Towertalk
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [TowerTalk] Cleaning inside tubing

To: Kelly Jones <kelly@dxcentral.com>, towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Cleaning inside tubing
From: Hector Garcia XE2K <j_hector_garcia@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 14:57:37 -0800 (PST)
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Kelly:

Kelly maybe you must doble check the Coils in the
elements,
how much is the swr increase ??  a few or just to the
infinity ?

i read several time the problem in the tribanders and
some monoband antennas from cushcraft

good luck and Happy New Year  



--- Kelly Jones <kelly@dxcentral.com> wrote:

> Hi TTers,
> 
> I have a Cushcraft XM240 that I think has developed
> an intermittent loose 
> connection.  I bought this antenna used and put it
> up this past fall.  What 
> I noticed is that the person that owned it before me
> must have used some 
> type of "goop" inside the element tubings.  The only
> thing I can assume is 
> that it was some type of stuff to keep the tubing
> joints in good contact 
> with each other.  On the joints I took apart, I
> completely cleaned the 
> outside of each smaller tube as it slid into the
> other.  However, I had a 
> difficult time cleaning the inside of the larger
> tube that the smaller slid 
> into.  This was some really nasty stuff and took a
> boat load of elbow 
> grease and sandpaper (yes, sandpaper) to get the
> elements cleaned up.  This 
> stuff was really sticky and had all kinds of crud
> that have accumulated 
> over time.  The stickiness is what caused me the
> most problem with getting 
> inside the tubes.  Steel wool, fine grit sandpaper,
> etc. all would just go 
> in and stick, probably causing more bad than good.
> 
> Well, needless to say I think some of that junk is
> now causing me 
> problems.  I seem to have an intermittent where my
> SWR will go high, then 
> back to normal, then high, etc.  I'm suspecting that
> there is an element 
> that has a piece of tubing that's not making good
> contact at one of the 
> joints.  So my question is, does anybody have a way
> to clean out the 
> insides of the tubing sections.  I'm obviously going
> to have to take the 
> antenna down to fix it (in the middle of the
> Colorado winter!) and I want 
> to be sure I don't have to do this again.
> 
> Also, I seem to recall some talk flying around with
> regards grounding the 
> reflector to the boom with a strap.  Can somebody
> point out the reason for 
> this?  And finally, what's the consensus of using an
> MFJ86 (or whatever the 
> number is) balun versus a coax wound balun?  I have
> an older W2AU (I think) 
> balun that I'm toying with replacing the MFJ with,
> but am now thinking 
> about just making a coax one.  Thoughts on this?
> 
> 
> 73
> Kelly - N0VD
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk@contesting.com
>
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
> 


Hector Garcia XE2K / XF1K
Mexicali B.C  DM22
_______________________________________________



_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>