[MRCA] Moose and Squirrel and getting on the air...

[W2HX]

So at 11:15AM I decided to try to get on the M&S net.   If course I had no radio set up. And what fun would it be to hook up a known-working radio in 45 minutes?  So of course, I tried a radio I had never used before. A Mackay MSR-8050A using a new to me (and possibly new entirely) MSR-4040 automatic coupler. I had recently acquired the coupler and 50' of control cable and figured I would try it out.

Well I had to get this equipment hauled out of the attic, put the coupler on the 2nd floor balcony over the back porch, put two wires forming a dipole on the hot and ground. The dipole was about 60' total in length, ran the 50' control cable, 50' coax over the balcony and down to the back porch. Hauled the radio from the attic down to the back porch, ran AC power. Getting close at this point. Then the dog escaped from the backyard and I had to run down the block calling him.  Time is really running out! Noontime is approaching fast! Got him, got the control cable connected to the radio, the RF cable - its now 12:15. Dog gets out again right from under my nose (keeps digging under the fence). Got him back.  Whew!

Ok, I set up the freq on 60 meters and key up. Remember, I've never set this radio and coupler up before.  Tuning...tuning...tuning...fault. ARGH. I knew that was a risk but it sure would have been wonderful for it to work!

Well, I never did make it on the M&S and quite frankly, I couldn't hear anyone anyway.  But I did spend some time poking around.  Well here are some interesting facts. I could not tune on 60 or 80. But I COULD tune on 160! And 40 and above no problem. So, I pulled out my newly acquired wire reels from my new SORAK antenna and connected them in parallel to the existing 30' wires and ran them longer and longer and longer trying to see if I could get a match. Well, by the time my dipole was 200' long (100 each side approx.) I still could never tune 80 and 60.  

It seemed strange to me. Even my little MFJ autotuner can tune up just about anything. So I am suspecting a fault somewhere.  Perhaps there is an inductor or its associated relay that isn't working properly.  Another possibility is that since this is a digital tuner, I believe that the radio sends band information to it so that it can pretune if that band is in memory already.  This could be an issue. Checking the 8050A manual, 3.5-6.0 would cover two bands.

Ok, I'll have to get a copy of the manual for the tuner. And I'll have to read the manual for the 8050A more carefully. There are a bunch of settings in the radio itself for various tuners. I'll have to see what I got. Although I think its more of a tuner issue than a radio issue. We'll see! 

Pictures (sorry, they are very large, forgot to set the camera to smaller photos for web viewing).
http://www.w2hx.com/x/OperatingPhotos/08-23-2012-Backyard/

Pictures show the radio, the view from the backyard looking up at the balcony with the coupler (small dark rectangle in the middle of the  balcony) about 10-12 feet above the ground, a picture of one of the two wire reels (now out about 100' each) and a photo of the coupler itself. There look to be a lot of wires on the coupler. In fact each terminal (hot and ground) has a black, a red and one copper. The black and red are 30' each and are taped together. The copper ones go out about 100' each (I was too lazy to remove the black and red ones). And a coupler like this should have no problem I believe.

Regards
 
73 Eugene W2HX