[RTTY] Interesting Discovery

[Erik - K5WW]

I agree with Bill, Thom.

In the past 30 or so years I/my friends/their (club) stations have been
housed in, under or near metal buildings. From small shacks to large
warehouses. Not once did I notice the "sponge effect" you allude to, rain or
shine, with either wire antennas, verticals or beams. On the contrary:
carefully placing some of those (mostly wire and vertical) antennas in
relation to the metal building provided a desirable, directional effect and
the resulting gain to boot.

It may sound utterly stupid; but if I were you I'd be outside checking those
exterior coax connections you mention. Not next week, not tomorrow; but
rather as soon as it quits or even while it's raining. I know it's a pain;
but with an SWR like that I wouldn't be surprised if you have a water
problem. 

Thanks for the Qs in the WAE and good luck with your problem. 

73,

Erik - K5WW


-----Original Message-----
From: RTTY [mailto:rtty-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Bill Turner
Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2016 10:41 PM
To: RTTY Reflector
Subject: Re: [RTTY] Interesting Discovery

------------ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ------------(may be snipped)

On Fri, 2 Dec 2016 02:46:09 +0000, Thom wrote:

>My SWR readings are near 8:1 right now and that roof is acting like a 
>great big RF sponge for incoming/outgoing signals.

REPLY:

A "sponge" i.e. something that absorbs RF, should not affect SWR like that.
A metal roof might because of reflections, but your roof is there whether it
rains or not. 

Something else is going on.  

73, Bill W6WRT
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