Quad vs. Yagi Case Noise Buildup

HRSQ number one up!

I am stacking total of three of these, that is why this is number one :)

I have heard many times that Quad structure has less rain induced static buildup than yagis. This was not the primary reason for selecting this structure, so lets call it a bonus.

The picture below was taken in the afternoon. No it is not dark, this is normal daylight up here. I do not remember when I saw sunlight last time. Must have been weeks ago..

I raised up my HRS quad (HRSQ) a couple of days ago. Building and rising quad structures solo is always interesting challenge.. The boom height is about 9 meters. I have been testing the front / back figures and comparing the measured on-air figures to antenna model. So far everything is maching the model quite nicely.

Noise buildup

Today I had a chance to compare noise levels between hrsq and yagi in first hand, or first ear.

I was checking 9U4U pedition on 12 meters band and noted a significant static buildup in my yagi when it was snowing. I tuned my hrsq to 12 and alas, no static whatsoever. The gain figures are comparable between my yagi and single cell hrsq, verified with on air performance comparison a couple of days earlier.

I tried to visualise the static with hdsdr and kx3 but the pictures were not too good. I decided to give cw skimmer a go and that was much more successful. Unfortunately, when I got cw skimmer up and running the band was already dead. The following is unaltered screenshot (except the added text) from cw skimmer. Both antennas pointing to the same direction side by side to minimise possible coupling. The hrsq tuned to swr=1.0 with S-match tuner, rig KX3, i/q out to Creative E-MU 0204. I was swithing between antennas manually while recording the picture.

Quite interesting, isn't it? The yagi noise was over two S-units measured with KX3.