[TowerTalk] Antenna matching values

[Ian White]

>
>I found the problem.  Torn cable into coax.   Must've snagged.   Thanks
guys.
>Odd that damage only showed as a 2.0:1 mismatch!
>

It depends on which conductor was torn. A torn center conductor is
usually quite dramatic: everything stops. On the other hand, a torn
shield can often cause only a moderate mismatch because the shield
current finds other return paths through other "ground" connections...
creating much confusion along the way. 

We often see these sudden puzzling problems reported on radio-related
mailing lists, and bad shield connections turn out to be THE most common
single cause. Of course it might be something else, but it's probably a
mistake to mess with other parts of the system (like gamma matches ;-)
without first having checked ALL the coax cables and shield connections.


73 from Ian GM3SEK