Tilted boom; tilted elements . . . its an age old question.
While modeling shows imperceptible changes in performance when those elements
are a bit out of whack, the practical impact on station performance is actually
quite substantial. Experience clearly shows that operators who believe their
booms are straight and their elements are in the perfect plane always get
through the pileups first.
There are two categories of solutions to this problem - elimination and
mitigation:
1. Elimination - Straighten the boom.
2. Mitigation - a) Avoid eye contact with the boom. Operating only in
darkness
is helpful here. b) Get a friend to tell you he fixed it for you, and it's now
straight as an arrow.
Tilted Element Syndrome [TES] is closely related to Weak Tube Syndrome [WTS}, a
condition in which an amplifier specified for full legal output - 1500 watts -
actually only hits 1477 watts. Field testing of these amplifiers indicates that
they are actually 10-30dB down in the pileups from amps owned by friends that
are cranking out the full 1500.
73,
Jim K1IR
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