Hi, all.
Well, I know I'm going to get varying opinions on this one, but that's ok,
since I'm looking for a number of possible alternative causes and solutions.
As many of you know, I have gone back to using my Alpha Delta DXCC antenna
as my HF antenna, until my Windom, which took a dump on Saturday, can be
resurrected.
The DXCC works great on 40 meters with both 100 wattts, and my Ameritron
AL811H amplifier. However, when I went to do the Cross-Country blind ops
net on 14.258 yesterday, I had an interesting experience. Things worked
great with 100 watts, but when I kicked the amplifier in, and tried running
things on the usual 600 watts, I ran into problems. As soon as I keyed the
mic, the protective circuit in my Rigrunner tripped, and everything in my
station went silent.
I have no other indications of RFI anywhere else in the house or the shack.
In addition, my SWR's are good with the DXCC on 20 meters (about 1.5 to 1)
without the tuner, and obviously just as good with the manual tuner. I use
my usual procedure to tune the amp, and everything works there as well,
giving me forward and reflected power readings I would expect.
Could anyone tell me what you think is going on here? Do I still have a
grounding issue of sorts, even though I've gotten no indication of grounding
issues with other applications?
Other than reducing power, is there anything anyone can suggest for me to do
to try to solve this problem.
I was thinking of grounding the Rigrunner by connecting a ground cable from
the cover of the Rigrunner to my common station ground, but just haven't
gotten to it yet.
It's just a strange problem, and only seems to occur on 20 meters with the
amp. I never had the problem at all out in Colorado, where I had no station
grounding system at all.
73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
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