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Re: [TowerTalk] Cushcraft/MFJ Traps

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Cushcraft/MFJ Traps
From: K9MA <k9ma@sdellington.us>
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2019 14:48:23 -0500
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
I disagree, Jim. If trap losses were really significant, 1.5 kW would burn them up very quickly. Sure, a trapped beam is less effective than full sized monobanders, but can be made to work quite well. Witness the venerable TH7, which I used for 29 years very successfully. Not everyone has room even for a full-sized trapless tribander.

I recently replace the TH7 with trapless tribander, not because the TH7 performed poorly, but because I was concerned about bugs getting into the traps. It was almost 30 years old, and, as far as I could tell, performed exactly like it did when it was new.

73,
Scott K9MA




On 9/12/2019 14:42, Jim Brown wrote:
On 9/12/2019 11:22 AM, K9MA wrote:
The moral of the story is don't even think about going to the trouble of putting up an MFJ/Cushcraft beam without taking apart all the traps and fixing the above problems.

I have two very different takes on this. First, traps are an inefficient way to build a multi-band antenna. That means they suck up gain. Also, because the elements are shorter, their radiation efficiency is reduced. The best multiband antennas don't use traps.

Second, buying ANYTHING from MFJ is probably a bad idea. I was VERY disappointed when G0KSC farmed out the NA production of his smaller antennas to MFJ a few years ago. I've been very impressed with his designs.

73, Jim K9YC
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--
Scott  K9MA

k9ma@sdellington.us

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