For almost all the past week it has been foggy, drizzly and dark here so I spent most of my time in the shack working on things indoors. One thing I did is hook my antenna analyzer to the feedline of each of my antennas to see how they might perform this winter season. I do regular maintenance on my equipment each year by pulling transmitters and receivers out of the cabinet to look for anything burned, smoked, cracked or not just right. It was time for the antennas to get a once over since it has been over 4 years since installation.
Well two of the three showed that things had changed significantly in the last 2 or 3 years. So today, I changed the feedline to my 80/40 meter dipole and the one that feeds my beam. The match to both had deteriorated to a degree and, if allowed to remain in their present state, would be worse before this winter season was over. It turned out moisture had seeped into some of the feedline where it attached to the antennas, contaminating the coax. I changed the coax and method of connection to the antennas today because the weather was just beautiful. Now the analyzer reads that match efficiency and phase angle are on the money. We aren't going to have too many more days that lend themselves to work outside, so I urge you to pick a nice day like it was here and check all your antennas to be sure they will hold up this winter. Another thing I did is use a pliable seal on connections outdoors. A little preventative work today will keep those AM radios going this winter. Something I discovered this past week is that if you will look for a product called "Tacky Tape", it is much like the famous "Coax Seal" sold by radio people for a big price for a little bit. Tacky Tape is just like it and you get a lot more for your buck. Do a search for it, I found it for $2.99 for 5 yards X 1/4 inch wide. Coax Seal was $3.80 for 1/2 by 5 ft. 1/2 X 12 ft. was over $16. Have fun this winter and I look forward to talking to many of you on the air. 73 Jim/W5JO ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/amradio@mailman.qth.net/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Post: AMRadio@mailman.qth.net To unsubscribe, send an email to amradio-requ...@mailman.qth.net with the word unsubscribe in the message body. This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
