Hi Gang,
Thanks to all who have assisted me with the Butternut tuning difficulties.
I got no fewer than 11 great replies. My problems are on the verge of
solution. Principle troubles were as follows:
* I did not use the 1/4 lambda section to check the tune on 20M. This
caused the SWR to look sky high. When I checked in the shack at the end of
~130' of hardline, the SWR was OK across most of 20M; at least untill it
went intermittent.
* I have found a touchy connection bottom of the 30M coil. I hooked up the
SWR analyzer in hte shack and watched it whilst the wind blew at 25 mph and
sure enough, the SWR rose and fell in quick jumps on 20M. I will apply
emery cloth and anti-ox paste when I get home today.
The rain last night did DROP the point of lowest SWR considerably on some
bands. I suspect that when I elevate the antenna in a month or so the
additional decoupling from the ground will somewhat alleviate these
changes.
In my installation, the 20 radials of between 30 and 50' seem to be FB. The
2:1 SWR points on 80M are 30 kHz wide.
I once commented that I do not like my XBeam because it is a pain having to
rotate it all the time, making QRP contesting tougher. Well now I have 3
antennas up that are VERY different; the G5RV at 40', HF6V on the ground
and the X-Beam for 20M. So to find the best signal strenght I have switch
between 3 antennas AND rotate the beam.
Given the small amount of operating with all three antennas I can see that
the thing ot do is run with the vertical and switch to another antenna only
when needed.
Thanks again guys, the tips and learned advice have solved my problem.
72, Mark N2VPK
Member of the Buffalo QRP Connection
72, Mark N2VPK
Member of the Buffalo QRP Connection
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