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
> ............................
>
>
>
> On Tue, 30 Jun 1998 12:02:20 +0000 Tom Rauch
> <10eesfams2mi@mass1-pop.pmm.mci.net> writes:
> >
> >snip
>
> >I'm testing antennas in the mornings with VK's and ZL's, comparing a
> >dipole (broadside east-west) at 260 feet height with the 4 square
> >(110 ft in-line spacing with 120/240 degree phasing) and an omni-
> >3/8 wl vertical. The four square points due southwest or northwest,
> >and the dipole feedline and the 260 ft tower located 500 feet due
> >west of the omni- and 4 square puts a null due wes. This null located
>
> >due west hurts the verticals about 8 dB.
> >
> >snip
>
> >73, Tom W8JI
> >w8ji.tom@MCIONE.com
> >
>
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