I'm trying to get my 700'+ NNE beverage to perform better. It's never
received much better than my transmitting antenna which presently is a
inverted L with 90' vertical. From the topband reflector posts the past year
or two I think I may have strung it out too northwardly. It's looking at
about 30 degrees from Colorado which should be right for Europe, but I have
seen comments here suggesting that the path is often skewd more eastwardly.
Would I be better off with my balun looking at 45 degrees?
Besides not profiding a better signal to noise ration than my inverted L
most of the time, it doesn't provide enough signal to move the S-meter much.
I winder if my homemade 9:1 balun is not working well?
Which brings me to the topic... I have a ZJ Electronics Beverage Box which
includes a preamp and 9:1 balun. A couple of years ago I either ran some
power into it or maybe it took a lightning hit. I can't remember (my old
call was appropriately W2CRS), but I think the former.
The preamp does not work. Nothing looks or smells burnt so I probably only
need to replace the transistor which looks like a gasfet. ZJ didn't send a
real schematic with the unit, just a pictogram. The transistor is marked
AR1. What is it and where do I find a replacement? I have taken voltage
measurements and have 8 volts DC at the coaxial input to the preamp box and
.33 volts DC at the gasfet. Do those voltages sound right? I just bypassed
the gasfet and intend to replace my homemade 9:1 balun with the ZJ balun and
see if I have any more signal at the receiver. Does anyone have any
experience with the ZJ Beverage Box and preamp that can help me out? Thanks.
Doug W0AH
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