[Meteor-Scatter] 2 x 17b2's

[Rick Muller]

sorry for bandwith , not a real METEOR related issue ..but I expect a
lot of Hams to be on this reflector ...maybe one of you has seen same
issue ...




busy here with stacking 2 x 17b2 ( cushcraft) 

I borrowed a MFJ 259B analyse tool  from a friendly ham to make sure
that I got the correct cable lenghts to make ...
Well turned out that I have to get more cable 

but I used the same insrument to "inspect" the two dipoles of the 17B2,

I used only a segtion of 4 elements of a 17b2 ( dipole + 3 elements)
beacuse I have two antenna's I could easely exchange the dipole 

surprise ...I get complete different readings from the MFJ tool using
same antenna , same hight 
same coax cable ( but different dipoles ) 

I checked the physical dimensions of the dipoles but there are no
differnces there .
Cuschraft is using a 1:4 coax transformer inside the little plastic box
+ ferrite ring.
The coax is quite thin ( RG 58 style ) I can not find a type on the coax 
( on the old style boomer they used a real 1/2 wave coax cable ..)

has anybody ever seen these 17B2 1:4 transformers go " bad" ???

I was quite surprise to see the differences in the dipoles using the MFJ
tool 


73's Rick ( PA1BVM ) in JO21