About Cubical Quad Antennas
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ALL ABOUT CUBICAL QUAD ANTENNAS WILLIAM I. ORR, W6SAI STUART D. COWAN, W2LX RADIO PUBLICATIONS, INC. Box 149, Wilton, Conn. 06897 1 .•~ ...ilii"EE........ - .. ...........~ • .•• J UP2KE I IEfiaRJ UP2C ' ,__..t.:__ ~=-"'- Second Edition 1970 Fifth Printing 1977 • ~·Ac6A:·- ~ ·e IMIT_,AN .............. ""'_ Copyright © MCMLIX, Rad io Pub lications, Inc., Wi I ton, Conn. 06897. Manufactured in U.S. A . All rights reserved. No part of this book ma y be EP_[R -:::-:-- reproduced in any form, by an y system, wi thout permission in wr iting from the publisher. ff••,.., '~ \.,~• ... ~~:·~~ .... ~ <.- -:.-=-.~:::!~•=- ~=-- TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE. THE STORY OF THE CUBICAL QUAD ANTENNA...... 5 Early history of the Quad antenna. Concept of the open dipole. The installation of the first Quad at Radio HCJ.B in Ecuador by W9LZX. CHAPTER TWO. THE QUAD: HOW DOES IT WORK?........................ 10 The Quad driven element. Impedance and power gain of the square loop. Pattern of the Quad loop. Adding a parasitic element to the Quad loop. CHAPTER THREE. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE QUAD ANTENNA...... 20 Antenna terminology. Directivity and aperture. The decibel. Antenna gain measurements. Cubical Quad parameters. Power gain and patterns. The Quad antenna with parasitic director. Dimension chart for the Quad. CHAPTER FOUR. MULTI-ELEMENT AND CONCENTRIC QUAD ANTENNAS.................. 41 The three element Quad antenna. Power gain, bandwidth, and F / B ratio. A broad-band Quad. Polar plots of multi-element Quad. Concentric Quad antennas. The three band Quad. Parasitic stubs. Dimension chart and data. CHAPTER FIVE. THE EXPANDED QUAD (X-Q) ANTENNA................ 53 Half-wave antenna arrays. Derivation of X-Q antenna fro m Lazy-H. The X-Q refl ector element. Matching the X-Q to the feedline. Coaxial feed for the X-Q array. Adjustment procedure. Dimension chart for X-Q array. CHAPTER SIX. FEED SYSTEMS FOR QUAD ANTENNAS.................... 60 The balanced Quad antenna. Transmission line radiation. Simple feed sys· terns. Pi-network operation. Coaxial feed systems. The trombone matching system. High impedance coaxial lines. The gamma match. Data charts. CHAPTER SEVEN. THE TRI-GAMMA MULTIBAND QUAD ANTENNA 75 The Tri-gamma match. Building the Tri-gamma system. Interlocking effects. A test set-up. Adjusting the Tri-gamma match. Complete d imension data. CHAPTER EIGHT. BUILD YOUR OWN QUAD ANTENNA.................... 81 The wood and bamboo frame. Waterproof bamboo arms with Fibreglass. Assembling the antenna. The aluminum frame. Final assembly of the Quad. CHAPTER NINE. QUAD TUNING AND ADJUSTMENT........................ 89 Antenna adjustment. Using your receiver and test signal to align the Quad. Antenna installation. Antenna evaluation. Antenna maintenance. CHAPTER TEN. QUAD ROUND- UP..................................... ................... ................... 97 The Quad element. Expanded Quad. Delta Quad beam. The Swiss Quad. The Birdcage Quad. l\<Iiniature Quads. Low Frequency Mini-Quads. The Ph Wavelength Quad loop. The "Monster Quad". Quad Versus Yagi. The W6SAJ Theory of Antenna Gain. FOREWORD Born in the South American jungle three decades ago, surrounded by a savage civilization thousands of years old the Cubical Quad antenna has caught the interest of amateurs the world over, and in a few short years has taken its place alongside the more sophisticated antenna arrays con ceived in the electronic laboratories of the world. The concept of the famous "Quad" was a stroke of original thought, conceived by an amateur in one of the little known areas of the world in an attempt to solve a problem that could not be solved! The success of the Cubical Quad-the brainchild of W9LZX- in overcoming the myriad diffi culties of antenna design for a tropical shortwave broadcasting station is worthy inspiration for any amateur, as the story of the Quad spells the true radio ham spirit of "make-do" and inspiration when confronted with "the problem that cannot be solved." This, then, is the story of the Quad antenna; its humble beginning, what it does, how it works, and its spectacular success in the world of amateur radio. The second edition of this Handbook provides updated information on the Quad antenna derived through additional on-the-air tests and recent field strength measurements made on model test ranges. Gain of the Quad loop has been reevaluated in light of these tests and new gain fi gures derived for various Quad configurations, confirming independent measurements made by other experimenters. Grateful thanks are extended to those many amateurs for their help and assistance in the preparation of this Handbook. In recent years, the term "cycles per second" used in conjunction with radio waves has been supplanted by " Hertz" in honor of the 19th century Austrian physicist, Heinrich Hertz, who conducted early experiments with radio waves. Thus cycles per second become Hertz, kilocycles become kilohertz and mega cycles become megahertz. However, in this book, the older and more common terms, cycles, kilocycles and megacycles are used. CHAPTER I The Story of the Cubical Quad Antenna The Cubical Quad is an unusual antenna, and it has a unique and inter esting history. The development and growth of the ordinary amateur antenna follows a rather stereotyped story. The theory of the antenna usually makes its first bow in some technical publication, such as the Proceedings of the l.E.E.E. Next, the antenna is used and tested by some radio engineer who is also an ardent amateur. Soon, by word-of.mouth, the story of the antenna spreads and eventually it is publicized in some amateur journal. During the growth and development of the antenna, the story is embellished with tales of fantastic gain, unbelievable front-to-back ratio, and other magical attri butes possessed by this antenna which no other antenna can lay claim to. Over a period of years after the hue and cry has dimmed a bit, the antenna either falls into limbo and is forgotten, or it takes its rightful place in the great group of popular amateur equipment. Meanwhile, some other new development has probably surpassed the antenna in the interest of the amateur. An exception to this story is the Cubical Quad antenna. Springing full grown, as it were, into popularity with no formal engineering ancestry, the Quad has been simultaneously hailed as the greatest antenna development of the age, and damned as the greatest hoax of the century. Naturally, the truth lies somewhere between these two violent extremes. In order to arrive at an unbiased opinion of the antenna, it is necessary to examine its past history, determine the method of operation, and arrive at a proper method of feeding the array. 6 QUAD ANTENNA S EARLY HISTORY OF THE QUAD In the year 1939 a group of radio engineers from the United States traveled to Lhe South American republic of Ecuador to install and maintain the Missionary Radio Station HCJB, at Quito, high in the Andes mountains. Designed to operate in Lhe 25 meter shortwave broadcast band with a carrier power of 10,000 modulated walts, the mission of HCJB was to transmit the Gospel to the Northern Hemisphere, and to tell of the missionary work in the wilds of Ecuador. To insure the best possible reception of HCJB in the United States a gigantic four element parasitic beam was designed, built, and erected with great effort and centered upo.1 the heartland of North America. The enthusiasm of the engineers that greeted the first transm1ss10n of Radio HCJ B was dampened after a few days of operation of the station when it became apparent that the four element beam was slowly being destroyed by an unusual combination of circumstances that were not under the control of the worried sLafI of the station. It was true that the big beam imparted a real "punch" to the signal of HCJB and that listener reports in the path of Lhe beam were high in praise of the signal from Quito. This result had been expected. Totally unexpected, however, was the effect of operating the high-Q beam antenna in the thin evening air of Quito. Situ ated at 10,000 feet alLitude in the Andes, the beam antenna reacted in a strange way to the mountain almosphere. Gigantic corona discharges sprang full-blown from the tips of Lhe driven element and directors, standing out in mid-air and burning wi th a wicked hiss and crackle. The heavy industrial aluminum tubing used for the elements of the doomed beam glowed with the heat of the arc and turned incandescent at the tips. Large molten chunks of aluminum dropped to the ground as the inexorable fire slowly consumed\ the antenna. The corona discharges were so loud and so intense that they could be seen and heard singing and burning a quarter-mile away from the station. Th·e music and programs of HCJB could be clearly heard through the quiet night air of the city as the r-f energy gave fu el to the crowns of fire clinging to the tips of the antenna elements. The joyful tones of studio music were transformed into a dirge of doom fo r the station unless an immediate solu ti on to the problem could be found. It fell to the lot of Cl arence C. Moore, W9LZX, one of the engineers of HCJB to tackle this problem. It was obvious to him that the easily ionized air at the two mile eleva Li on of Quito could not withstand the high voltage potentials developed at the tips of the beam elements. The awe-inspiring (to THE STORY OF THE CUBICAL QUAD ANTENNA 7 The studios of HCJB. located in Quito, Ecuador, the birthplace of the Cubical Quad antenna. The simple Quad was used for many years when the trans mitters of HCJB were located in the city.