Hi Danny. Have only a few minutes but wanted to reply to your question.
Somewhere in the deep dark past comments have been made that on hf bands the
swr is not as important as many would have you believe. With that in mind,
I have always fed my three element tri-band quad (a gem quad) with a single
feed line into a current balun at the antenna. Obviously ignoring the swr,
which on ten meters is higher than on 15 and 20 meters. With good results
on all bands. I have about forty awards received in dx contests over a ten
year period which would indicate that the antenna works ok. Maybe not
perfectly, but certainly well enough to win dx contest awards almost every
time out of the box! Plus over 300 countries confirmed.
With that said, let me tell you that I have always used an antenna tuner
between the linear and antenna with the quad, ignoring the swr values I
saw. . Which were always higher than I would like to see at the input of
the antenna. The reason I ignored them was after unsuccessful tuning and
tweaking sessions over some thirty years of using the gem quad, both two
element and three element version, and once, falling off a fifteen foot
three legged fruit picking ladder and almost killing myself, I simply gave
up!! And just followed the company's suggested dimensions and found the
antenna always worked for me.
You can get very embroiled in all the technical stuff if you like but
honestly not sure it will increase your success rate with the quad.
Everyone seems to have their own opinion about tuning quads but they are
very difficult to work on, as you no doubt know. Tremendous interaction
between the elements. Tune one element and you screw up the others and so
forth.
Follow the manufacturer's directions, put it up int air, use an antenna
tuner and let it rip. Think you will find it works great, even on ten
meters with a 2 or 3 to 1 SWR. Van, K7VS
________________________________________________________________________
Where do you get ICE bandpass filters & beverage matching boxes? The
same place that pays for the hosting of this list: The eHam Store.
Order online at http://store.eham.net.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/towertalk
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
|