| Author |
Message |
    
Mikefromms
Intermediate Member
Username: Mikefromms
Post Number: 140
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 11:38 am: | 
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I have recently had a Thunder 8XB placed up in the top of a pine. I was talking to New York the other night when, silence... My swr went up near the red zone. The other side of the beam works fine; so it's isolated to one side. I replaced the end connector to no avail. I did notice the swr go back to 1:1 and the signal come back in once or twice.
We had a lot of wind that day and night. I was wondering if pine limbs or twigs touching the wire on one side of the thunder 8 could short it out? The possiblities are limited:
Limb touching wire, old barrel connector shorted out, coax went bad--it's all 2003-2004 213, wire pulled loose on one side of antenna? I looked up at the antenna and everything looks intact from the ground. I hope it's something simple because it cost me to get that thing up there. Anyway, your thoughts about the limb touching the wire....
mikefromms |
Taz
Senior Member
Username: Taz
Post Number: 2659
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 5:04 pm: |
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Well, this tells me you have a bad connection some place. Most likely at the antenna where the coax screws in. The connector might not have been put on the best.
Taz, 73's |
Tech833
Moderator
Username: Tech833
Post Number: 635
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 5:30 pm: |
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Loose connection perhaps? Nothing in the tree can 'short' your antenna. Something can pull loose though. |
Rattlesnakejake
Intermediate Member
Username: Rattlesnakejake
Post Number: 114
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 6:49 pm: |
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I agree. |
Mikefromms
Intermediate Member
Username: Mikefromms
Post Number: 145
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 7:36 pm: |
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How about a cold solder?
mikefromms |
123upmichigan
Intermediate Member
Username: 123upmichigan
Post Number: 108
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 9:23 pm: |
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ya should check to make sure you conections are clean. the first time i put my raker up i could not get my swr's to drop below a 2 no matter where i adjusted it so we took it down cleaned all the connection at the gamma's and it dropped right to nothing. hope it helps |
Boxcar
Intermediate Member
Username: Boxcar
Post Number: 273
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 10:17 pm: |
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I would take a voltmeter and check both ends of the coax. Take each positive and negative posts and touch the outer housings of the 259 connectors and check for continuity and do the same for the inner pin. I've ran into problems like this before and usually(but not always) it's somewhere in the connectors like a bad solder!
 |
Mikefromms
Intermediate Member
Username: Mikefromms
Post Number: 148
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 12:45 pm: |
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Boxcar, I ran a check on the coax. It does appear that the coax is shorting out, likely at the other end where it connects to the barrel connecter. My other coaz doesn't register the meter when I touch center and outer ground, but the one messing up shows closed circuit; therefore, a outer braid wire is touching the center conductor at the other end. If this is the case, this shows that even the professionals can make mistakes, and again proves my thinking about not getting any kind of work done on a Friday. Everyone's mind is on the weekend. LOL! One of my barrel connectors was old, it may also be the culprit. When the guy goes back up the tree to check the coax connections I will have the old barrel connector replaced anyway.
That coax started to work again a couple of times last night. When I flipped my antenna switch onto that position I noticed it was hearing like normal, so I key down and sure enought 1:1 swr, but then it suddenly shot back up near a 3:1.
I'll let you all know how it turns out.
mikefromms |
Mikefromms
Intermediate Member
Username: Mikefromms
Post Number: 158
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 11:21 am: |
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Well, we replaced a barrelconnector and also took some strain off the coax. Everything worked fine for about a week then I had a high swr show up on one side of the thunder 8. I still have sound and reception but a 3.25 swr on channel 40 and about a 2.4 on channel 1. Upon a close examination of the antenna, I noticed a shining wire hanging below the antenna. Oh no! Just as I had feared. The wind had swept a pine tree limb into one bottom wire severing it from the mid-point outer connection to the coax running to the baullum. The wire just hangs there. The other direction works fine, when switched to G/P the thunder 8 works fine there too, but swr is too high to talk on that other side. Funny how it averages out when you combine the two antennas for use as a G/P. Well, I think I'll try to talk the guy who put it up into lowering it low enough to reconnect the wire and raise that antenna a little more. This is too good of an antenna to pull down and replace at this point. Now if it blows down altogether.... I still want an Imax someday! |
