Hi Richard,

I remember the old mini quad.  It's made now by TGM in Canada.   The guy who 
made them in Erie PA died a number of years ago.  There are 2 versions of 
the story as to what happened next. 1. The guy from Canada bought the 
business from the widow.  2.  The guy from Canada  just  copied/improved the 
old design and started making them himself.

The design may go back quite a way and I'm not sure if anyone really "owns" 
it.

In place of the old brass tuning spokes, there are tuning spokes made of 
aluminum welding rod.  Surprisingly sturdy and you need a  strong hand to 
cut one with a pair of side cutters.  The spokes are held in place with 
stainless steel  machine screws.

The rest of the contraption is made of T66 aluminum, Lexan plastic, and 
copper weave wire.  Has been up 3 or 4 years now and has survived some 
pretty strong winds.  Never lost a spoke, which as you know was  a big 
problem with the older one.

A little pricey and a compromise with a capital k.  But I was able to get it 
up myself and  the push up mast is plenty strong, and it turns well with a 
tv rotor.
73 Steve KW3A




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Fiorello" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 4:34 PM
Subject: Re: radials for butternut v6


> Hi Steve;
> Sounds like a nice system as it is.  Wonder which miniquad you are using?
> There was one around 20 years or so ago but I believe it is long gone.  I
> too have a ta33 (the junior version) packed away from a prior qth.
> If you are using the old miniquad that I am familiar with, it had tuning
> stubs for lack of a better description that were very brittle and broke 
> off
> if you looked at them wrong.  The butternut mini beam seemed more durable
> but I didn't like the price for the performance.
> Richard
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Steve Forst" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 2:29 PM
> Subject: Re: radials for butternut v6
>
>
> Well nothing fancy here.  My old Mosley TA 33 is still packed away after
> moving here 9 years ago.  Keep hoping to get it up sometime, but has never
> worked out.  Have a small mini quad beam from Canada on a  Radio shack 19 
> ft
> push up mast.  The mast is slightly elevated and with the channel master
> rotor and short  mast stub puts it at a towering 23 feet.   Gives me some
> front to back on 10 15 and 20 and maybe a little bit of gain.    Side
> rejection is fairly good and it also works on 6, so I'm content for now.
>
> For low bands it's a  trapped dipole from Hy Power antennas.  160, 75, 40
> and I added  a second 10, 20 dipole to the feed point.  124 ft overall
> length, but  15 ft drops down before entering a tree.   I've worked 47
> states on 160 with 100 watts, so it seems to work well.
>
> 73, Steve KW3A
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Richard Fiorello" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 2:06 PM
> Subject: Re: radials for butternut v6
>
>
>> Hi Steve;
>> Just curious what are you using since you took down the 6v?  I think your
>> poor yard is smaller than my old one.
>> Richard
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Steve Forst" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 1:21 PM
>> Subject: Re: radials for butternut v6
>>
>>
>> Hi Richard,
>>
>> I still have the antenna, but not up in the air at this time, but had it
>> up
>> for several years.   I never had the counterpoise kit, but after  some
>> discussion of it on this list, I read the  pdf instruction manual on the
>> Bencher website.    Butternut says at the top of the manual that while 
>> it
>> will make the antenna  resonant  on all designed bands, it is not a
>> replacement for a real ground system.    Also found it interesting that
>> the
>> matching coil at the bottom of the antenna isn't used and how  critical
>> the
>> winding of the coax coil seems to be.
>>
>> I used the stub tuned  kit and  they were mostly  horizontal.   Base of
>> antenna was  9 feet high and radials  were between 7 and 9 feet depending
>> on
>> where the attachment points were for the far end of the  rope.
>> Butternut
>> says they can angle down as much as 30 degrees.
>>
>> If you wind up with one of these and put it in an elevated  location, be
>> prepared to  go up and down a few times.    Factory settings  should get
>> you
>> close enough, but if you  want to tweak it for each band,  you will raise
>> and lower it several times,  so bear that in mind when choosing a
>> location.
>> Of course, you can just get it close and use a tuner.
>>
>> BTW Mine was a 6v with the add ons for 160, 12, and 17 bought used for
>> 70$.
>> Never guyed it and never had a problem.   Homebrewed a telescoping mast
>> with
>> 8 ft of fence post 4 ft in ground and 4 above.   Into that one was 
>> another
>> pipe about 9 ft long.  Antenna base went into  the top of this one.  When
>> lowered, I could work on  the lower part of the antenna standing on the
>> ground.   A step ladder let me reach everything up to the 20 meter stuff.
>> Changes in lower freqs had little or no change in freqs  above 20 meters
>> so
>> once set  correctly  there was  no need to mess with them.  Drilled a 
>> hole
>> through the 9 foot pipe and when it was raised to proper height  a bolt
>> was
>> put into the hole and it  rested on the top of  the 4 foot of pipe
>> sticking
>> out of the ground.   Wish I had a dollar for every time  I  had to make 
>> it
>> go up and down to tune.
>>
>>
>> 73, Steve KW3A
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Richard Fiorello" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 11:03 AM
>> Subject: Re: radials for butternut v6
>>
>>
>>> Hi Steve
>>> I suspect my guydes were either to steep or to tight.  The antenna
>>> certainly
>>> did fail at any rate.  Are your radials horizontal or do they slant
>>> toward
>>> the ground?  I'd like to find something that doesn't require guydes but
>>> will
>>> last.  If I do this again I will put it on the garage rather than the
>>> roof
>>> of the two story house.  I could find folks to climb up there but 
>>> lifting
>>> up
>>> the antenna was quite another issue.  Unfortunately, those most willing
>>> to
>>> do the work had no clew about antennas.  There intensions were good. 
>>> Had
>>> one guy insisted I should use steel cable for guydes.  How high is yours
>>> and
>>> have you tried the counterpoise kit?  I was more than a bit surprised at
>>> the
>>> price of that kit. Good old sticker shock I guess.  This antenna work
>>> would
>>> be much more interesting if I could do the work myself.  Maybe the next
>>> general exam should have a climbing test?
>>> Richard
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>