yagis usually had both. my friend bobby went from a moonraker to a 4 el quad. i used to go over and enjoy his radios alot. when he got the quad up there was a world of improvement. thats the day i became a believer in quads

 

[wavrider]

people who like yagis and argue in there favor usually have a yagi but not a quad and if they did it wasnt tuned right. people who argue in favor of quads over yagis usually had both. my friend bobby went from a moonraker to a 4 el quad. i used to go over and enjoy his radios alot. when he got the quad up there was a world of improvement. thats the day i became a believer in quads

I have used both, same amount of elements, etc. etc. etc.

QUAD results in my opinion for what it is worth.

PRO'S
Quieter, it has a tendency to not pick up so much static, perhaps due to the closed loop configuration. Since it is less noisy you can maybe, hear more stations. No noticeable difference in TX signal compared to yagi.

CONS

Monster of a antenna, engineering from the ground up if you are putting up a quad. More wind load vs a yagi. Several different ways to feed the quad depending on amount of elements etc and if not feed correctly it can lead to poor results on the air, easier to make a mistake and suffer performance.


Did I like the quad? sure, probably because I put so much effort into building it and installing it. It is fun to play with and they do work, and work well.

I hear and talk with many ops on the bands that use a Quad, or multi band versions and they sound good.

Every quad owner will admit, It is not IF a quad will get broken in a storm it is WHEN it will. Requires more maintenance to keep in the air than a yagi.

Some ops will tell you they have their quad in the air for XX amount of years, they do not live in tornado alley either.

 

[GnG8d]

Some ops will tell you they have their quad in the air for XX amount of years, they do not live in tornado alley either.

A yagi can withstand a tornado? :blink:

I'm anxious to see how my quad makes it through it's first Ohio winter. One thing I noticed about this one over a couple others is the 3" boom diameter. The larger diameter boom, also allows for larger diameter spreaders, and larger diameter tubing is inherently stronger. It's a simple design with very few parts and I think it'll do just fine, so we'll see.

 

[Marconi]

A yagi can withstand a tornado?

I'm anxious to see how my quad makes it through it's first Ohio winter. One thing I noticed about this one over a couple others is the 3" boom diameter. The larger diameter boom, also allows for larger diameter spreaders, and larger diameter tubing is inherently stronger. It's a simple design with very few parts and I think it'll do just fine, so we'll see.

Hey 359, are you talking about a tornado that blows leaves around in a circle in the yard. You're sure not talking about tornado's like we get all over the south central US and elsewhere for that matter, they blow big trees down and sometimes they end up a mile away.:blink:

I think you might find ice to be the real problem with your quad in your area. If it don't stretch, break, fall, or blow down, it could just pop back into shape when the ice melts...and you're none the worse off.

Good luck Quad and keep us posted, seriously.

 

[GnG8d]

Hey 359, are you talking about a tornado that blows leaves around in a circle in the yard. You're sure not talking about tornado's like we get all over the south central US and elsewhere for that matter, they blow big trees down and sometimes they end up a mile away.:blink:

I know what you mean, and I know what wavrider was talking about too, I was just poking a bit.

Ice could very well be it's demise, we've been getting a lot of that the last few winters. The diamond configuration should help a bit with that, so we'll see.

 

[hotrod]

let us know. i live in north/west pa. and get some heavy snow and bad winds
quads aere supposed to be great but im not sure if thier mechanically strong
as a flatside yagi

 

[Needle Bender]

maybe when the ice hits you can power up a few killowatts and melt it off

 

[gamegetter]

how about spraying it down with wd-40?

 

[Eastside]

people who like yagis and argue in there favor usually have a yagi but not a quad and if they did it wasnt tuned right. people who argue in favor of quads over yagis usually had both. my friend bobby went from a moonraker to a 4 el quad. i used to go over and enjoy his radios alot. when he got the quad up there was a world of improvement. thats the day i became a believer in quads

Isn't a moonraker 4 a cubicle quad?

 

[gamegetter]

the moonraker is yagi either vertical or horizontal, even though it had a quad type reflector wire.

 

[Eastside]

the moonraker is yagi either vertical or horizontal, even though it had a quad type reflector wire.

A combo.

This is the Avanti Moonraker 4 and the similar Wilson Shooting Star. These were combination yagi/quad directional beam antennas. The driven and director elements were yagi, while the reflector was quad. This antenna was spec'd to have a 14.5 dbi gain and 38 db front to side rejection. Sporting a 16 foot boom, and twin sets of four elements (horizontal and vertical polarizations), this was not an antenna for the weak at heart (or more accurately the weak of mast). With a weight of nearly 25 lbs, and a wind load of over 5 sq. feet, you had to mount it on some serious thick pipe or a tower, and only a heavy duty rotator would be up to the task of turning (and holding) this antenna in any given direction.

Because of the quad reflector you had to be very careful, when assembling this antenna, to get the wire dimensions as exact as possible, or rejection performance would suffer. There were also some radio snake oil salesmen who tried to market "rejection improvers", which were nothing more than a second wire to round the elements. These would not work, as the smaller size became resonant at a much higher frequency. But some people bought into the notion that you could "improve" the performance of this already popular antenna.

 

[Se7en]

maybe what i should of done is gone all technical, a stick puts out a roundish radiant pattern, as to a beam puts out a focused radiant pattern...... but is the beams focal point in a cone horizontal position or vertical position ... is it cone shaped or square......maybe it is like this:

what about the back side? what is its pattern ? is it flat through the air ... maybe plumped in a thick cone/rectangular shape...

 

[Mr Clean]

people who like yagis and argue in there favor usually have a yagi but not a quad and if they did it wasnt tuned right. people who argue in favor of quads over yagis usually had both. my friend bobby went from a moonraker to a 4 el quad. i used to go over and enjoy his radios alot. when he got the quad up there was a world of improvement. thats the day i became a believer in quads

If im not mistaken a moonrakers are evenly spaced and not for best gain. When each director away from driven is spaced further than the last. That helps alot. Quads do talk great dont get me wrong. I can tell when I talk to them they work. But a well setup yagi talks also. Peace!

 

[Needle Bender]

If im not mistaken a moonrakers are evenly spaced and not for best gain. When each director away from driven is spaced further than the last. That helps alot. Quads do talk great dont get me wrong. I can tell when I talk to them they work. But a well setup yagi talks also. Peace!

a yagi is a m5

a quad is a ferarri