[TowerTalk] HELP - Hy-Gain TH-3JRS

[Gary K9GS]

Do you have another device to measure impedance and SWR?Some reliable antenna analyzer?73,Gary K9GS
-------- Original message --------From: Gary Mayfield <gary_mayfield at hotmail.com> Date: 5/17/25  8:04 PM  (GMT-06:00) To: "'towertalk at contesting.com'" <towertalk at contesting.com> Subject: [TowerTalk] HELP - Hy-Gain TH-3JRS Hello - We had a frustrating afternoon today trying to put up a Hy-Gain TH-3JRS at the QTH of Rich, KE0EPY.The antenna is previously owned, and we replaced the broken aluminum matching wire (beta match) with one made of copper. We have also added a balun made from type 31 ferrite material. Other than that, the antenna seems to be all original. A few days ago, we tested the antenna on top of an 8-foot fiberglass ladder, and it had three nice SWR dips right where you would expect for 20, 15 and 10 meters. Today before taking the antenna up the tower, we checked it all again, by pointing it lifting it a couple feet and pointing it straight up. Again, we saw 3 nice dips where they were expected.Once we mounted it on the tower the SWR went very high and only showed one small dip just below 15 meters at 20.8 MHz. Thinking the coax had been damaged we took a small jumper up in the lift and connected directly to the balun but got the same results. Then we bypassed the balun - same results. We removed the beta match and connected straight to the driven element and got the same results. With the beta match removed the two sides of the driven element are not shorted to each other or the boom.We have the lift for another day. Any ideas/thought/suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!Thanks, and 73,Joe - n0sd______________________________________________________________________________________________TowerTalk mailing listTowerTalk at contesting.comhttp://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk