Am almost ready to saw this antenna up for scrap this is a kindof last
throw of the dice.
I know the subject of Cushcraft traps has been talked about for years
and I have read copiously about them, but I still cannot solve my problem.
I have had my A4S for almost 20 years. It has worked well, flawlessly
even. On 15m if I can hear it I could work it even on 100 watts. For
reasons I wont go into I have to take the antenna down each year and
around this time I reassemble it and re-install it. It has never been
a problem. My tower is crank up - tilt over. I am the problem now at
74 the urge to keep winding the tower up and down is getting weaker.
Anyway the last time the antenna was stored I was unwell and it was
stored less than favourably resulting in most of the traps being filled
with snails - yes snails. Last year I had to open virtually all of the
traps to remove the snails. I took the opportunity of cleaning the
traps up. However, the Cushcraft marking have worn off most of the
traps. I thought I have labelled them correctly, but it seems not.
Anyway, when erected my beam work fine, but its like its back to front.
I am in Scotland. I beam Japan - nothing, turn 180 to South America, I
can work JA no problem. Beam east I can work USA, beam west - I am
working 9M2 and VU etc.....
I have been at this game since 1975 so a bit long in the tooth, but
always willing to learn. The antenna is correctly orientated on the
tower. It is fed by a Radioworks 2kW 1:1 choke balun. Coax is Aircell
10. I have spoken with K1WHS who has given me a few pointers. As a
result I visited a local friend who ran his analyser over my 10m traps
and we discovered that I had transposed the 10m traps between DE and
DIR. On the DIR the 15m traps are still labelled TB - so they are in
the correct place. I felt sure this would solve my problem.
However, yeaterday I spent the day carefully relabelling all the traps
and reassembling the antenna. At 60 feet result - no difference. It
is still working back to front.
The 10m traps are labelled TD and TE they have slightly different
resonant frequencies.
My question is fairly simple. The 15m DE traps and REF traps
according to the diagram are all TC marked. There is nothing in the
assembly instructions to say that there is any difference between the
traps. Therefore I assume they are interchangeable.
All my element lengths are correct, spacing is as per the assembly
instructions, SWR is less than 1.7:1 at the parts of the band which
holds my interest, so why is the dammed thing working back to front??
I work from the edge of a city lot. I cannot put anything larger than
the A4S up. The tips of the antenna are already over my neighbour's
property on either side.
With the A4S I am No 1 Honor Roll, 4 needed on CW, 2 on SSB and 14
needed on Digi.
Tom
GM4FDM
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|