I am overwhelmed with delight to report that I now have both of my new
antennas operational. My dual band 2 M and 70 CM vertical is working
perfectly on both bands with a SWR below 1.5 to 1 across the  entire band on
both bands. Now, for the really big news; my full wave 80 meter loop is also
working, not perfectly, but it is working. Here is the really strange part:
the loop will load up on the very low end of 80 meters up to about 3.625
MHZ, but it will not load up at all on 40 meters which really disappoints me
because that is the band where I thought I had the best chance of working
most of you. The SWR is so high on 40 that my TS-590's automatic antenna
tuner won't tune it; in fact, the rig completely shuts down the power when I
try to load it on 40. So, the antenna still needs some work. However, it
works like a champ on 20, 17, 15, and 10 meters. I talked to several
stations this afternoon, including a station in Mexico, and the really
biggie is OD5ZZ in Lebanon on 17 meters. So, this is massive progress in the
right direction. I'm going to shorten the length of the loop to try to bring
it into resonance on 75 meters, and in the process, hope that it will load
on 40, but at the same time, not mess it up for the other bands. I just
cannot understand why we don't see a resonant dip on our Antenna Analyzer
around 7 MHZ, but we don't. 

 

So, what was the problem? Actually, there were several problems. First, the
fellows who helped me put up my antennas failed to mark which coax feedline
went to which antenna, and then, when they marked them the way they thought
they went, they marked them wrong; they had the feedline marked for the dual
bander actually going up to the loop, and the feedline marked for the loop
going up to the vertical! Then, the fellow who put on my PL259 coax fittings
for me did such a poor job that 3 of the 4 coax connectors were either
shorted or one of the two conductors were not making contact. Finally, my
Son and I determined the other day that the wire forming the loop had a
break in it somewhere because when we checked across the ends of the loop
for continuity, were infinite resistance; when we replaced the broken wire
with new #12 wire, we discovered a splice in the original wire. How it got
there is a mystery, but that is where the break was; the wire was spliced
together and wrapped with electrical tape, and I just never knew anything
about that. Now, if I can just get my loop to resonate on 75 and 40 meters
without messing up the fantastic performance on the other bands, I'll be in
tall cotton!! <Smile>

 

Ron, K8HSY