This is kinda directed to Scott at TT, but I though it may interest the
whole group. First, a little history. Going back a few weeks ago, I asked
this group about protection of the auxiliary antenna input from a loop. A
bunch of emails bounced around, and Scott from TT mentioned that protection
of the aux input is necessary. He also mentioned that before you connect
any antenna up to the radio, you should ground the hot lead of the coax to
drain off any lingering charges since Scott had a blown front end from this
very thing. Now comes the confusing part.
All my coax's run through a bulkhead in my house to the back of my TT
auto-tuner. I don't remember the model number, but it was the only auto
tuner they made a few years back... also called an antenna coupler. Anyway,
touching the center lead of the coax to the bulkhead is no problem after a
disconnection for a storm. But here's the catch. The antenna switch
inside the tuner is not the shorting type, which means that every time I
switch antenna's, they could have built up a voltage potential, thereby
blowing the front end as happend with Scott's radio.
Do any of the other TT tuner's use non-shorting antenna switches? Should I
replace the switch I have? Does TT have the proper switch of the shorting
type? Will a shorting type switch wack out my C-4 pattern since the
elements are close? Am I asking too many questions? Am I being a pest
here? : )
Rick Andren - N9THC
andrenr@ul.com
n9thc@foxvalley.net
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/tentecfaq.htm
Submissions: tentec@contesting.com
Administrative requests: tentec-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-tentec@contesting.com
Search: http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search.htm
|