Using 3 Bands (only) of 5-Band S-Beam

Occasionally, for instance at Field Day or other portable operations, someone may wish to use only 20/15/10m on the 5-Band Spiderbeam. 

 

It is faster to erect the Spiderbeam if we can leave the 4 WARC band elements off.   

Does this work?

 

The short answer is YES.

 

THE DOWNSIDE:

  • about 0.3 dB less forward gain
  • about 3 dB less Front-to-Back ratio

 

For those interested, Tino (VK3EGN) has modeled the 5-Band Spiderbeam when leaving the 4 WARC elements off.  His files may be downloaded below:

 

EZNEC 5-Band Spiderbeam

 

DOWNLOADS:

EZNEC 5-Band w. 3-Band Elements

Fully Configured 5-Band Spiderbeam Yagi
SB Yagi 5B VK3EGN.
Datei [6.5 KB]
5-Band Spiderbeam Yagi with the 4 WARC elements removed.
SB Yagi 5B-3B VK3EGN.
Datei [4.8 KB]