[Elecraft] I am flummoxed about my antenna

[Don Wilhelm]

Lee,

Take an antenna analyzer out to the base of the antenna and measure 
between the radiator and the radial field.  That should tell you what 
the antenna itself reads both for resonance and SWR.

Then put a dummy load on the antenna end of the coax.  Most antenna 
analyzers are capable of measuring the coax loss, so go into the shack 
at the other end of the coax and measure it.

Those two steps will tell you whether the problem is with the antenna or 
the feedline.

If you do not have a coax loss function on your antenna analyzer, feed 
the coax, put a wattmeter in the coax in the shack and observe the power.
Without changing anything on the rig, remove the wattmeter and move it 
to the other end of the feedline.  Have someone else do a TUNE on the 
rig while you observe the power at the other end of the coax - compare 
the two wattmeter readings.

If nothing is revealed by those tests, look with close scrutiny at any 
coax connectors or adapters that you did not use for the tests - 
adapters are a frequent cause of failure - lesson to use only good ones.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 12/1/2018 11:54 AM, Leroy Buller wrote:
> There
> I tried to get on 160 with my Inverted L last night.  60 feet up and the
> rest over to a tree, 130 feet total.  About 20 random length radials in the
> yard.  The best I can do with a city lot.  This antenna worked last year
> very well, but now I get this
>