While visiting another topband operator (I won't mention any names), I noticed his 80 meter 4 square looked funny... and after lots of thought, I asked if it was really square. It seems it wasn't.
While thinking about how hard it can be to layout a 4 square (like a receiving one), I thought of perhaps an easy way to do it that doesn't require a laser (which is what I have used in the past). Step 1: Determine the heading you want to point the diagonal for the array (say from SW to NE). This dimension will be something like 193 feet if you are making a 4 square on 160 with 1/4 wave element spacing. Put a stake in the ground at each end of this line. Step 2: Construct a piece of small rope or wire that is the length of two sides of the array. For the above case - that would be about 273 feet. Determine where the middle is and put a knot or something there. Step 3: Secure the ends of the rope to your two end points and then stretch it out in the two possible directions so both sections are tight. You should now have a pretty good layout with equal spacing between the elements. I am sure some people have used this method - but I hadn't seen it documented before - so I thought I would share it here. 73 Tree N6TR _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
