[Elecraft] FIXED--was NOT the feedline

Wed Jun 3 18:41:58 EDT 2020

For PL-259 or Type-N to female connections outside my standard practice is
either double-wall marine grade heat shrink, or Scotch-130 self-annealing
tape (probably the same stuff as the 3M 2155) and the marine grade heat
shrink. 

We had a line of storms headed this way after I read your post, and I
decided to lower/tilt the tower over, and I wrapped the screw ends of the
balun with Scotch 130 and Super 88. Not sure what got into me when I put the
antenna up; I guess I figured SS hardware shouldn't be a problem in the
elements, but yeah, better safe than sorry.

 - pjd

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On
Behalf Of Walter Underwood
Sent: Wednesday, June 3, 2020 1:10 PM
To: Elecraft Reflector <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] FIXED--was NOT the feedline

I use the weatherproofing described here. I think this practice has a long
history in telephone wiring. It is a detailed walk-through of what you
described.

https://static.dxengineering.com/pdf/WeatherProofingCoax-TechTip.pdf
<https://static.dxengineering.com/pdf/WeatherProofingCoax-TechTip.pdf>

wunder
K6WRU
Walter Underwood
CM87wj
http://observer.wunderwood.org/ (my blog)

> On Jun 3, 2020, at 9:58 AM, Clay Autery <KY5G at montac.com> wrote:
> 
> I've got to get to class, but there are a NUMBER of different methods and
procedures that are used.
> 
> Self-fusing tape properly applied covered by top-quality electrical tape
to protect the self-fusing tape from UV...
> There are specific points on installation that you want to observe.
> 
> Someone will chime in with deatil or a reference to a procedure...  If
not, I will do it later... Class in 3 minutes.
> 
> 73,
> 
> ______________________
> Clay Autery, KY5G
> (318) 518-1389
> 
> On 06/03/20 10:35, Peter Dougherty wrote:
>> No, and I wasn't sure how to accomplish this. It's stainless 
>> hardware, but I'm guessing I should probably wrap the feedpoint up in 
>> self-annealing tape and Scotch 88 just to be safe.
>> 
>>  - pjd
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
>> <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Dave Cole
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 3, 2020 7:27 AM
>> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] FIXED--was NOT the feedline
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Is the open end of that feedline where it connects to the antenna 
>> weatherproofed?
>> 
>> 73, and thanks,
>> Dave (NK7Z)
>> https://www.nk7z.net
>> ARRL Volunteer Examiner
>> ARRL Technical Specialist
>> ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources
>> 
>> On 6/2/20 8:15 PM, Peter Dougherty wrote:
>>> HI all,
>>> 
>>> A postscript to the problem. First off, a huge thank you to the many
>> replies received. I was fortunate that the problem was not in the 
>> KPA-1500 as I'd originally feared.
>>> Much troubleshooting within the past few days. Originally the amp 
>>> was
>> "iffy" on the old M-squared 6m5, and problematic (faulting) during 
>> damp or wet weather. This prompted the replacement of both the antenna
and feedline.
>>> The hard faults were still occurring, until it was suggested the 
>>> Ten-Tec
>> 238 tuner that I was using exclusively for the built-in antenna 
>> switch was now the issue. I took this out of line today, and lowered 
>> the tower to fine-tune the LFA's feed point and now everything is 
>> humming along just nicely. The KPA-1500 is happy at 1.5 kW and 
>> showing an SWR of 1.2 in dry conditions. I will keep my fingers 
>> crossed that the wet weather expected in the next day or so won't bother
it all that much.
>>> The final step was to move the 6m feedline from the secondary inlet 
>>> box to
>> the main antenna switch on the big tower. The downside here is I now 
>> have an additional 70 feet of BuryFlex in the line, so I'm guessing a 
>> total of about
>> 1.5 to 1.7dB of feedline loss. This is something I would like to 
>> address in the future with an eye to dropping it below 1dB.
>>> Screencaps:
>>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/1y4vyd17pbgq8ty/6m%20via%20the%20antenna%2
>>> 0s
>>> witch.png?dl=0
>>> 
>>> And
>>> 
>>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/5x8n0bum4nwcxqp/6m%20LFA%20-%20SWR%20after
>>> %2
>>> 0tuning.png?dl=0
>>> 
>>> And for the balun discussion, this is what's in place, before the 
>>> double-walled heat-shrink was applied:
>>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/18pgthl67rtq3bl/2020-05-31%2017.51.08.jpg?
>>> dl
>>> =0
>>> 
>>>   - pjd
>>> 
>>> ______________________________________________________________
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>>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this 
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>>> list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to 
>>> dave at nk7z.net
>>> 
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> ______________________________________________________________
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> wunder at wunderwood.org

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