CUBICAL QUADS

SWISS Quad – Greatest allround CB antenna of all time??
by AX05 » Fri Dec 28, 2007 8:29 am

I have used a Swiss Quad antenna to gain most of my countries on 11 metres. I had to find a high gain directional antenna that fitted within the legal guidelines of the Australian Communications department in the late 70’s – i.e. NO parasitic gain elements allowed on 27mhz CB.

The only antenna that seemed to fit the guidelines was the TET Swiss Quad or HB9CV Ham antenna.

It certainly performed better than anyone else seemed to do at that time on CB in Melbourne Australia from what I could ascertain.

If I could hear them – I could work them with only 15 W PEP from a CPI CP2000 Base station.

Some more official objective views below…

 
Creation : August 2001
Subject : SWISS QUAD Antenna, issue 10
Alain Miqueu, F6ITV

Was HERE BUT GONE: pagesperso-orange.fr/f6itv/p2045001.htm

Which monoband directional antenna can provide a good gain, a good F/B ratio, being not to large and mechanically within hamradio skill? As it is used to say, it’s a process that consists in searching the best compromise.

q This excludes high-gain and long-boom Yagi that are very large and heavy.
q A 3-element Yagi could be suitable regarding performances but to me it’s still too large.
q A 2-element cubical quad could be suitable regarding performances and sizes, but mechanically it’s rather complicated and fragile.
q The well-known Mr Baumgartner, HB9CV, has implemented a 2-element tubing antenna that has the both elements fed with such a phasing that it gives it better performances than a 2-element Yagi.
In Europe the HB9CV antenna is widely used in VHF and UHF portable experimentation but also in HF. It has a lot in common with the ZL Special, see W4RNL : http://www.cebik.com/hb.html
q HB9CV also transposed his feeding system to the 2-element cubical quad, this allowed him grounding the both loops, a genius idea for a unique model, he called it SWISS QUAD. It took me fancy at
the time I saw it, even if it seems mechanically more complicated than a 2-element Yagi, in my opinion its construction is easier than a classic quad owing to its all-grounded feature.

To day I have built two Swiss Quad, one for 28 and another one for 50 MHz. So I take web opportunity in bringing this benefit to who is interested in building this antenna because it’s really fancy and it will give you excellent DX performances together with the satisfaction of its construction.

Notes

q I remember that in 1990, a JA OM has informed me that experiments have been carried out on 10m
to add parasitic tubing elements to the Swiss Quad (Swiss Quagui ?) and also to make stacked
arrays with the resulting antennas.
q Also I remember that in the 90’s the Japanese Company TET has commercialised this kind of antenna
for the 144MHz band.

CLAIMED PERFORMANCES

q Gain against a dipole at short distance 6 to 7.9 dB
q Gain against a dipole at long distance 12 to 14 dB
q F/B at 15 km 15 dB
q F/B at 1000 km 10 to 12 dB
q F/B at 3000 km 18 to 24 dB
Last edited by AX05 on Tue May 13, 2008 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

AX05
Site Admin

Posts: 81
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 7:50 am
Location: Melbourne Australia

by AX05 » Tue May 13, 2008 11:39 am

Yes I have removed the link start as its seems to be gone. Thats the trouble with the web, no stayers!

Anyway search on swiss quad for best info.

If you look from the top it has the centre boom which is VERTICLE in the centre and four radiating elements in a flatened cross for a metre then they bend flat like below. one above the other separated by about a quater wave 9′ and the ends Verticaly attached by copper wire.

___ ____
\o/
____ / \_____

So in the air it looks something like this

_____________
| | || | l
| | || | |
| | || | |
| | || | |
| | || | |
|_|____||____|_|
||
||
||

Damn that was harder than I thought to do.

The smaller square obviously is the driven element and the slightly larger back square is the reflector.

AX05
Site Admin

Posts: 81
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 7:50 am
Location: Melbourne Australia