[SFDXA] [sfdxahams] Great News

[Bill]

Maybe a sign on the amplifier limiting the output on FT8. It takes a lot 
of sustained RF to burn up a barrel connector. Ask me how I know...
Bill W2CQ

sfd
On 2/26/2023 11:01 PM, Randy N4QV wrote:
> Howdy DXers,
>
> I arrived back in town this week and found myself behind on 
> everything.  One thing that I knew we should do, is get our club 
> station working again on the upper bands.  I wanted to work FT8WW for 
> the club before he leaves Crozet.
>
> With the help ,of Rich WB4EHG, we quickly put a team together to 
> correct the problem on the TH-11 at the club station.  The team 
> consisted of Rich WB4EHG, Rich W4RQ, Marty KQ4CKB and myself. We 
> arrived at the hospital around 10:00 AM Saturday morning.  I don't 
> know how I made it!  I went to bed early (for me!) around 12 midnight. 
> I had a young kid screaming, at the top of his lungs that woke me up 
> at 2:00.  Finally got back to sleep and it started again a 3:20 AM. It 
> was on and off all night and I got about 3 hours of sleep.  I finally 
> got up around 8:30. later than I wanted since I wanted to be there 
> around 9:00.  No time to eat.
>
> We were there to get a job done. After a brief planning session and a 
> bottle of water, up the tower I went. We had suspected the problem was 
> the connector at the balun. It looked really bad when I removed it.  
> It appeared the the center conductor had never been soldered.  I 
> replaced it and plugged the new connector into the dummy load.  I just 
> knew that it had to be the problem.  When the team keyed the rig... 
> the SWR was still terrible!  ugh!
>
> With the help of the Rich and Rich team, they did some time domain 
> research on the cable and it appeared to be shorted about 3/4 of the 
> way to the antenna. Back outside I found a barrel connector joint that 
> appeared to be very well sealed from the weather.  I started stripping 
> the coax seal and tape and as soon as I removed the tape it smelled 
> burnt.  The barrel and one of the connectors was welded together.  
> Thank goodness I brought some barrel connectors and PL-259's.  I put a 
> new PL-259 on the cable end and inserted a new barrel.  We plugged it 
> into the dummy load and thank goodness all was GOOD! Back up the tower 
> I went and plugged it into the antenna for a final test.  All was 
> good!  After about an hour of dressing the cables, the work was 
> finally done around 3:00 PM.  We all decided to head home.
>
> The bottom line is that the TH-11 is healthy and working just fine now 
> after being intermittent for 2 years.
>
> I appreciate the teams help in getting this done.
>
> I'm tired and going to bed.  I will send out episode 2 and the meeting 
> invite in the morning!
>
> Very 73,
> Randy N4QV
> _._,_._,_
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Groups.io Links:
>
> You receive all messages sent to this group.
>
> View/Reply Online (#96) <https://groups.io/g/sfdxahams/message/96> | 
> Reply To Group 
> <mailto:sfdxahams at groups.io?subject=Re:%20%5Bsfdxahams%5D%20Great%20News> 
> | Reply To Sender 
> <mailto:wil9926 at bellsouth.net?subject=Private:%20Re:%20%5Bsfdxahams%5D%20Great%20News> 
> | Mute This Topic <https://groups.io/mt/97259732/503836> | New Topic 
> <https://groups.io/g/sfdxahams/post>
> Your Subscription <https://groups.io/g/sfdxahams/editsub/503836> | 
> Contact Group Owner <mailto:sfdxahams+owner at groups.io> | Unsubscribe 
> <https://groups.io/g/sfdxahams/leave/11753860/503836/1092897890/xyzzy> 
> [bmarx at bellsouth.net]
>
> _._,_._,_

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/sfdxa/attachments/20230227/e7f7b35b/attachment.html>