4-Square

G4ATA

Name                  John Hotchin
QTH                     Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England
Grid                      IO92XO
Station Info         Yaesu FT-1000MP, Dentron MLA-2500B

4-Square Info
Band - 80m
Operational since May 2008, full size quarter wave verticals, free standing.
Phasing system - Comtek - see links page.
Vertical construction - two aluminium sections, 1 x 2.5inch o.d. x 2.5m, 1 x 2inch o.d. x 6m, 1 x 12m telescopic fibre glass supporting 4mm wire.  Supported by 125cm x 125cm x 3m wooden posts set in concrete.  All verticals tilt over for maintenance/repair.  The telescopic fibreglass poles are from Spiderbeam - see links page.
Approximately 25 radials per vertical all buried approx 10cm below ground.

1 Bottom Mount    2 Top Mount    3 Bottom Section    4 Spiderbeam Joint

 

 

5 Winch    6 Winching it up!    7 Upright    8 All Four

 

9 Comtek Phasing Unit    10 Windy    11 Broken Vertical

1.    Bottom mounting bracket
2.    Top mounting bracket
3.    Bottom section of vertical fitted to 125mm x 125mm wooden post
4.    This is where the Spiderbeam pole fits to the 2" x 6m aluminium pole
5.    Mounting the winch to the wooden post - I could probably walk them up but the winch makes it a very quick, easy job to put the verticals up and take them down. They are fairly cheap trailer winches.
6.    Winching up one of the verticals
7.    Upright and fit the "U" bolt to the top bracket.  The "U" bolts are from my local friendly auto shop - exhaust clamps!
8.    It is difficult to get a decent photo with all of the verticals in due to all the trees at my QTH - it is almost a "stealth" antenna!!
9.   The Comtek phasing unit and control box.
10. One of the verticals on a windy day - this is with about 30mph wind.  When the wind stops they are bolt upright again!  It's quite worrying the first time the wind blows because they do bend quite a lot!!
11. This is what happens if you use the wrong type of clamps on the joints of the Spiderbeams and over-tighten them - I have now replaced all of the clamps I originally used with a couple of turns of self-amalgamating tape covered with a few turns of ordinary electrical tape.

Click here to view & search G4ATA's online log at www.hrdlog.net

This 4-square is no longer in existence.  I moved to a new QTH in July 2010 an no longer have room for a 4-square unfortunately.  For the present time I am concentrating my efforts on a 2-element, 1/8 wavelength spaced phased array at my new QTH in Grantham, UK.