[TowerTalk] Cold question from the white South

[Dave NØRQ]

Cold and white here in North Texas as well.

Funny you should mention the cold and N connectors.
I just replaced the coax for the 2m SSB beam,
from LMR-400 to -600, and used an N near
the top of the tower to connect to the rotor loop.

Used 2m SSB this morning, and after a bit, Poof,
the SWR went sky-high, intermittently.  Too cold
to climb, but I'm about 90% certain that is where
the problem will lie -- probably not the N (EZ-600-)
on the LMR-600 end, but the N male on the 400-sized
flex rotor loop.  I suspect I didn't do an adequate job
of installing it (my first shot at putting on a connector while
ON the tower).  Oh well...

-- 
Dave NØRQ



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James C. Hall, M.D." <nwtcc at earthlink.net>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, December 24, 2004 2:22 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Cold question from the white South


> Hello and Merry Christmas y'all !
>
> Here in NW TN we have 4-6" of snow on top of 1-2" ice under blue skies and
> 14 degrees ... uh, Fahrenheit ! It has been MANY years since we have had a
> white Christmas and we asked for it. Brother, did we get it !!
>
> Now the radio question and a request for advice from you Norther's.
> Apparently, cold does strange things to cable connectors, etc. outside. I
> was about to pounce on the VU4 this early AM - everything ready to go, amp
> on, Mark V set, hearing her about as well as I'm going to. Antenna turned
> (groaned) to long path, MUF in that direction about 14. Then as I set the
> amp to operate and began to key the mic, everything went to crap. SWR off
> the scale. Quick check, yep, antenna switch is correct and switching. But 
> no
> apparent contact with the antenna - any antenna on that switch.  Static
> drain problem? Secondary antenna, no problem. So, out with the antenna
> analyzer and found a N-UHF adapter on the LMR600 cable not making adequate
> contact. Wow ... worked all yesterday without trouble. After tightening
> things, all appears well. Except ... noticed that many band resonances are
> shifted down a bit, not much but noticeable. The shunt fed tower is acting
> like it needs the extra capacitor of an omega match when it was 1:1 with a
> straight gamma match. What gives ? I can use my tuner of course, but does
> the cold do all these things ?
>
> 73, Jamie
> WB4YDL