Club Program Ideas: Building a Quad

In this series on Club Program ideas, I’m providing possible programs for clubs to use in their meetings. You can find a full explanation of the approach in Club Programs – The Series.

Today’s program idea: Building a Quad Antenna.

Quad antennas are radically different then Yagi antennas. While there is debate over the effectiveness of one versus another, quad antennas offer a different challenge than a beam in terms of construction and mounting the antenna to the mast on a tower.

The program would show the various materials used to build the quad and how to mount it to a mast:

• Materials for the elements
• Wire used and support to the elements
• Feeding the bands — single or multiple antenna feeds
• Impedance matching
• Mounting the antenna to the mast — the three dimensions of a Quad.

Of course, good pictures on the construction and the mounting would make a world of difference to the program effectiveness.

Quad antennas aren’t for every location (for example, the ice storms in the Midwest), but offers great performance with a different setup than standard Yagi antennas.

Scot, K9JY

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