I'm responding to a couple strings here:
1> Scout RF feedback ..... I've run into this once, in the mobile on a
single band, and a GOOD ground (as someone mentioned) took care of it.
2> Homebrewing and tuners .... its not necessarily that the BIG tuners are
overpriced .... I'm sure that antique radio parts like large variable caps
et al are expensive to buy new now days, even wholesale .... but its that
they are over-priced vs. building the same capability from ham fest junk
.... WAY WAY WAY overpriced. Even if you pay TOP DOLLAR for LARGE
variables at a hamfest and an applicable roller inductor, you still
shouldn't have over $75 in a KW tuner (and I've never paid those top dollar
prices yet).
3> MFJ ... no I don't work for them or sell their products or have any
connection whatsoever to them other than in my opinion, their <300 watt
tuners CANNOT BE BEAT. I've owned and used multiple models of these
"cheap" ones, never paying more than $20 used at a hamfest and I HAVE YET
TO FIND A LOAD I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO TUNE. I've used them for misc
antennas fed with ladder line, for end fed wires, you name it ... and
seldom under anything approaching an ideal situation (e.g. an end fed wire
hanging from the 3rd floor balcony in Salsburg, Austria; an end fed wire
slung into a tree from the 2nd flr hotel window in Rothenburg ob der
Tauber, Germany; an end fed wire running thru a basement window, up the
side of the house to a 3rd floor roof skylight in Munich, Germany; an
inverted-V [unknown length .. it went from the peak of the tall tree and
extended far enuf each way to find a tie-down] fed with TV twinlead in
Berlin ..... etc etc etc etc etc ..... NEVER EVER under anything
approaching an ideal condition) .... and I've had not one complaint
whatsoever .... ever. I've used them stateside under many circumstances
as a portable .... never a problem. All of these experiences have been
with the Scout operating from the switching power supply or battery (field
day). Sometimes the "ground" was no more than a 1/4WL counterpoise tossed
across the floor. In Europe, antennas were the standard "travel antenna",
that is, insulated 24ga solid wire carried wrapped around a small piece of
styrofoam .. you pull off enuf wire to get from where you are to where you
can through the weight to ...
So, it kind of bothers me to see them referred to as Mighty Fine Junk .....
I'll take all that might fine junk you all may want to toss away!!
NOW, as a reverse .... I once tested one of the MFJ KW tuners on loan
.... on several antennas .... I couldn't get it to load a one of them, and
these were established multiband antennas that had been in use with other
tuners for years! I've always wondered what was wrong with that tuner!
73 de Chuck
WA0ROI (ex DL/WAOROI; OE2ZBM)
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++++ Stand apart from the slagheap of gutless conformity ++++
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