[TowerTalk] A3S

[Stan Stockton]

Scott,

Just my opinion, but even if your trapped Tribander had a good SWR and was brand new instead of 27 years old, I think it would be wise to purchase some aluminum tubing and build one from scratch with full sized elements and no traps.  Commercially available as well at about triple the cost, the performance and reliability will be much better than a trapped antenna.

73... Stan, K5GO

> On Sep 28, 2019, at 9:52 PM, K9MA <k9ma at sdellington.us> wrote:
> 
> My 1992 A3S (original Cushcraft, not MFJ), was always strange on 15 meters. After taking it down, testing all the traps, and putting it back up, it seems even worse on that band, consistently 10-12 dB below the other tribander 20 feet above it. SWR is above 2:1 near the center of the band, well over 3:1 at 21.0. It works fine on 10 and 20. I've heard that the A3S has often had problems on 15. I've replaced, rebuilt, retuned, and tested all the 15m traps. (The MFJ replacement traps needed a lot of work.) There are no nearby metal guy wires or antennas. Has anyone seen similar problems and solved them? I'm about ready to scrap this antenna.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Scott K9MA
> 
> -- 
> Scott  K9MA
> 
> k9ma at sdellington.us
> 
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