[TowerTalk] Dipping coils with MFJ Analyzer

[Dale Martin]

A few years ago, I took down my old Cushcraft A3 and gave it a good going
over.  It had been tapped by lightning (I've got the old element segment
with the burned hole in it) and needed fixing. 

I replaced the old trap covers, cleaned the traps of invertebrate chitin and
nests, verified the trap resonant frequencies (two traps were bad --
cleaning the trap connections fixed everything), etc. (No.  I did not polish
the elments -- that's for type A personalities)  

For verifying trap resonant frequencies, I used a B&W grid dip meter and
getting great dips with the traps.  

When I had started dismantling the antenna, I ordered the MFJ dip coil for
my 259 to see how it would do--as an antenna analyzer, it's the best.  So, I
hoped it would be good as a dip meter, too.  

When it arrived a couple of days later, I tried it out on the traps.  Not so
much as a wobble of the meter.  With the B&W coil/dip meter in the same
position, I got a big dip! I tried various places in/around the trap and got
nothing with the MFJ coil/analyzer. 

It may well work in other areas where a dip meter is needed, but in this
particular case, it didn't work at all. 

73,
dale, kg5u


> Hello all....
> I wanted to find out from the group if its worth buying the 
> dip coil set for the MFJ antenna analyzers or is there an 
> easy way to build a set....???  Does anybody have any 
> experience with using it as a dip meter?  I was hoping to to 
> check some traps that I have but thought I would ask before hand.
> Thanks again,
> Dave
> KB8NNU 
>
>