Maybe someone on the list can help me figure this one out . . . I got a
Pegaus this summer and have been having fun with it . . . been running it
through an LDG Autotuner the whole time. Seemed to work fine, although I
found the Autotuner too noisy and hated retuning with it when I was skipping
around during a contest. So I decided to sell it (already sold and
delivered) and, figuring that one day I would run some Power (with a capital
P), and since I now insist on an "MFJ Free" shack (another story for
another time) I figured I'd bite the bullet and buy the TenTec Model 238A
Antenna Tuner. I ordered it Tuesday afternoon. On Thursday, I was just
coming back from mailing off the LDG to its new owner, when the UPS truck
pulled up in front of me with the new tuner. Typical TenTec service.
Less than 48 hours from their door to mine, UPS ground!
I hooked it up last night, ran through the list of frequencies and made up a
cheat sheet. The S-meter on my Pegasus shot up and signals were coming out
of the woodwork. Okay, maybe the conditions are right and I just lucked out
hooking it up at just the right time . . . but the strange thing is that
I've always been plagued with monitor noise at certain freqs in the Pegasus
(and I've tried a Yaesu, too, and it was the monitor, big time) and I'm
talking MAJOR noise from the monitor. Sometimes I'd just turn off the
monitor for a QSO on that freq, or even change the refresh rate on the fly
so the noise would go to another frequency. Today, tuning around the bands,
the monitor noise is almost gone . . . if I crank up the gain and look for
it, I can find it, but it is certainly no longer a concern. Now I can't
imagine that this antenna tuner is a magic bullet for getting rid of monitor
noise . . . or even make signals jump out of the air. And when I checked
into a usual net this morning . . . several asked me what I'd done to
improve my signal. Now I used to have a MFJ tuner with a Yaesu before I saw
the TenTec light, and I had the same monitor noise with that set up . . .
any ideas? ? ? Think the fact that when I hooked up the 238A I ran all my
ground straps to the back of the tuner? ? ? The LDG had no grounding point
. . . and I was plagued with some RF on certain freqs and it wouldn't tune
up on them, just kept gyrating . . .
Looking for answers from the Experts . . . but happy for now . . . hmm . .
. can't wait to get me an amp and run some real power . . .
73 de Rick, WQ8Q
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