Raymond Dave-CSUS04 wrote:
>
> My own experience with my 80 meter 4 square would indicate that the
> major lobes in the forward direction on the 4 square are really pretty
> broad. In reality, there does not seem to be much of a "null" in
> between major lobes in the forward direction.
>
> Performance in between two of the favored directions (like due west on a
> 4 square that favors NW/NE/SE/SW) does not seem to suffer. I sure have
> no problems here in the midwest working VK or Africa on 80 mtrs.
> However, it's not unusual to have the morning paths looking west
> frequently favor the SW antenna, sometimes even as far north as JA, I
> suspect due to the grayline effect.
>
> 73. . . Dave
> W0FLS
>
> > ----------
> > From: n4kg@juno.com[SMTP:n4kg@juno.com]
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 1998 1:29 PM
> > To: TOWERTALK@CONTESTING.COM; w8ji.tom@MCIONE.com
> > Subject: [TowerTalk] 4 SQUARE ORIENTATION
> >
> >
> > 4 SQUARE ORIENTATION de N4KG
> >
> > The usual configuration employed by most users is to
> > align their 4 squares along N/S/E/W lines, with the major
> > lobes aimed NE, SE, SW, NW.
> >
> > As W8JI points out, the nulls due east and due west
> > are a bit of a problem with Africa and VK.
> >
> > More complex switching can be used to obtain
> > N, S, E, W patterns in addition to the diagonal patterns.
> >
> > >From the eastern half of the country, there is a simpler
> > solution: ROTATE the array 15 degrees CLOCKWISE.
> >
> > This results in main lobes at 60, 150, 240, and 330 degrees
> > which covers all of Europe, Middle East, Africa, VK/ZL,and
> > eastern Asia.
> >
> > The pattern nulls are at 15, 105, 195, and 285 degrees.
> > >From the Eastern USA, almost nobody lives at those
> > headings. (OK, you will have to do something else
> > to have a killer signal into JW, ZS8, CE0X, and P29,
> > but how often are those places even on the air?
> >
> > (You already installed a mile of radials and permanent
> > supports for NE, SE, SW, NW? Too bad. )
> >
> >
> > de Tom N4KG
> > ............................
My nulls are not too sharp here. When working Africa I can sometimes
hear best
of my NE angle. However I also can hear some Africans on my SE at the
same
strength, telling me that he is in my null. I can also detect a
southern
null (who wants to work South America anyway??) I have not had any
problems
breaking any pile ups no matter where the dx was located. My point: if
your
doing a new install, the 15 deg rotation may be of some slight advantage
but
for an existing one like mine, forget moving it. I still have doubts
that I
would ever see much difference for most locations.
------------------------------------------
Steve Narducci
Amateur Radio Station - W9SN
All Ten Tec Equiptment
Toys for "Real" CW Men
------------------------------------------
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