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Message |
    
Doughboy40
Junior Member
Username: Doughboy40
Post Number: 10
Registered: 12-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 12:48 am: | 
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I have a Midland 5001Z tuned and peaked hooked up to a Solarcon A-99 as my base station, I have checked channels 1, 20, &40 for SWR and I get 3:0 to 3:5 on all channels. I also have an old Mobile antenna on the tower with the A-99 close to it for my scanner or I cannot receive any scanner activity. Any ideas how I can get my SWR's back down in the 1:0 to 1:5 range.
Doughboy 54421
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Bruce
Senior Member
Username: Bruce
Post Number: 5023
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 6:13 am: |
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GASP ......
Sounds like you have a problem with that A-99
On 6 since 66
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Marconi
Advanced Member
Username: Marconi
Post Number: 805
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 10:40 am: |
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An easy check would be to check the shield to center continuity of your coax at the radio end of the feed line. Contrary to what one might think, the A99 should be showing you a direct short at this point.
If a pulse of lightning got into your antenna it could have caused some connection to fail leaving an open circuit. It could also be a bad solder joint at your coax connector that fail after a time the antennna has been exposed to the wind or the weight of the coax if it was not supported well. Or you could have water inside the base of the A99 that can't easily get out, causing you problems. Did you seal the coax connector somehow when you installed the A99?
There is a small drain hole beside the coax connector in the base of the A99 that allows moisture to escape, and you should not seal this drain area. |
Kf4gyp
Junior Member
Username: Kf4gyp
Post Number: 10
Registered: 11-2009
| | Posted on Sunday, January 31, 2010 - 12:30 pm: |
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Hello Doughboy
Marconi is telling you some good info. If I may add to it. Make sure that all other antennas are at least 1/4 wave away or more. Be sure to take and wind the coax 10-15 turns around the support mast to choke off rf from coming back down the coax and giving you a false swr reading.Next make sure the rings are very close to center tune. Then if the swr is still high you may want to replace the a99. The choke on the mast with the coax solved my swr problem.
hope this helps.
good luck
73 Ray/Hawk-Eye
DE KF4GYP |
Muddoc
New member
Username: Muddoc
Post Number: 2
Registered: 1-2010
| | Posted on Thursday, February 18, 2010 - 11:21 am: |
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yep DC ground ant ...
M60-01050 GRK-6
[M60-01050] $24.99
Ground Plane Enhancement Kit
Comes with (1) Slip-On Collar, (4) 6' Fiberglas Radials, and Hardware.
Fits Bandit and Most Other CB Antennas -> ?
will this fit on and B-100 saturn base
antenna
thanks
muddoc (us-nc.) |
Philuk
Junior Member
Username: Philuk
Post Number: 10
Registered: 4-2009
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - 11:33 am: |
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Had exactly the same problem with my A-99 here in te UK after a hard winter, this nasty thing had already been snapped before at the top clamp point due to a previous owner being too heavy handed with the spanners so I easily stripped the base section back down to the basics and found the the ice,damp and cold had degraded the coils and the inner coax stub beyond repair, after a heap of research and brain teasing reading into end fed halfwaves I recoiled it (exactly the same coil lengths)but with a slightly thinner grade enameled copper wire from an old P3 computer psu (to give better inner clearance) then properly insulated the new rewound inner coil, then I directly connected the full coax direct to the coils and added a short counterpoise copper wire instead of the tunning rings (now removed)cable tied the counterpoise to the coax drop and ran it through a new pole with the A-99 slid into the top up to about 1 inch below the top point where the tunning ring section used to be.
I now have a preset A-99 giving 1.1:1 broadband from 26.500mhz to 28.500Mhz, above and below these frequencies it is about 1.4:1 min and 1.6:1 max so still very useable barefoot 8W within my freq. limits (30.000mhz - 25.615mhz) receiving much better and very much quieter than my other A-99 with the GP kit added or my sigma 4 clone, TX reports are much improved over much greater distances. Cant wait to get this reworked stick higher up in the air.
Next time I take this antenna down to remast it higher I will photograph the reworked base section incase anybody wants to give it a try.
It was simple! even I managed to do it lol.
Phil |
