On 5/16/19 1:00 PM, Jorge Diez - CX6VM wrote:
hello
I want to build a 4SQ system, with four aluminium vertical antennas
My terrain is not flat, so I will do some work to level the ground
My question: is just enough to level the terrain where the 4 antennas will
be placed or is also necessary to level all the field included the field
occupied by the radials?
A 4 square is 4 vertical antennas with the element currents set by a
phasing network - typically, the phasing network uses 1/4 wavelength
lines to "force" the currents to be the right ones, using some form of
90 degree hybrid at the common feedpoint.
The answer to your question has two parts:
1) Assuming the element currents are phased as expected, how much will
the pattern be degraded by non-ideal elements?
2) Is the element current phasing perturbed by non-ideal elements?
For #1 - 1/4 wave monopoles are pretty tolerant of their radial field
variations - the gain and phase don't change very much - it's all about
the current distribution in the vertical element and the "sort of
complex" reflections off the soil surface in the near field. You can
look at N6LF's page for a discussion of the (small) changes in pattern
of a 1/4 wave vertical.
My opinion - not a big deal as long as you're not talking about putting
it on the side of a cliff, or the "lumps and bumps" in the soil are a
"significant fraction of a wavelength"
For #2 - non-uniform ground systems and installation in general will
change the mutual impedances of the antennas, which will change the feed
point impedance. If you were using a simple feed system that assumed
everything had 50 ohm feeds, it would definitely be degraded. Note well
that a typical 4SQ in ideal situation has feedpoint impedances that are
nowhere near 50 ohms.
However, most 4SQ setups use the 1/4 wave (or 3/4 wave) "current
forcing" scheme. So now, you're really talking about how well does your
90 degree hybrid work when working into an unexpected load impedance.
And that's something that's hard to know - I suspect a lot of folks have
this, and aren't aware of the problem.
And here we come to the actual question - what performance number do you
care about?
If it's forward gain - 4SQ type phased arrays can tolerate huge changes
in phase angle/amplitude without greatly affecting the gain. We're
talking 0.3 dB kinds of changes with a 30 degree phase error
[(3+cos(theta))/4 = 3.87/4]
If it's sharp nulls - yeah, small changes of a few degrees turn a 20dB
null into a 10dB or a 6dB null.
Would be very good to level ALL the terrain that will be occupied by the
radials and antennas, but if it's enough to level just the place of the
antennas, will save a lot of money
thanks!
Jorge
CX6VM/CW6W
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