*After owning several Automatic Tuners, I have found the hard way that most
of them just don't have the guts to do what I need. The MFJ-989C is the
only High Power and Manual Tuner ever owned at this station. Not wanting to
bad mouth Auto Tuners but, just my observation. The large Roller Inductor
and Variable Caps of my Manual Tuner, give me a much broader tuning range
and bandwidth. My 450 ohm feed line is several years old and I call the
Tennessee Phone Net in the mornings sometimes. At 6:45 AM the Dew on the
line causes me to need a re-tune every morning. My feed line is in the
shadow of the house. Looking out the back window we have found that 5 to 7
minutes after the weak morning sun hits the wire, I can go back to my pre
set values.... Someone mentioned that trimming all the plastic possible
from the window line will cure the problem, or make it better. Haven't
tried that yet? There is no fancy test equipment here but, on air
experience tells me that the Wet Line and Re-tuning does Not adversely
effect my signal to any detectable level. I am saving now for the purchase
of 100 feet of the True Ladder Line as found on the Internet. Re-tuning for
rain is one thing but, the re-tune thingy every Friday morning is getting
old. Also, every operator who has talked to me says that the 600 Ohm True
Ladder Line ( Google it ) cures the problem. I guess that 12 year old
Ladder Line has aged enough that water does not just run off of it. There
should be no wetting agent needed here. The antenna here is an 134 foot
Dipole at 67 feet each way. Sitting at about 30 feet high. Feed is 450 ohm
window type. 80 thru 10 Meters with ONE Antenna. I know there are better
antennas but, this is rental property and what I can get away with before
the Land Lord gets upset. *
* 73 de Wade/KJ4WS*
On Thu, Aug 1, 2013 at 8:39 AM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP <Rick@dj0ip.de> wrote:
> I'm not sure if you asked me or the group.
> I have no clue, and I guess there are several types.
>
> One thing I know for sure: NOBODY coats their feedline with a wetting
> agent
> before it rains.
>
>
> Another thing I know for sure: how much difference 6dB makes in a contest.
> It's like running barefoot or with a linear.
>
> Running a linear means I work 90% of all the stations I call with just 1 or
> 2 calls.
> Running barefoot means I get about 30% with just one call.
>
> So in a contest, 6dB means a lot more than 6dB measured in a lab.
> I guess it is due to the competition.
> On an un-crowded band, it would mean 1 S-Unit but in a contest it means a
> lot.
>
> My point: I have run openwire (window line) countless times in contests
> where it rained and if I had been losing 6dB all the time, I would have
> noticed it in my score. I did not. I only noticed that I had to retune
> the
> matchbox.
>
> I always use manually tuned matchboxes. If you have an auto-tuner, then it
> really doesn't matter much.
>
> 73
> Rick, DJ0IP
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Carter
>
> Is the "wetting agent" conductive -- or at least more conductive than rain
> water?
>
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>
_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
|