Without getting into the whys of our fascination with SWR, the StepIR answers the concern of all those who cannot stand their SWR to be anything other than 1:1, all other concerns notwithstanding. Or
Stuff made out of Teflon sheet, which shows up regularly on EBay. I'm talking about 3/8, 3/4 inch thick teflon sheet and relatively easy to cut, drill, etc. It should be stiffened with metal brackets
One consideration FOR the SteppIR, based on this thread and some posts off-reflector... The SteppIR may fare BETTER than regular aluminum antennas in salt-spray environments. The copper tape itself i
Evaluate the grounding needs by considering the currents that flow and THAT ARE INDUCED during a lightning strike. If lightning hits the tower, ALL conductors will either conduct direct or induced cu
You want the rebar completely enclosed by concrete. There should be four inches of concrete between any rebar and the outside. They make little concrete blocks to support and stand off the rebar, esp
What is being proposed is a common grounding point within the shack, which is a good idea. THIS IS SEPARATE from the single point common ground where everything comes into the house. If your shack is
Part of the confusion here is that a made-to-order commercial radio room is usually going to be a single room inside a shelter, built on a concrete slab, and the problem is protecting everyone's stuf
Whether or not a radial density is enough by count depends on the "aperture" that exists between adjacent radials at the ends, as expressed in a fraction of a wavelength at the frequency in use. If t
Can't seem to find it at the moment, but seem to remember something like the following gut speculation.... Two electrolytic caps of equal value connected like terminals in series will act as an AC ca
NO. Sil-Flow is brazing rod (almost all copper) and you are telling him that SILVER SOLDER is OK, when you're welding. That stuff just barely melts before the copper does. You have to know what you'r
Have a look at the meter (carrier level indicator) on this photo of an excellent condition pre-WW2 RME 69. http://www.nucleus.com/~jordana/rme69dials.jpg Calibration is 0-72 db in six db steps, with
The question defies simple answers. It's model fodder if ever there was any. Ask anyone who has tried to design a setup like your question and then make it work. The tower is always a big unknown. An
Don, For sure, a direct strike will jump a little break like that and head for whatever it thinks is the path to ground and its opposite charge. Let's assume that something has happened to the connec
You will get somewhat broader range of low SWR by having the antenna present zero reactance and using a flat matching device like an autotransformer to get 50 ohms. The reason is that the change in r
Hills, particularly large buildings, sometimes above ground power/telephone/cable distribution (more an issue on 160 than 10, certainly). The closer the building, the smaller it can be and obstruct o
The biggest issue here is that the ubolts and the holes for the ubolts to clamp to a mast are not SIZED for a tower vertical member. There are brackets available which have various sizes which will p
How about one burned contact in the Comtek box? Or a contact not quite closing. You've solved the fence problems. The individual SWR tests proved that. What's left is unrelated. Would appear that the
He already replaced the close metal fence sections with wood, and broke up nearby metal sections with wood sections. Unbalance problem at the antennas went away. All antennas tune up equal now. He ha
You will find that the tuning of a 40 meter dipole varies nearly as wildly with such changes in height, it's not a Force 12 thing at all. Further if the dipole is shortened by any of the various mean