Please excuse the bandwidth, but I need help from anybody who has a
construction manual for a Bencher Skyhawk.
The newer beaded balun that comes with the Skyhawk is not covered in the
standard construction notes; there was an addendum distributed with the
manual which covered the balun. Even though I have the antenna manual, I
can't locate that addendum to see how the balun is supposed to be attached.
So if you have one handy, please let me know if you can figure out the
following:
(a) There are two metal straps about 4" long which attach to each side of
the driven element. Do these straps point away from the mast or towards it?
(b) When the balun is clipped onto the boom, am I correct in guessing that
the coax feed end of the balun points toward the mast and the output leads
point away from the mast?
(c) How are the output leads routed to go back to the metal straps? One
possibility is that the balun is positioned so that the leads lie right
alongside the metal straps, so the leads run away from the mast and right
underneath the metal straps, then the connecting lug is positioned so that
the eye is away from the mast. Another possibility is to scoot the balun a
little further away from the mast and have the output leads loop around, so
they come back towards the metal straps and have the eye of the lug pointing
toward the mast. I've tried both, and neither looks quite right to me.
(d) Where exactly are the two clips positioned along the boom which support
the balun. I remember one clips onto the balun and the other one clips onto
the coax. But no way I position the balun looks correct (in terms of what I
remember about how this is supposed to be done) as far as that coax support
clip is concerned.
Any help would be very much appreciated. I have already learned the hard
way that the feed attachment is critical on this antenna and don't want to
raise the mast with the balun connected incorrectly. I did position it so
the metal straps point away from the mast and such that the balun output
leads loop around and come back to it, and the SWR curves all look
reasonable, but still... It's a real pain in the rear having to redo this
stuff when you put it up incorrectly.
73,
Bruce, ZF2NT
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