Thanks for the thoughts, however:
1/ The voltage at the rear panel of the Orion is 13.8 VDC under full
load and the supply is good for at least 70 amps.
2/ The white out does not happen when transmitting, at the same power
level, into a dummy load nor do I see the problem on any band but on 80
meters. Therefore, I doubt I'm dealing with a power supply deficiency.
Concerning the practice of grounding the shack and the tower together,
that?s probably a good subject for the Tower Talk Reflector. Having just
moved from a hilltop QTH with 2 100' towers and a 1/4 wave vertical on 160 I
have some experience with lightning strikes including over 13 years at least
50 direct hits. Working closely with the Polyphaser folks I put in an
elaborate system that only allowed one rotor cable lightning induced
failure. The tower had 4 ground rods at the base and four 120' long buried
#0 bare wire with a ground rod every 10 feet. The base of the tower had the
obligatory gap arrestors for each feed line and control line. The house had
a entrance panel on an aluminum machined blank with the shield of the N and
UHF SO239 connectors at ground potential as the panel had its own 2 ground
rods. This ground was tied into the tower (and its grounding system) by the
shield of every coaxial cable and a parallel run of #0 cable.
The entrance panel had a ground bus shared with the two "house" ground rods
thereby tying it all together. Now I've duplicated this arrangement at the
new QTH and keep in mind lightning is going to seek out the lowest impedance
to ground. I'll bet my shack the grounding system under the tower is the
path a discharge might follow!
If you would like to discuss the grounding issue as it pertains to lightning
protection, please E-mail me direct at W6XR@Frontiernet.net.
Thanks everyone,
Natan W6XR
-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com]
On Behalf Of Gary Tuck
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 11:42 AM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion RF issue
You might read K4IA's post yesterday responding to N1VS whose screen
faded in transmit.
I used to get a flicker on my display when transmitting until I took
his advice several months back to insure a good power connection.
I'm using
an Astron RS-35A.
73, Gary W7TEA
On Jan 26, 2007, at 8:16 AM, Natan Huffman wrote:
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
>
>
> Today I took delivery of an Orion with version 2.056 firmware and
> integrated, with great ease, the rig into the station.
> Unfortunately I am
> having an issue while on 80 meters where my antenna is near the
> shack and
> only up 50 feet. The station is grounded well as is the house with
> each
> having two 15? ground rods and short ground wires < ¼ lamda at
> 80) . These
> grounds are tied into 4 more at the base of the tower about 50?
> away from
> the shack. I doubt the problem (white screen when transmitting) is
> due to
> lack of grounding but rather the presence of a strong RF field
> generated by
> the 80 antenna. Just for fun (done in 4 degree wx) I disconnected
> the large
> bus to the tower base and no change. I also checked VDC at the
> plug in the
> back providing power and it?s fine.
>
>
>
> This problem is not seen on two other transceivers in the shack
> when used on
> 80, which also suggests the problem is RF from the antenna. Might
> there be
> some remedy so that I don?t have a white screen when transmitting?
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
>
>
> Natan W6XR
>
>
>
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> TenTec@contesting.com
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