This afternoon, after work, five of us met in my backyard to raise my
A3S back up to the top of the tower.
It had shown symptoms of effects of a lightning strike (direct or near).
On getting it to the ground, disassembling it, checking traps with a GDO,
I found nothing wrong. I reassembled it, checked it with my MFJ259 with
the antenna standing on its reflector and it seemed nominal. I partially
disassembled the driven element and attached the 40m add-on kit.
On getting it in place, just as the sun went below the horizon--where's
CDT when you need it most?--and running into the radio room to check
it out for real, I was pleased to see it flat in the CW portions of the
10,15,20m bands. Taking a deep breath, I punched up 40m on the
Omni VI did a quick key down....2.0:1 at 7010. 1.4:1 at 7050. Not
bad...not great, but not bad.
Now....I figure I can run up the tower, loosen the element guy, loosen
the element to boom clamp, rotate the element vertically, lengthen one
end, rotate it 180 degrees and lengthen the other end, then put it all
back to rights. It should work--it works in my mind eye, anyway....
Has anyone had experience/success doing it this way? I didn't try
to see what the driven element with the 40m add-on would do without
its guy and don't want to screw anything up this close to SS.
Suggestions?
Leaving it alone is certainly an option...and probably one that I will
take until after SS. 2:1 is not going to adversely affect me that much.
The antenna hears better than my inverted vee and there is some (~1-2
S-units) directivity (nulls off the tips?) to it. Looks like a fun addition
to the A3S.
Thanks and 73,
Dale Martin, KG5U
kg5u@hal-pc.org
http://www.hal-pc.org/~kg5u
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