Towertalk
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [TowerTalk] Tuner SWR won't stay down

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tuner SWR won't stay down
From: Tom Osborne <w7why@frontier.com>
Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 09:10:41 -0800
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
I have 7 antennas here.  It will drift on every antenna.

There seems to be some confusion on my first posting.  This is what I asked:

"Hi

I picked up an MFJ-989C tuner that has a problem (don't want to hear about 'mitey fine junk).

The problem is that the SWR goes down and then slowly creeps back up.

I got a new roller inductor and installed it and the SWR still doesn't stay low, even at low power.

I took the roller inductor out and put in a switch/coil combo to eliminate the coil problem. SWR still climbs up.

Bypassed the SWR circuitry and ran the input from the antenna directly to the capacitor. Still won't stay low.

I thought it might be the SWR circuitry but I put another tuner in front of this one and when I tune the SWR down with the other tuner, it stays down, so don't think it should be the SWR circuit.

This really has me puzzled. Can't see anything left to check. Any ideas? Thanks and 73
Tom W7WHY "

I would think the fact that I can tune the SWR down and it stays down with the other tuner would mean the jumpers and coax are all OK as the 2 tuners are in series with each other. There is definitely a problem with the bad tuner, but just can't figure it out.

But - I did put the output of the tuner into the dummy load and it still drifts at low power. Maybe it's time to strip out the parts and build it into something else :-)

One last thing I'm gonna try is borrow one of those heat sensors from a friend of mine and shoot it at all the components and see what is heating up. It has to be that what is causing the problem. 73 and appreciate all the suggestions.
Tom W7WHY


On 1/1/2015 10:10 PM, Jim Thomson wrote:
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2015 18:56:58 -0600
From: "Bill Aycock" <billaycock@mediacombb.net>
To: "Charles Farr" <cefarr@hughes.net>, <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tuner SWR won't stay down

I'm puzzled that no one has mentioned the FIRST and most helpful trouble
shooting test-- substituting a dummy load for the antenna.
Bill—W4BSG

##  agreed !   We don’t even know what ant he is using.  Is it a yagi, or
an OCF dipole, or is it a dipole fed with open wire line, OR coax.
What band or bandS  does it drift on. Do you have some kind of
defective balun at the feedpoint of the ant ??

##  Since it drifts, even with low power, you gotta real problem.

##  Run ONE good coax, directly from the output of the tuner.... to a dummy 
load.
Don’t even mess with a wattmeter, or anything else between output of tuner
and input of dummy load.

##  Then try and.... match the dummy load..and do it on every band, IF it 
doesn’t
drift, your tuner is not the issue.

##If it does still drift, the tuner is the problem.

Jim  VE7RF
_______________________________________________



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

_______________________________________________



_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>