Topband: First attempt at beverage antenna, not working as expected

[Rick Stealey]

Sounds like "maybe" something is not working.  If you have an antenna analyzer 
can you do a sweep from 160 up to 40 m?  There should be a relatively flat
SWR over the whole range.  Without the far end terminated the impedance and
therefore the SWR will flop all over the place.  That would show you that the 
transformer, resistor and connections are ok.  Then measure down at the
shack end of the coax and it should also be flat, maybe even a little 
flatter.  If you suspect the coax you can also get a loss reading on
it with the antenna analyzer by open circuiting it and taking a reading.
Your length is a bit short, though.  As I understand the Bev starts
playing pretty well at 500 feet and up, so your results might be what's
expected.  Mine is 550 feet and most of the time it beats the inv L
on EU signals from here in NJ.  But not always, and sometimes the 
difference is minimal.  But there are times when a signal is at the 
noise level on the L, and switching to the Beverage it becomes readable
but not a HUGE difference.  
Rick  K2XT