Topband: More Inv-L matching issues.... BIGGER ISSUE

[Richard Cariello]

Dan,
160 Meters is a world all to its own. Things will happen to your station that would never happens at any other band.

Trouble shoot your problem by eliminating extra parts.
Take the RCS-10 out and connect the transmission line from the inverted-L direct to the station. Tune and get the inverted-L working to its best. See if other things blow or burn up. Once all is working then place the RCS-10 back in line. The length of the coax, something coupling at 160 meters, a loose ground or ground loop might be in play. The list can go on and on and will change as you tune the inverted-L for best performance. So again KISS go direct to the inverted-L and see what happens.
Rich AA2MF
    
On Dec 31, 2011, at 8:21 PM, Paul Dulaff wrote:

> Dan
> 
> A couple of thoughts...
> 
> When transmitting, is the RCS-10 antenna switch inadvertantly changing (switching) antennas (ports) during the transition from receive to transmit, possibly RF getting into the switching circuit causing this ? Do you lose the 12VDC to the switch when changing from receive to transmit ?  Are you trying to support semi-break-in with the RCS-10 ?
> 
> The ratings on this switch are fairly good. 16 amps, 1200 volts. I would think that it would need to be feeding an open or a short to fail this quickly at this power level or switching at full power.
> 
> Paul - WB2NMI
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Dan Bookwalter <n8dcj at yahoo.com>
> To: topband at contesting.com
> Sent: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:34:09 -0500 (EST)
> Subject: Topband:  More Inv-L matching issues.... BIGGER ISSUE
> 
> Ok...
> 
> I went and added 9 more radials the SWR is now at 1.2:1 after some adjusting of the air variable....
> 
> well , i decided to see how the amp (Alpha 374A) loaded into the antenna , I keyed down with maybe 500 watts and everything went dead again in less that 1 second. So it now appears that I have smoked another relay in the RCS-10 .
> 
> One thing about this configuration is that the base of the antenna is about 16" from the RCS-10 , is this too close ? I can probably move it so that it is about 4' away if that is the issue.... I cant afford to keep destroying relays and such....
> 
> thoughts ?
> 
> Dan N8DCJ
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: topband-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com]
> On Behalf Of Dan Bookwalter
> Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 2:41 PM
> To: topband at contesting.com
> Subject: Topband: More Inv-L matching issues....
> 
> well about a month ago i put up my Inv-L , it is now ~165ft , I have an air
> variable in series , and 12 radials anywhere from 150-250ft long ( going out
> to add more as soon as i am done typing this). my SWR wasn't too bad maybe
> 1.7:1 at the best. Two nights ago I added an amplifier to the mix ~700w ,
> well to make a long story short I smoked one of the relays in my RCS-10 , I
> am now not too sure what to do , I don't want to keep blowing out relays in
> the RCS-10.
> 
> I had several responses back then regarding matching etc... , but , in my
> haste i seem to have deleted them :-( 
> 
> so here i am again asking for advice...
> 
> any help greatly appreciated 
> 
> Dan N8DCJ
> _______________________________________________
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