First thing to do is check coax with an ohm meter and see if you show a
short. Some antennas do and I usually check this out before just so I
know. You obviously have a short on the loop likely the coax. Who
soldered those and did they check after soldering? Stupid question I
know. Also, I am not sure if the dual band would show a short or not,
but I'd check it. SLimple thing to try is redo the connector on the
bottom end, easy to do and if you're lucky, that may be where the
problem is. Good luck.
73
Butch
WA0VJR
Node 3148
Wallace, ks.
On Fri, 11 Jul 2014, Dr. Ronald E. Milliman wrote:
> I was so excited. Last night I told my wife, Palma, that I felt like a kid
> on Christmas Eve in anticipation of finally getting the guys over this
> morning to help me get my antennas up. Well, the fellows from the local ham
> club came over early this morning, and we got busy working on all the little
> details in preparation for erecting my antennas, the Dual Band vertical for
> 144 and 440 and the full-wave, 80 meter loop. We drilled holes in the
> foundation and wall for my coax and ground wire, got the loop attached to
> the pulleys and the vertical on top of the mast. Finally, it was time to
> hoist up the mast and position it in the wall bracket and secure the base.
> Then, the time came to connect the coax fittings and check it out with the
> antenna analyzer. Much to everyone's shocked and massive disappointment, we
> got SWR readings of 25 to 1, and even 31 to 1, which is as high as the meter
> would go. That is when the sick feeling developed in my stomach. What
> greatly exacerbated the situation is that we got almost equally high SWR
> readings on both coaxial feedlines. Just to see what would happen, I
> connected the loop to my TS-590, and tuned across 20 meters and could hear
> nothing. I started unscrewing the coax fitting from my rig, and as I did,
> the noise level in my TS-590 got really loud and then, dropped back to very
> low. That is when I discovered that if I completely unscrewed the outer
> shell ground side of the PL259 and just kept the center conductor plugged
> into the antenna input jack, that the noise level remained quite high, and
> as I tuned across the band, I could hear several signals, still not what I
> would expect, but I could hear signals. As soon as I screwed the outer
> ground shield on the antenna jack, the radio went almost completely dead
> again. Sounds like something is shorted somewhere, huh?
>
>
>
> To have one antenna system not work is one thing, but to have both of them
> not work is almost beyond chance. So, the guys left, and I still don't have
> any operational antennas. I'm not sure what we are going to do, but I think
> we need to do two things: One is to disconnect the coax from the ballun I
> have connected to the loop and connect a dummy load to the coax and see what
> it shows on the SWR meter, and second, connect the antenna analyzer directly
> up to the ballun which is connected to my loop and see what it shows us.
> Those steps will help us isolate the problem. As for the vertical, I don't
> know what to do with that one because it is way up on the top of the mast,
> and it was one hell of a job getting that mast erected up and in place. It
> took five guys to do it, and it was all they could do to keep it under
> control while they worked it up and in place.
>
>
>
> So, guys and gals, it will be a little longer before K8HSY is up and
> operational on the ham bands.
>
>
>
> 73,
>
> Ron, K8HSY
>
>
>
>
>
> Dr. Ronald E. Milliman
>
> Retired Professor of Marketing
>
> President: A3 Business Solutions (a3businesssolutions.com)
>
> President: M&M Properties
>
> Chair: American Council of the Blind's PR Committee
>
> Chair: American Council of the Blind's MMS Committee
>
> President: South Central Kentucky Council of the Blind (SCKCB.ORG)
>
>
>
>
>
>
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