[Elecraft] Lo P on 10 and 12 meters

[Don Wilhelm]

Ed,

If your antenna is just the end of a wire, what does it have to work 
against?  It needs some sort of reference for the "ground" side of 
things.  The RF WILL find its "ground" reference somewhere, but unless 
you control where that may be, you can have strange and inconsistent 
results.
So put up another wire of the same length, but running in an opposite 
direction and connect it to the shell of the BNC connector.  I believe 
your results will be much better.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 1/10/2012 8:18 PM, EMD wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Once again I'm getting a Lo P message when I try to tune on 10 and 12
> meters.  Last month all was well but after coming home this month and
> selecting 12 meters I noticed it was quite, not the s meter reading I
> expected, 10 meters was also quite.  I tried tuning, using AUTO and ALT, and
> got the Lo p message even with the power set to 10 watts.
>
> I have had this issue before and it was a bad solder joint on D4 last time.
> So since it worked before and now it's not it makes me wonder what other
> component can have a bad solder joint.
>
> I was also wonder if maybe my antenna might be an issue.  I'm using just a
> long wire hanging out an up stairs window for now connected to a tree about
> 25 feet in the air.  Would getting a better antenna like a G5RV( I think
> thats it ) would help the situation? Or maybe a better quality wire?  But I
> think it's an internal issue.
>
> Going to need a watt better so can anyone recommend a good QRP watt meter.
>
> 73,
> Ed KE7HGA
>