Boxkite Quads

[KL7AJ]

Anyone here remember the Boxkite quad antenna, that had four real skinny booms attached to the corners of the spreaders rather than just one attached to the center? Supposedly this could be build more rigid than a normal quad, using cheaper spreader materials, since everything is in compression. Not sure I really believed that. But anyone here with experience with these? Looking at this as an option for our club station....most likely 20 meter monoband.

eric

[K5FH]

Back in the 1970s I remember a QST article about a similar antenna design for 6M using PVC pipe. The quad spreaders and center boom were the standard design but it used four "booms" of PVC to impart rigidity to the spreaders.

I'm not sure this design would work all that well structurally when scaled up to 20M dimensions. You would end up with a big, heavy antenna with high windload. Plus, in your neck of the woods, there would be all that exposed spreader area to collect ice.

Sounds like you would be better off with a standard quad.

[KL7AJ]

Back in the 1970s I remember a QST article about a similar antenna design for 6M using PVC pipe. The quad spreaders and center boom were the standard design but it used four "booms" of PVC to impart rigidity to the spreaders.

I'm not sure this design would work all that well structurally when scaled up to 20M dimensions. You would end up with a big, heavy antenna with high windload. Plus, in your neck of the woods, there would be all that exposed spreader area to collect ice.

Sounds like you would be better off with a standard quad.

Believe it or not, we don't have an icing problem in the interior, since it's so dry. But plastic tends to shatter at 60 below.

[G0GQK]

They were actually called Cubic Quads.

G0GQK

[N5PVL]

I was envisioning a flying quad ( VHF I guess ) that you sent up on windy days.

At one of our ham radio events at south Padre Island, we once had one end of a wire antenna held aloft by a kite.

Unfortunately the wire broke near the radio, and the kite took the wire downwind where it hit a power line near an RV park, producing brief but impressive pyrotechnics.

We started to run over there and investigate, but had second thoughts and decided to let sleeping dogs lie. In the end, the puzzled RVers never appeared to connect the mysterious sparks with our group, a hundred yards or so upwind.

Thus endeth the lesson.

[VK6ZGO]

My old boss used to call them"Comical Cubes".


73 VK6ZGO