[TowerTalk] Comtek ABC switch Box.

[Wayne Kline]

Hi Terry,



A: I like your QRZ page and  especially the HiGain   Hi-Tower  layover 4X4 system. I use 4 striped and modified Hi-towers  for my 80 meter  4-SQ.

Originally I used the insulated stinger and the  14 Ga down wire to the hinged base plate and 4  raised radials  each.  It was found that under heavy rain conditions  my dump power was down and the FB was enhanced, leading to a striping and installation of 102  ¼ wave  insulated radials under each, with a 8 ga. X buss with silver soldered radials  as they intersected  one another.

I then  rebuilt the stinger following K3LR’s  tube stinger    and in my QTH  was not able  to keep them intact with numerous failures . There now back to insulated stinger/down wire configuration.



My original 4 Sq. Box was    By the OLD   DX antenna Co. ( can’t remember  the west coast ‘er  call or name )  worked will but took a direct lightning hit and blew a hardball size hole in the board and relays.  Called Jim Miller K4SQR   he was traveling  NE from SC  and  brought the ABC 80 box along… a quick install and all worked well until it also was destroyed by mother nature



The unconventional  wire sequence has to be observed  and Easley over looked.   ( out side box ) Left to right  Ground, #2, #1  (control box   better Ground #1,#2 ) then the outside  feedline  are not much better  LH to RH  #3,#2, #1, #4…



Wayne W3EA



Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10



________________________________
From: terry burge <ki7m at comcast.net>
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2018 6:32:38 PM
To: Wayne Kline; towertalk at contesting.com; terry burge
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Comtek ABC switch Box.

Hi folks,

Interesting to hear about the Comtek boxes. My 40 meter Comtek 4-square works a bit differently that it's suppose to. I'm not very good at telling which way the relays are suppose to work. Blame it on my eyes or just lack of understanding. You would think I'd be able to tell weather a relay was being activated or not. But the instructions and schematics such as they are leave a lot for me to desire at least.

Back to my 40 meter 4-Square. I find the NW and NE work as they should. But the SE and SW work opposite what they should. I even tried checking and switching the foam coax feeders. Went back again just because it didn't help and I was afraid the comtek switching system might not work for multiple direction correctly. I now have just change the labels to reflect that it switch NW-NE-SW-SE. You can tell by the way it picks up the Calif, SE USA, KH6, VK's and ZL's that the SW and SE work opposite what a Comtek box is suppose to work. Everything else that could be checked has been done I think.

The wiring test correct. I think I just maybe have Comtek box that was wired wrong. I don't worry about it cause just changing the labels cured the problem. But I do wonder if anyone else has seen this. I even went so far as to have DX Engineering send me a new unit. Same thing. Go figure!

If you take a look at the pictures on my QRZ/KI7M page you can see the verticals are pretty decent thanks to DXE's aluminum tubing. The heavy wall aluminum tubing proved so heavy for me to raise the verticals up and down I replaced the 2" with light weight irrigation tubing. Still hard but I manage better to get them up and lower they down.

But I still don't know why it works this way. My new 80 meter Comtek 4-Square works normally in a K8UR configuration using dipoles that are folded back towards the tower on the lower halves. Still working on getting the dump power lower but all things considered it's an improvement this season.


Terry
 KI7M



Terry
KI7M

> On November 26, 2018 at 2:20 PM Wayne Kline <w3ea at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Over the years I have owned  ABC 160 ABC 80 and ABC 40 meter  4 Sq switch box…..  My 80 meter  box  took a lightning hit last summer.
> I picked up a used on  one of the Ham reselling sites…..
> Getting ready for CQWW-CW I installed it and to my surprise….. it’s not working as it should.. Examining the unit and wringing out the truth table  the relays  are  A-OK.
> There missing there covers and  the  torrids  are wound  on them but there is NO  fiberglass tape and there held in place with   a bead of RTV across the top…
>
> Again the DXeng  site says there  wound on fiberglass tape    my old unit  has the tape
>
> A good deal my be not so GOOD !
>
> Wayne W3EA
>
> Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk