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[TowerTalk] Fwd: Fwd: Running feed line and rotor cable together?

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Subject: [TowerTalk] Fwd: Fwd: Running feed line and rotor cable together?
From: Hans Hammarquist via TowerTalk <towertalk@contesting.com>
Reply-to: HansLG@aol.com
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 21:32:44 -0500
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Jim,
 
I was told (as a little child) when they installed the antenna system for  
the TV transmitter in Gothenburg, Sweden at the Brudarmossen tower, a tower 
I  believe is around 1000' tall, they experience a mysterious, high SWR. The 
reason  was that the cable clamps, holding the feeder coax, were placed by 
engineering  precision on an equidistant that generated the added "small" 
reflections that  added up in phase.
 
Shall you believe the story? I find it very unlikely that they managed to  
"hit" the spot but the story is plausible.
 
... and, yes, you can make a notch filter that way. To be efficient you  
will need a long distance to get a deep null.
 
Hans - N2JFS
 
 
  
____________________________________
 From: jimlux@earthlink.net
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Sent: 12/23/2014  12:13:48 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: Re: [TowerTalk] Fwd: Running feed  line and rotor cable together?


On 12/23/14 8:40 AM, Hans Hammarquist via TowerTalk  wrote:
>
> I don't know how important it is but I avoid using  equal distance 
between the places I tie the cables. Rumors have it that the  small impression 
on 
the coax will cause a reflection and if they are all at  equidistant the 
reflexes can add up a some frequencies to give a high SWR.  Rumors or not, I 
have tie point at random distances.
>

I don't  think it's likely, it would take a big deformation to get a 
significant  reflection. (0.01 dB bumps probably aren't worth worrying 
about)

This  does bring to mind a speculative scheme for filtering. Rather than 
coax  stubs and Ts, you do it in line.  There *is* actually a IEEE paper  
from the late 50s on this kind of filtering: stubs, inline sections, and  
coupled sections.  It's the basis of all those cool printed  interdigital 
and coupled line filters you see in microwave  gear.

So, say you're a top band enthusiast, and you have your 3 element  Yagi 
up a half wavelength (at least) on a *big* tower. Could you dent the  
coax (precisely applied nylon cable ties or some such) at specific  
points to suppress BC band interference from a strong local transmitter?  
Or suppress your own harmonics?

There are  places where they  do put "precision" dents into the 
waveguide: at Deep Space Network, where  they have a 400kW S-band 
transmitter (at 2-2.1 GHz), even a -30dB  reflection is a significant 
amount of power (400 Watts). I have heard  stories (but not seen in 
person) that when they tune the system they use  big clamps to deform the 
waveguide wall temporarily, followed by strategic  application of a big 
mallet.

On other systems, you'll see dozens of  tuning screws, but that's usually 
to adjust a filter's frequency and phase  response. At 400kW, the fields 
are high enough that a screw sticking in  would probably cause a high 
voltage  breakdown.

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