G4ATA - 80m 4-square 2008 - 2010

For over 2 years 2008 - 2010 I had a full size 4-square for 80m.  I had very happy days (and nights!) low band DXing with it.  What a fabulous antenna it was!  At the time I was living in a rented property and my landlady at the time was happy for me to put up a 4-square in a paddock adjacent to my rented house.  The only condition attached was that the verticals had to be free standing with no guys.

Each vertical was supported by a 3m x 100mm x 100mm wooden fence post.  Attached to these were a 2.5m section of 2.5 inch od aluminium.  The inside diameter was just right for a 6m length of alloy scaffold pole and on top of the scaffold pole I placed a 12m Spiderbeam pole.  3mm PVC coated wire attached to the Spiderbeam formed the top 12m of each quarter wave vertical.  As previously mentioned the verticals were completely free standing with no guys.  I did have a winch system attached to each post to aid raising and lowering of the verticals.  This arrangement survived winds of over 70 mph without any issue.  The only time I lowered the verticals was for any adjustments or required maintenance.  In high winds the very top of the Spiderbeam poles became nearly horizontal but as soon as the winds dropped they went back to vertical again.

The ground system was made from whatever wire I could get hold of at the time and all buried just below the surface of the grass.  I had 24 quarter wavelength radials around each vertical by the time I was finished.

I used a hybrid phasing unit from Comtek Systems (later bought out by DX Engineering).

A few pics here....