Alan
Thanks for pulling your task together and the troubleshooting results.
Hopefully I don’t have have DXE replace parts. TBD
Regards,
Mark, K1RX
> On Nov 2, 2021, at 5:50 PM, Alan Swinger <awswinger@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Subject: 4 Square Issues
> In response to the apparent intermittent issues mentioned, I recently went
> through a full Full System analysis/check of my 40M 4 square w/ the help of
> the DX Eng tech team. My concern was that I was observing degraded
> performance (based on on-air sig repts) in the NW direction & also saw some
> unusual SWR readings in the NW direction. The Verticals are homebrew alum 2
> in (30 ft) to ½ in extensions, and the 4 phase coax lines and phasing box are
> from DXE – had the system up for 10 yrs w/p issues and worked great.
> The system check started w/ determining if the issue was in the antennas and/
> or the phasing lines. So, here are the steps:
> * Disconnected all phasing lines from the antennas and the Box
> * Dropped all antennas except one – checked the SWR w/ my MFJ 259 analyzer,
> and the repeated for ea of the other three verticals to see if any SWR
> readings were bad . . . this also allowed me the opportunity to flush all
> kinds of junk (bugs, bird stuff etc) from the tubing and clean up the tubing
> interfaces; and also to re-tune ea vertical independently.
> * Did the same procedure with the phasing lines connected – read the SWR to
> ea of the verticals thru the phasing line to determine if any reading was
> unusual. Readings were all OK after both of these steps
> * Reconnected all phasing lines to the DXE phasing box and checked SWR from
> the transmitter – Still no crazy bad readings!
> * So, the DXE tech and I agreed that there was a problem in the Phasing box.
> I sent it and they changed out a bunch of bad relays (10 yrs old!), I put it
> back on the air and all is well . .. working DX again!
>
> Hope this helps.
> 73 and Good DX – Alan K9MBQ
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mpridesti
> Sent: Nov 2, 2021 2:48 PM
> To: Jorge Diez - CX6VM
> Cc:
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] 4 SQ issue
>
> Jorge
>
> I am using the Comtek box.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark, K1RX
>
>
>> On Nov 2, 2021, at 2:44 PM, Jorge Diez - CX6VM wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hello Mark
>>
>> what 4SQ box do you use? DXE or homemade?
>>
>> Sometimes, after several days that I not use my DXE-TFS4, antennas show high
>> SWR, I need to TX with high power to return them to low SWR
>>
>> 73,
>> Jorge
>> CX6VM/CW5W
>>
>>>> El mar, 2 nov 2021 a las 12:41, Mpridesti via TowerTalk () escribió:
>>> My 80 m 4 SQ seems to work well in 3 positions. To the SW the signal drop
>>> in the favored direction where the other 3 directions appear to work well.
>>>
>>> SWR measurements seem normal around 2:1 at the end of the 1/4 wave 75 ohm
>>> lines except one which is 1.87. Haven’t made loss measurements yet but I
>>> suspect the lowest SWR line is the problem (low reading due to higher than
>>> normal loss making it the suspect line).
>>>
>>> Has anyone else experienced this type of behavior? Also the suspect line is
>>> the NW element and the direction which has the problem is SW. Does this
>>> make sense? Effectively this lossy element is the other half of the “driven
>>> element “ if you thought of the 4 sq as a 3 el vertical beam.
>>>
>>> Keeping with this concept, one would think the NE direction would have
>>> similar loss but it doesn’t (or it’s not noticeable).
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Mark, K1RX
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> TowerTalk mailing list
>>> TowerTalk@contesting.com
>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>>
>>
>> --
>> 73,
>> Jorge
>> CX6VM/CW5W
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