Lincoln Log Quad

[SteveD]

This website got my interest:
http://www.hamuniverse.com/3el2meterquad.html

So heading out to the shed the first thing is the spreaders supports on the main beam.


Spreader setup. The ends are tee's cut down and a notched so the wire loop is held.


Drive element secured to beam and feed line temp installed.


Lots of minor steps later.......


Don't Know if It will get used this year,hoping to get a connector and switch before the snow stays.
The reason I call it a Lincoln Log Quad is to me it sort of looks like I built it with Lincoln logs

[gary in ohio]

If the plastic is not UV resistant make sure you spray it something that is.

[KJ4VOV]

Not Lincoln Logs... Tinker Toys! I loved those things as a kid! I may have to try this myself. Thanks for sharing it.

[Radio guy]

You can buy 5 sided junction Tees for various size PVC pipe so you don't have to make the wood hubs.
Radio Guy

[Apollo-11]

Where? That would be handy, especially if they were available in the gray electrical-grade PVC (which is UV-resistant).

[TacAir]

Impressive calculated gain. Please let us know how well in works in real life!

[SteveD]

Yes on the Tinker Toys There is snow on the ground here so painting is out until spring
I read somewhere WI has a 2meter field day. That is my short term goal.

[KJ4VOV]

Yes on the Tinker Toys There is snow on the ground here so painting is out until spring
I read somewhere WI has a 2meter field day. That is my shot term goal.

While you're waiting for spring, and you have your PVC out, you might want to give this one a try too.

http://www.hamuniverse.com/n5nns4elhentenna.html

[KYZHunters]

I built a 2-element version of this back in the early 80's from a QST design and it was fantastic. It sat atop my parents house for a decade, enduring Buffalo, NY winters, and worked every time I came home from college and the service. Another nice value is that you can change the polarization by rotating the feedpoint 90 degrees. If you make this with all PVC and don't glue it, it breaks down very nicely into a small package.

[Radio guy]

Try pvcfittings.com or do a search on PVC 5 way.
Radio Guy

Where? That would be handy, especially if they were available in the gray electrical-grade PVC (which is UV-resistant).

[SteveD]

It's glued

Now that hentenna----
That could be made to rotate

The lady at the local hardware store is going to roll her eyes when I grab a bunch more tee's

Hmmmm instead of wood as a main beam. 1 1/2 pvc...Lets see, give me a few days

[KJ4VOV]

It's glued

Now that hentenna----
That could be made to rotate

The lady at the local hardware store is going to roll her eyes when I grab a bunch more tee's

Hmmmm instead of wood as a main beam. 1 1/2 pvc...Lets see, give me a few days

Yes, the hentenna can be made to rotate easy enough. I've been thinking of building one for the home shack.

[KJ4VOV]

I was just over on QRZ and saw someone had recently sold one of these cubical quads. Note how it folds up... I'm thinking that would be a good feature, but not easy to do with PVC.

Darn... won't let me link to the image because it can't tell the size, but here's a link to the ad, he has an attached photo there.

http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?32 ... ost2392325

[SteveD]

radioguy--for what they want for fittings on pvcfittings.com,I'll keep making my own

[SteveD]

Very basic test with the quad.
I hit a repeater that was 45 miles away with 5 watts. KC9??? on the other end said I was down in the dumps but when I upped the watts to 30 I was SHINEY.
I cpuld rotate the antenna about 30 degrees before lock was lost.

[KJ4VOV]

Very basic test with the quad.
I hit a repeater that was 45 miles away with 5 watts. KC9??? on the other end said I was down in the dumps but when I upped the watts to 30 I was SHINEY.
I cpuld rotate the antenna about 30 degrees before lock was lost.

What was the intervening terrain like? I've hit repeaters at that distance with 5w using a rubber duck here in VA, so I'm thinking something isn't right with that quad.

[SteveD]

I think it's my ao. The only direction I can hit repeaters is from NE to the SE. There is a closed park on the north end of the county that sits on some of the higher elevation in the county, I will talk to some people from the highway dept. to see if they will let me sit there and run tests from there.