[TowerTalk] Problem That Needs Ideas

[Pat Chiles]

Good Morning,

I spent my morning troubleshooting the problem I am about to describe out in the rain.  It has been dogging me for two days

I have a new tower installation.  On the tower I have a 2 el 40M yagi at 68.5 feet and a TH7 at 56 feet.  They play very well together by the way with the XM240's reflector grounded and 12.5 ft of separation.  I am trying to feed these two antennas through a Ameritron  antenna switch that was given to me.  I initially had problems with the switch, but a good cleaning of all conducting surfaces and contacts has it working great with the 40M yagi, but it gives me an off-the-scale swr with the TH7 on all ports.

I have tested a port as good with the 40M yagi and then put the TH7 on the same port and get infinite swr.  I them remove the TH7 and connect it direct to the input cable using a barrel connector and it works as designed.  

I have tested the TH7 while simulating the bend it has when connected to the switch and can't get it to short out.  Take it off the barrel connector and put it back on a known good port (tested with the 40M yagi) and it fails again.  Does anyone have any ideas what to test next?

The switch is at the end of 60 feet of RG213 and the TH7 is fed with 60 feet of RG213 from the switch.  Just before the balun on the yagi I have 10 loops of coax in a 10 inch diameter.  All coax and connectors are new.

Thanks, Pat, K8PC