[TowerTalk] Problems with the KT36XA

[Cqtestk4xs at aol.com]

I have begun doing the final assembly for my  three stack of  KT36XAs.  The 
first was hauled up to 30 feet on the side of the tower and I  ran some SWR 
tests on it.  All three bands had SWR pretty close to what was  expected.  20 was 
skewed just a tad low, but that is to be expected with  the height.  No 
problem.
 
The second was hauled up for testing and was a disaster.  SWR was sort  of OK 
on 10.  15 skewed low (out of band, and bandwidth not all that  wide)  and 20 
was over 2:1 across the band, rising as freq was  increased.  It was more 
resonant out of the low end of the band.  
 
Of course I checked all dimensions (six times eventually) and made sure all  
obvious things were gone over (cap tubes on the right elements, orientation of 
 the elements) and even switched out the balun form the other "good  
antenna". 
 
Basically, the antenna behaves as though the elements are longer than they  
should be even though they are not.  Had the first antenna behaved  this way I 
might attribute it to close proximity to ground.  However, the  first antenna 
was just fine when tested at the same height. SWR was taken  right at the 
feedpoint of the antenna with an MFJ259 and was also checked using  the Yaesu 450 
feet away on hardline, so there is no cable problem.
 
Mike at M2 as always has been very helpful and I'm sure we'll get this  thing 
up and running...eventually!
 
However, the combined heads of towertalk are better than just the two of  us. 
 So...does anyone have any suggestions for what is going on.  As I  said, all 
the obvious things have been covered.  HELP!
 
Bill KH7XS/K4XS



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