[TowerTalk] ATTention Tennedyne owners

[Dave Thompson]

Gang,

I have a Tennedyne T-10 older model with a 24 foot boom. I tested this beam before the tower guy put it up on my 70 foot Rohn 45.

I found that the SWR was 1.3 to 1,4 on all bands except 30 meters where it is 1.9.  Now mounted on the tower at just over 71,5 feet the SWR on all bands except 20 an 10 is the same.  The SWR on 20 is 1.8 but tunes to flat with my Ten Tec 3229 tuner The SWR on 10 is 2.2 to 1. But does tune with the tuner but not as easily as the 20 meter portion. I have been told by K9LA and others that most Tennedyne antennas will work on 6 but have mot tried it.

The tower guy said the beam bumped the house on the way up which means the front elements may be loose. I got a S shaped screw driver to tighten the screws holding the elements in place. The beam is mounted about 9 feet below the 2 el 40 Cushcraft that has given me good performance for years and i rebuilt with the aid of parts from MFJ/Cushcraft.

I was warned that the antenna did not like metal guys so it is 18 feet to the nearest guy but the 8 foot spacing was less than the
11 feet I had planned.  The tower guy said with the 20 foot 2" .25 aluminum mst I used that the extra spacing might cause the mast to bend. The 4o meter beam has an overhead strut that uses up almost 4 feet of the mast so 11 feet was the most I could separate the beams. I got the antenna from W6XA who knew the original owner of Tennedyne in Texas and he told me that the screws being loose might cause the problem. He was surprised that the 20 meter SWR went up as the usual interaction with a 40 meter beam affected 15 not 20. The element lengths were set by W6XA for max performance and not touched.  All I had to do was attach the elements. 

I need any other ideas on 20 and 10 operation from users of Tennedyne antennas,  I did work Asia easily on both 20 and 40 during the recent All Asia SSB. 10 has been dead so I have not tried it but plan on trying the band soon. 

My problem is that I used a Crank up tower so I could tilt it over or crank it down prior to the Rohn 45 so I did all my own antenna work. Now I have to use an outside tower person so can't do the work myself.

Thanks for any help.

73 Dave K4JRB