My recent experience with a KT-34A reminds me of the letter that is
supposed to have been written to Benton Harbor. It stated:
"Dear Mr. Heathkit,
I ordered this equipment from you and it came all in pieces so I
put it together anyway and now it doesn't work."
I rehabbed a KT-34A that I bought for $250 that was supposed to have been
up in the air for only 3 months... should have suspected something then,
but being gullible, I bought it and completely redid all the joints,
made exact measurements as to all the dimensions per the instruction
manual, placed Penetrox A on all the joints, put it on sawhorses and tuned
it (or tried to) and finally, after consultation with Bruce Scott at KLM,
sent for a test Balun. Everything was peaches and cream, or so I thought.
It tuned up rather well with the dips about 50 KHz low, or so, just like
Bruce said they should be. Spent yesterday and today installing it,
element by element on the TIC Ring at 70 feet on a 130 foot tower.
Exhausted (I'm 65 and have some major health problems) I came down the
tower and stumbled into the hamshack and looked at the SWR on 20. Not
as low as I'd like but reasonable: not over 1.3:1 over the full 350 KHz
but the 1.0:1 dip was at 13.850. 15 was truly rotten: not under 2.1:1
over the entire 450 KHz with a minima (1.7:1) at 20.910 MHz. 10 appears
to be a little better; starting off with a 1.1:1 at 28.000 and progressing
to 1.5:1 at 29.300 but with a dip to 1.0:1 at 27.700 MHz.
I am at my wits end. I spent a full week working on the antenna and
tuning it at parallel 3 feet off the ground, parallel 6 feet off the
ground, pointing up at a 45 degree angle, etc. It looked good just two
days ago before I disassembled the elements from the boom and started,
piece by piece, to install it at the 70 foot level.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I really want this to work. I need
it for contesting in the near future. Any suggestions are gratefully
accepted.
I cannot take it back down. I am physically not up to it. The yard
and landscaping (trees to 70 feet within 30 feet, smaller trees [50
footers} immedialely around the tower, etc. made for some very tough
element draw up the tower to assemble it at height. I am not up to
doing that again.
Before you answer, tho, I am a type A personality: took great pains to
remeasure everything twice; cleaned all the joints and applied Penetrox A
to all the joints, installed a test balun from KLM, checked with Bruce
Scott who determined (from the serial number) that it had been sold, to
the gentleman from whom I purchased it, in 1996. Blue caps, shiny
aluminum, and all.
Please tell me I can rotate the boom so that the elements are parallel
to the tower and that I can fix my problem by adjusting the two driven
elements - I can reach them from the tower. I can't reach the director
or reflector.
Could the fact that it is on the TIC ring cause the problem? Could the
tower proximity to the two driven elements cause the problem? Speak to
me!!! I'm too old to fool around with something like this and then not
have it work properly. It give me gas and then I am banished to the
tower again.
Rod, N5HV, ex W5HVV
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