Ken Bessler wrote:
My Quad is all built and I'm waiting or FedEx to deliver
my rotor. I built the quad out of wood, with a 1-1/4" dia
pine boom and 4' mast plus 1/4"x48" spruce dowels for
spreaders. I used insulated 16g stranded wire for the
elements. All the wood is either painted or treated with
sealer.

Problem is I just broke a spreader moving the antenna and
I'm worried about how fragile the whole design is. Would
the performance change much if I used 1/4" aluminum rods
instead? Maybe I should just get some fiberglass resin and
paint the spreaders with several coats? How about wrapping
them in re-enforced boxers tape (the good stuff with fibers
in the tape)?

Thanks for the help, guys....

--
73's de Ken KG0WX - Kadiddlehopper #11808,
Flying Pigs #-1055, Grid EM17io, FT-857D, AL-84,
Elecraft XG2, 4SQRP Tenna Dipper, Heath GD-1B

Dunno...1/4 inch dowels sound kind of thin.. I don't know about
metal spreaders. I've never tried it. Might work ok, as long as they
were not a resonant length, or overly coupling to the loop wires.
The resin probably would help stiffen them up a bit. "wood"
Might help, as long as the dowels don't flex enough to shatter the
glass coating, and cause it to crack away.
These problems are a large reason why I don't mess with quads
much. Lots more work, and design considerations with a 3d object
vs a 2d like a yagi. So being the lazy ******* I basically am, I use
almost all yagi's vs quads. So much easier to deal with, being most
of my yagi's are basically one piece with the elements grounded to
the boom. Not much to break or go wrong, unless something falls
on it... :/ On 6m, I use a 3 el yagi , made completely of copper
tubing. It's all one piece, plumbers delight , with the elements
brazed directly to a copper boom. Even the gamma match tube is
3/8 copper tube.
MK