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Re: [TowerTalk] 6 mtr quad

To: Mike Smith VE9AA <ve9aa@nbnet.nb.ca>, towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] 6 mtr quad
From: Jon Pearl - W4ABC <jonpearl@tampabay.rr.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2016 23:03:30 -0400
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Hi Mike,


Cubex!  http://www.cubex.com/6m.htm


I ordered a tri-band quad with a 3" dia., 30 ft. boom from Cubex' original owner, Karl Sharping, back in the early 80's. This was before the advent of the Internet and as such, a phone call got with the question, "How do you want me to pay you?" got the ball rolling. Karl said, "I'll ship it today. Just sent me a personal check when you get a chance." Boy...those days are gone along with most of the quad manufacturers:

Gotham

Skylane

Lightning Bolt

Gem-Quad


My first quad was a 2 element Gotham featuring a 2" X 2" wooden boom and bamboo spreaders. One of the biggest thrills of my amateur existence came when I worked the inventor of the quad, Clarence Moore - W9LZX in the mid 70's before he passed in 1979. He too was a quad owner and we rag chewed forever one evening on 20m, talking about, what else? - quads. We finally wrapped things up as he had to go QRT. A moment later another ham came on frequency and asked me if I knew who I'd just worked. I said, "Yeah! W9LZX" He said, "No. Do you know *who* he is?" I said, "No. Who is he?" He finished with, "He's the engineer who invented your antenna while working at HCJB in Quito." I just about fell over. HCJB was the first SW station that I'd ever heard on a old multi-band Aircastle portable SW receiver.

I'm a firm believer that quads open the band in the morning and close them down at night. 15m was a dream for me as a kid.


Clarence' legacy lives on today in Crown International - http://www.crownaudio.com/en-US





73,



Jon Pearl - W4ABC
www.w4abc.com



On 8/30/2016 5:09 PM, Mike Smith VE9AA wrote:
Wasn't there a company out there making a 6m Quad called the Killer Bee or
something?

Anyways, I also owned a Gem Quad once.  I overloaded it by adding WARC, 6m
and even 40m(with coils) to it.

For the 6m part, I extended the boom and made it a 4el Quagi.

I had a 5el yagi above it perhaps 15' higher and at no time (on Es, F2 or
AU, tropo or MS) did I ever see the Quagi louder than the yagi.

The only time the Quagi came into it's own was when it was really raining
(or snowing) hard and there

was S9 precip static on the slightly higher yagi.  At those times the Quagi
was either silent or at least

much quieter than the yagi.

Even though it was my own fault that the Gem Quad came down (ice storm and
antenna was very overloaded) I really believe it was just a matter of time.

  It had failed a number of times (fiberglas repairs all over the poor beast)
years before I got it)

It was exactly as Kelly (VE4XT) said about VE4VV's,. a real nice antenna in
its own right, but if you have high winds, or as we do here, ice , snow and
wind with vy low temps

then it's just a matter of time before it either needs spreader repairs, or
broken wires soldered or something of that nature.  BTDT, have the fiberglas
imbedded in my hands to prove it.

YMMV

Mike VE9AA

Mike, Coreen & Corey

Keswick Ridge, NB



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