inside or out

[The Collector]

Strange, but yeah, if the receive goes dead when the outer is screwed on, that usually means trouble. I've also had a dodgy swr meter before that did similar once inline.

As my 6yr old daughter is at her nan's this week, I took the opportunity tonight to hoik myself onto the shed roof, fight with all the brambles (they definitely won as I'm scratched to buggery), take down the camo'd Antron and put up the camo'd Imax with the tankwhip on top. I originally screwed the bracket into a conifer about 8ft up, but as it's grown about 2ft just at that point, it was almost unreachable and I was on tip-toes on a 30 degree wooden roof being slashed by the blackberry bushes. I haven't tested the swr yet, but my Zetagi swr/matcher will sort it regardless if it's a tad too high.

Typically, there was no one on when I turned on the radio in the loft to try and get a before and after signal, but from memory, the usual ch19 chatters have all gone up between 1-2 S.points depending on distance, so it has been a success. There were a lot of SSB and foreign FM stations on mid-block too when I had a quick flick around.

I've also added 4 108" wires to the bracket and woven them through the branches somewhat horizontally to see if it'd help matters.

Para999 - One of the evenings we'll have another go on the channels once you've sorted your end out.

[para999]

thanks we will do

[original45]

As mentioned I had same with a rg 8 mini bought with shop soldered plugs.
Took ages to find.
Remove plugs ,check very very closely inside plug, you could find a tiny strand shorting inside right where the centre wire slips into the centre pin connector.they can as I found twice get soldered by accident and remain in place once coax is heated up to remove .

Failing that it could be the coax has the softer foam dielectric and has been squashed maybe shorting.or a fault from factory maybe I don't know.

The coax was cut very poorly on mine too and far too much dielectric removed too.
I won't ever be buying Pree soldered coax again that's for sure.
Will be soldering myself ,having a mechanical and soldered braid connection too and using a glue type shrink tube of correct size and shrink rate to further protect plug to coax joint.

Times like this I wish I was closer to help. Whilst I'm no expert I get by .
All the best ,hope you get it sorted and get a contact soon

[original45]

Collector,
Result mate hoping for a s point or two gain myself .
Just finished the second coat of yacht varnish so next the heat shrink tube then set up .

Nice one

[para999]

thanks for your advice I will have another look to check the things you suggest.

[108EH002]

I've also added 4 108" wires to the bracket and woven them through the branches somewhat horizontally to see if it'd help matters.

The Imax has the groundplane kit legs set at an angle of 45° and not in a horizontal position because of the length collector

The horizontal wires will probably make the swr of your Imax go up.

That's what happened when I tried the same a few year back with my Imax.

My Imax is on a 12ft pole off of a set of t and k brackets and I wanted to earth the Imax.

I used heavy duty copper wire (stuff used for connecting cookers to the mains) ran to a length of 1" copper pipe driven well into the ground = the swr on my Imax rose and so did the static level.

I then used brand new copper wire that was even thicker still to no good effect either.

The Imax just sits un-earthed 30 ft up,but I replaced the old coax and plugs last night,and it works ok for me

[The Collector]

I'll check the swr later as I've noticed the rings were about 1/3 the way up the threads, whereas I've read people saying half-way was about right.

God knows how I'm going to reach them if they do need going up a bit as they're out of reach.

Getting the base onto the bracket on the tree trunk and then holding it whilst getting U-bolts and washers/spring washers/nuts on using just one hand (other was holding onto a branch) was almost impossible, let alone reaching another couple of inches higher. At least it's nearly vertical!

[108EH002]

The tuning rings on mine are roughly 1/3 up aswell and I am using about 50ft of coax,the swr rings being set in the middle is nowhere near as good for the swr over 27 MHz as being set at a 1/3 up for my Imax.

Length and type of coax being used will maybe determine where the rings "should" sit for a lower swr = afterall each homebase install is unique ?

Last Imax I put up for a local had the tuning rings in the middle,and the swr was very low across 27 MHz

*You said it was a lot of hassle to get the Imax installed collector = but it would eat away at me to know what it was like performance/swr wise,with the original top section on instead of the 8ft of steel whip*

**The top section is now steel instead of copper wire and this might change the performance of your Imax.**

[The Collector]

If it had been an easy job to get to the bracket and swap them over quickly, I'd have compared it against the Antron, with/without the tank-whip and with/without the 108" ground-plane wires. Unfortunately, as the conifer's trunk had grown, it's now at 7ft above the height of my shed, 2ft away from it on the wrong side, in amongst branches and intertwined thick thorny brambles and you can't get ladders to it from either side.

I have noticed that the signal seems to have more static in it, whether that's because of the stainless whip, the additional ground-plane wires or just the aerial swap itself, so if I have to get up to adjust the rings (will be on tip-toes with long-handled gas pliers), I might remove the bolt holding the wires on and see if it makes any difference at all to the signal, swr or static.

You might be able to see the base of the Imax in the attached pic, 1/3 of the way down in the centre. It's sprayed brown to camouflage it though, but it's a foot above the co-ax balun thing that Chris - ch25 recommended.

[para999]

hi
update time.i have replaced the RG58 cable and also the antenna mount, which I wasn't really happy with any way.i have gone for the beehive mount with the ' serrated ' washer underneath. I've now finish assembling it and the swr has shot down to 1.1 on channel 1 and the same on channel 40 without any extra ground plane at all. unfortunately I am still not picking up any readable traffic and the skip is registering at approx. 3-4.
so I don't think there's much more I can do. so' if you have any other suggestions or are up for trying another copy,just let me know.
thanks

[The Collector]

Okidoki, 10pm tonight then on ch39 again if you're free that is???

What with my Imax now instead of my Antron A99 and being an extra 8ft high to the tip, then with your co-ax sorted and lower swr, it'll certainly be worth another shot for 5 minutes. Even if you can only hear my beep, or just tell in the background that the note of the static is changing slightly, it'll mean we're nearly there and your set up is receiving up to 40 miles. Of course, we may both hear bugger all again!

If we fail, I'll see about getting a cheap amp and then we'll try yet again one of the nights to see if it makes any difference from my end..

[para999]

ok I will be there on ch 39 how about sideband either upper or lower as well ? I must say I was hoping for better results now my system is sorted when you think to the tip it will be all of 26ft off the ground in total.

[The Collector]

Ok, I'll give FM a blast for a minute and then try usb on the same frequency in case it helps at all. I'm not sure what my Excalibur pushes on SSB as I've never tried it and I'm yet to talk to anyone on sideband ever, but it's worth a shot.

[para999]

ok the nearest ive got on that fm frequency of ch39 27.981 is usb 27.985 which is channel 11 on my set and I believe mine chucks out 12 w on ssb.mine is an export model with the mod done on it.

[para999]

nope not a thing the background noise goes up a bar but it seems to be pulsing.i've gone through all the channels and not a scooby