Jim, I am very happy with the antenna I am using now which should fit your lot with no problem. I designed it as a flat wire 40 meter extended delta zepp. Overall length is 184ft. fed by 84ft of 450 ladderline to a 1 to 1 balun at remote antenna switch with 50 coax to shack. I posted a question here awhlile back as to how to make it efficent on 80 meters and one of the elmers suggested the 450 length of 80 or so feet. Works as good as 2 element quad I had that you are familiar with on 40 with bidirectional gain, 1.2 to 1 swr. Works well on 80 also, at 1.8 to one, probaly could adjust feedline length for perfection but not worth the effort.
Lastly, it is about 2 to 1 on 17 meters and seems to work pretty well.
I am sure one of the feedline elmers could help with 300 ohm length/ stub to obtain the same or better results with coax to the shack.
Good luck see you on OMISS.
Bob, N4JTE

I have used the Buckmaster OCF 5 bander, 3k version, for about 3 months before going to an extended zepp for forty and eighty. I was very happy with it as it served me extremely well on the bands it is designed for. It did not need a tuner and my palstar was always in the bypass position. I think you will be well satisified with it. At 135 ft long this is no small endeavor and the 3k balun is pretty heavy if you are using that model but in many side to side tests with various wire beams etc. it held it's own very well.

Good luck
N4JTE

I' m basing my thoughts on the assumption that the actual shape of your quad is square with four equal sides, not sure what you mean by rectangular.
It is important to maintain equal lengths on all four sides to maintain the electrical properties specific to a quad design. After following Dan's suggestions, I would re measure the antenna and rehang it with 4 equal sides. I doubt that you will ever see a perfect match at only 14 ft. of effective height and any agonizing over a perfect match is less important than getting it higher and symetrical. A vertical one element loop is a not going to provide measurable gain but will yeild some directivity. If possible try to add a director element in front of your loop, that exercise would be well worth the extra effort.
Good Luck and keep building.
Bob N4JTE

Cecil, as I noted, I built the antenna as per your feedline suggestions and it outperforms my two element 40 inv vee at same height. On 75 last night I was equally impressed when compared to my previous 135 ft ocf. All in all, a simple antenna with real bi directional gain on 40 and holds it own on 75 very well. Your help on the feedline situation made it possible and is most appreciated. Gonna fine tune resonance points tonight after work.

Bob, N4JTE

Cecil, Tnx for all the input, I built it and have one final question, it shows 1 to 1 swr at 7.36 and 3.55; would that be a factor caused by antenna length or the ladderline length ?
Tnx to all, learning a lot with this one.
Bob N4JTE

Try disconnecting the ALC conection wire.

The plan of the day is to try an extended zepp for 40 meters, (not sure why bothering, the band dies at sunset), somewhere around 167 feet center fed. In order to bring the impedance down to matchable levels for coax, a 450 ohm stub about 21 feet long needs to be inserted and attached to the 50 ohm coax feedline back to the shack for optimum 40 meter efficency.I would like, however, to use the antenna on 75 meters also.
The question is this; will the efficiency on 40 be compromised by excluding the 450 matching section and relying on the tuner for matching at 7.200?
On 75 the antenna would be 40 feet or so too long which the tuner will have little problem with.
To summarize; Is there any difference in efficency on a dedicated (40) antenna when using a tuner instead of a matching stub at the antenna ? I have had zero luck with ladderline due to rfi, tvi etc.

TNX in advance and Happy New Year to all the elmers out there.
Bob N4JTE

 For the last seven days the solar storms, flares,aururas, cme's and radiation have brutaly decimated most of the ham band especially at night here in NY. That being said, conditions previous to this event were not much better on 40 which has become a daytime band. I asked the same question on this forum a month ago and it all comes down to the bottom of cycle compounded by solar events like the one we are still feeling. 80 meters seems less affected with the usual DX eastern stations easily workable in the 3790 window in late afternoon. The more I think I know the less I really know.

I have been contemplating constructing the 40 meter sloper array as detailed in the ARRL antenna book 19 edition.
The physical details have been figured out as I will use a 50 foot push up mast with about 14ft of fiberglass extention poles strapped to the pushup, with the four half wave dipoles serving as guy lines.
My question is; does anyone out there have any practical experience with this antenna and or suggestions where I can find more specific info on this besides the ARRL and ON4UN's book ?
I have some concerns about the half metallic, fiberglass support configuration and what, if any, effects might be expected.

Tnx all and Happy Holidays
Bob N4JTE

I tried something very similar a couple of years ago when living in MD. At the time I was aiming for the same concept for 40 meters and had the room to try a few EDZ variations. I was totally disappointed with a vertical stack of 2 elements driven 180 degrees out of phase with 1/4wl spacing top to bottom. It could have been the relative low height or phasing problems or possibly just a bad idea. A reference dipole confirmed that it just was not working as hoped. I pretty much put the same antenna up in a horizontal plane with 1/8 wl spacing ,equal length elements fed 180 degrees out of phase about 50 feet high. The results were fantastic, the broadside gain in both directions was the best I had ever acheived with a wire antenna to date. If I had the room at this QTH it would be back up in the air in a heartbeat. Hope my experience with this antenna is helpful to your experiments.
Bob, N4JTE

Can anyone tell me why 40 meters has been so horrendus from 0100 for hours? For about the last two weeks only some west coast stations are being heard here in the N.E. and their signals are way down from usual. I'm asking because the propagation numbers are not that bad and we even had some sunspots for a change. I am aware of where we are in the cycle but it seems like the middle of the country has ended up in the dead zone. 75 meters seems unaffected and actually much more friendly, propagation wise, with a 30 ft high inv vee draped over the fence versus 3 element quad on 40, go figure..
Okay, done complaining, any thoughts ?
Bob N4JTE

Tnx Jim for your input, a sketch of the antenna is at n4jte.blogspot.com.
I think the fact that my stubs on the outside elements are in the top corners will not be happy with the driven element being fed from the side when in the vertical mode. N3ox emailed that the high current nodes will be a problem unless stubs are moved also. Too much work I think to try and accomplish all the neccessary switching along with the reverse capabilty.
Tnx again for your ideas.
Bob N4JTE

Extremely happy with my now, 3 element reversable 40 quad but of course now it's time to mess with it. I would like to add the ability to change from horizontal to vertical polarization from inside the shack, Winter has arrived, my concern is that the unused feeder for the horizontal polarization, though going to ground on the Ameritron remote antenna switch, will add electrical and physical length to the driven element and vice versa when changing feedlines from top corner to side corner on the diamond quad.
Not sure if this is even possible with my present configuration having the two outside element stubs at top corner for the reverse capabiliy.
Any help or ideas would be appreciated,
Bob, N4JTE

Hi Bill, I just downloaded that program a few days ago for the free trial period. To me it's just another VOIP similar to echolink with a pretty picture of a fake transceiver to simulate ham radio contacts. It might be a useful way of staying in touch with some friends when the band propagation is gone or meeting some DX stations over the internet, I will probaly get bored real quick with it, to me it ain't real unless it's coming from my antenna. To answer your question, I don't worry about novices "talking" out of frequency on this program any more than if they were on a long distance phone call talking to a DX station, maybe it will inspire them to do "REAL" ham radio and upgrade for voice priviledges on the air.
Tnx for the interesting question bill 73, Bob N4JTE

I've had an Alpha Delta twin sloper laying around unopened for a few months and figured I'd give it a shot. Not expecting much but I would like to try it on 160 and 80 meters. I'm not to familiar with the "theory" of twin slopers with a grounded tower so I'm curious, would the addition of a few radials at the ground rod connection have any benefit that anyone might have first hand experience with ?

Tnx, Bob N4JTE