How hard is the coax to replace before burning or install some teflon
stuff during
first assembly?
Dick Green wrote:
>
> Paul,
>
> You might get away with CW and SSB at higher power levels, but do not go
> key-down at anything over 500w. In my case, the coax melted inside the
> antenna. It was quite a bit of work to replace it. The damage was not
> detectable by visually inspecting the coax. I had to do a binary search,
> cutting the coax in half until I found the bad piece. It turned out be a
> section about one inch long in which the dielectric had melted through the
> sheild.
>
> 73, Dick WC1M
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Dinsterdog@aol.com [mailto:Dinsterdog@aol.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 9:48 AM
> > To: towertalk@contesting.com
> > Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Gap and others
> >
> >
> > Wow,
> >
> > I got a lot of response to my Gap question on noise and 80M.
> >
> > Now here's the rest of the story......
> >
> > I moved from my 160 acre ranch in Wyoming where we had a
> > number of low band arrays etc........to a typical urban back
> > yard in Denver. Being a low bander and 80 meter diehard, I
> > set up my Hustler 6BTV and with it. With around 10 radials
> > and my Alpha Amp,
> > I had a fairly decent 80M season (of what was left of it)
> > working several JA's, and even a RW station zone 19 LP at
> > sunrise. That was a rush- All on days where the RF hash was
> > tolerable. It's a lot better in the morning vs evening-
> >
> > Now I know how to DX on 80M using big antennas, and have had
> > good success with smaller antennas like the HF2V and
> > 6BTV....I don't waste my time on wire wonders, etc....
> >
> > But the noise level on the Hustler at the new QTH was a lot
> > worse than expected. Ouch as you could hear a pin drop on it
> > at my old QTH and both the HF2V and 6BTV did well DX'ing. At
> > the new QTH, HF2V was no better on noise. Especaily trying to
> > hear EU.
> >
> > To make things worse, my 3 year old kept getting tangled up
> > in the radial field......what a mess I was running into
> > trying to work the only band I'm serious about-
> >
> > In a totally desperate mode, and brain jammed with rose
> > colored glasses and prescribed medications, I did try
> > Martin's 1026 box but let's face the facts. This box
> > requires a null antenna that can hear as well as what you are
> > using taking up extra room in the yard. My 6 BTV was on one
> > side of the yard, while my nulling HF2V on the other side
> > Blah- The box had ok effects at first nulling out some noise
> > but it also reduced signal strengths as well nulling them out
> > too....it had poor RF protection and cooke d in a week. Good
> > little toy if your are a SWL, but not for DX'ing in my experience-
> >
> > So how do I get the DX efficiency of a vertical yet hear with
> > it too- Using receiving loops is a good idea, an excellent
> > idea! But again, room is limited. And regardless of what
> > vertical antenna I've tried, noise still sucks- (My guess is
> > I'll still try some rx loops some day but..........)
> >
> > So here I am pondering whats the next step- In the mean time,
> > I go out and get the new Cushcraft MA5V with it's center fed
> > vertical dipole design. (I think thats how some explain it)-
> >
> > Guess what?!....it is quiter on rx vs the Hustler 6BTV on
> > ALL band comparisons and works just as well. Hummmm......too
> > bad you can't run any power with it and darn if they didn't
> > build it for anything but the high bands-
> >
> > So looking around, I find that the Gap Titan is a center fed
> > 1/2 wave vertical/dipole design or something to that effect.
> > It's never clear to me but it seems like a good choice for a
> > quiter RF antenna. That is their claim-
> >
> > So before ordering one, I go to my antenna test book but I'm
> > not encouraged by what's stated for this antenna on 80M. Then
> > I go to Eham and bingo, over 50 reviews and it people love
> > it- A 9V who I've worked from Wyoming uses one and that's the
> > icing on th e cake.
> >
> > So I order it and I'm almost done finishing up. Recent
> > emails to me say it's a dummy load on 80M while others say it
> > is not quieter than anything else they've tried. These
> > emails are from people I know to be great low band ops but I
> > remain encouraged-
> >
> > I'm looking forward to raising it up- Power limitations and all.
> >
> > BTW, I was told that the 500 watt limit applies to full duty
> > cycle and that running legal is ok on CW, SSB, etc....myth or
> > fact I'm about to find out-
> >
> > I like pushing antenna's to their limits and I'm watering at
> > the mic to try this puppy out-
> >
> > Any other commenets about the Gap Titan or any other Gap for
> > the low bands will be greatly appreciated. Good or bad, I
> > just want to know. I've already used several suggestions in
> > constructing the antenna found on the Eham review site and
> > Gap has a great
> > webpage......Please feel free to email me here or at
> > dinsterdog@aol.com.
> >
> > I'll post my results in a few weeks once I have a chance to
> > work some DX somewhere- I am using the capacitor for
> > 3.500MHz but have ordered the cap for 3.800MHz for later comparisions-
> >
> > If you see any mushroom clouds over Denver, you know I pushed
> > it a bit too much with the Alpha-
> >
> > 73 Paul N0AH
> >
> >
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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> Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any
> questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
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