Thanks IB

When you say "with a 20 degree tilt", you mean that the square shape of the antenna does not sit level with the ground? That each tilts (I assume the left antenna would tilt left and the right would tilt right?) 20 degrees offset from the ground itself?

And 45 degrees up seems like a lot. At a 50 degree beam that would leave approx. 20 degrees of uncovered area near the ground. No low level flying allowed there? Perhaps that's a unique condition of your environment?

I mean I aim it up 20 degrees and the antennas are 45 degrees offset from eachother.

Remember the 55 degree beam is the -3db point. At that edge you still have +8db!

-Alex

That makes sense. Thanks, I'm going to start building the tripod mount tonight.

Complete. Almost. I still want to find/build a dome/box to protect each biquad array. As long as I'm careful though they are pretty stiff as is and the spacing from the reflector is consistent. I may add some bracing for added insurance if nothing else.

Galvanized 26ga sheet metal from Lowes
12ga solid copper core wire from Lowes (a bit thick but I wanted it stiff)
Steel compression pins for the standoffs from Lowes (only thing I could find that fit the RG58 cable snug and was solderable)
RG58 SMA cables from Ebay.
And a bit of plywood I had laying around the shop

We'll see how she works this weekend. Although I'll still be limited to only about 2 miles by my radio.

^That must be one mighty strong tripod! Nice job on the diversity BiQuads, though. That was one of my favorite setups.

-Alex

The whole antenna "array" weighs about 5lbs. I could probably shave another 1lb off if I drilled a bunch more holes in all the wood but the tripod seems to hold it without much effort as is. And I don't plan on hiking into any remote locations with it so meh... it'll do for now.

I'm excited to see it perform!

how do you straighten the mig wire come out of roll?

I use a series or rollers that straighten it via a variable tensioner wheel.

-Alex

The easy way is to put one end of the wire in a vise, and the other in the chuck of a drill. Pull it tight and then drill away. As the wires spins it straightens it out. It's actually a pretty cool trick.

^ I will pass that on to my machinist. He will be very interested in that technique.

Thanks,

-Alex

Originally Posted by turbodriven

The easy way is to put one end of the wire in a vise, and the other in the chuck of a drill. Pull it tight and then drill away. As the wires spins it straightens it out. It's actually a pretty cool trick.

I tried it with MIG wire, doesn't work. It do well with copper wire, but with MIG it just go worse.

-Hugo

Do you recommend different wire size for different frequency, i will be on 2510 . Should i use still use 14 AWG?

14 or 16 AWG works for 2510. My personal 2450MHz BiQuad is 14 AWG wire.

-Alex

hi Alex!
will this biquad works on 5.8?
i searched but not much info..
thanks in advance
mandis

Hi IBCrazy

I would like thank you for the biquad project.

This is mine and works perfect:





regards

Olympio from Brasil