TopBand: ZJ Beverage Box Needs Fixing

[W0AH@aol.com]

I'm trying to get my 700'+ NNE beverage to perform better. It's never
received much better than my transmitting antenna which presently is a
inverted L with 90' vertical. From the topband reflector posts the past year
or two I think I may have strung it out too northwardly.  It's looking at
about 30 degrees from Colorado which should be right for Europe, but I have
seen comments here suggesting that the path is often skewd more eastwardly.
 Would I be better off with my balun looking at 45 degrees?  
Besides not profiding a  better signal to noise ration than my inverted L
most of the time, it doesn't provide enough signal to move the S-meter much.
 I winder if my homemade 9:1 balun is not working well?
Which brings me to the topic...  I have a ZJ Electronics Beverage Box which
includes a preamp and 9:1 balun.  A couple of years ago I either ran some
power into it or maybe it took a lightning hit.  I can't remember (my old
call was appropriately W2CRS), but I think the former.
The preamp does not work.  Nothing looks or smells burnt so I probably only
need to replace the transistor which looks like a gasfet.  ZJ didn't send a
real schematic with the unit, just a pictogram.  The transistor is marked
AR1.  What is it and where do I find a replacement?  I have taken voltage
measurements and have 8 volts DC at the coaxial input to the preamp box and
.33 volts DC at the gasfet.  Do those voltages sound right?  I just bypassed
the gasfet and intend to replace my homemade 9:1 balun with the ZJ balun and
see if I have any more signal at the receiver.    Does anyone have any
experience with the ZJ Beverage Box and preamp that can help me out?  Thanks.
Doug  W0AH  


--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
Submissions:              topband@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-topband@contesting.com