On Thu, 26 Jun 1997, Bill Fisher wrote:
>Now, in regards to the TH7 vs KT34XA. Gee... I dont know. Both are good
>antennas. KT34XA has more gain and more potential pain. Personally I
>like to put up an antenna and not think about it any more. I've never
>heard of anyone taking apart a TH7 and putting it back together again 3
>times because it wouldn't work right. I've heard this story twice in
>regards to a KT34XA.
Let me be at least the third to tell that story. I rebuilt an XA about
3-1/2 years ago. Last October, on the Tuesday before CQWW Phone, I found
the SWR on 20 to be much higher than normal. Problem got better when it
rained. So, I took it down, found a bad connection in the reflector,
cleaned it, used No-Alox (instead of the copper-colored stuff KLM provided)
and got it back up in time for the contest. Only now, the low end SWR on
15 was higher than normal! I took it back down after Phone and before CQWW
CW, but found nothing obviously wrong. This past weekend, I took it down
again and completely rebuilt the reflector and two driven elements. (This
time I used No-Alox for all the connections.) The low end SWR is somewhat
better -- not completely right but probably good enough.
As for the XA itself, it works great! I actually find the low f/b helpful
in contests: It's nice to be able to work JAs and So. Americans at the
same time. Also, spraying some RF off the back sometimes (and ONLY
sometimes) helps keep those stations to the S and SW from trying to steal
my run frequency to Europe!
Gerry, W1GD
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