A ham friend asked me to design a matching network for his 160 metre end fed
quarter wave, so I asked him to provide an impedance reading using his
MFJ-259B. I would then use the Berkley site
(http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/Research/RF/projects/60GHz/matching/ImpMatch.html
) to provide the necessary values for an 'L' network, as I have done many
times at my own station.
The readings he provided were total nonsense and quite erratic, so we concluded
his MFJ-259B was dead. He assured me that he always does a static discharge
before connecting the MFJ.
So I paid him a visit, taking along my Palstar Antenna analyser thing, which
has always performed well at home, and what-do-you-know, the readings on that
were also erratic, total nonsense and it behaved in a way I have never seen
before.
Than someone suggested the problem may be due to a 50Kw BC station on 909 KHz,
situated less than 5 miles away, causing both antenna analysers to misbehave.
We ended up with a good old-fashioned link coupled parallel tuned circuit with
the antenna tapped a few turns up from the ground end. This works fine but he
is power limited due to arcing across the tuning capacitor. So we would ideally
like to revert to the 'L' network plan, but how to use the antenna analyser in
the presence of a high BC station field. Anyone any ideas?
73
Tom G3OLB
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Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
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