> A buddy of mine just got a Gem Quad. The element wire appears to be
> soft copper.
> How will this hold up? Will it stretch? Break? Is it ok?
> Thanks in advance for your opinions.....
>
> 73........de Gregg, K3QK
It holds up fine with the exception of at the feedpoints. Mine has been
up for about five years without major troubles. I have had to replace the
black tie-wraps once due to aging.
Attaching coax to the wires is problematic on any quad. What I finally
came up with was a piece of epoxy circuit board (sans copper) about 2" x
3" with brass screw on which ring terminals could be attached. The coax
feeds (I use quarter-wave sections of RG-62/U with and RCS-8V switchbox to
feed each element individually.) are held solid by a couple tie-wraps
through the board. The elements are attached to ring terminals (soldered)
and everything given a liberal coating of no-ox compound. The only
remaining failure point is at the junction of the element wires and the
ring terminal.
If I was to make the necessary changes, I would extend the epoxy board out
along the element wires so that I could provide some flexure restraint to
the wires, as well.
The Gem-Quad has been a good performer for me.
73, Ward N0AX
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