Hi Gary! I'm surprised at wabbits chewing coax! Usually squirrels! Although I would hope the coyote urine would help in any case. The little "tree rats" can be really destructive!
73, Charlie, K4OTV -----Original Message----- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Gary Smith Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 2:05 PM To: Topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: Coax issues Resolution: Eat more rabbit. Thanks again for the pointer to the 259B being an answer. I now see it will do more than I knew, I didn't know about the advanced mode. So... Last night I disconnected the coax in to the distal coax switch, it was not connected in the shack but I read a dead short with the fluke. This morning I went out and disconnected the coax so I could make a reading on both ends of the coax to see how well they jived. Found the instigator of the problem & that damned rabbit chewed mostly through the control cable to the coax switch. He must have bit into the voltage & that stopped him. However, he had chewed through the cable and had severed 3-4 wires of the 6 involved in switching and this disconnected the coax from the antenna. I was trying for 3B9/OE4AAC on Rodriguez & on 17 & using the amp. Amazingly the amp didn't have any issue but that energy had to go somewhere. I reattached the control wires at the switch, went back to the shack and read 515 feet to fault and that multiplied by the VF of .66 = 334 feet. Not knowing the exact footage of the coax, I went to the distal end and remeasured from there and kept getting different distances but one thing was for sure, it was easier getting the zero readings at the shack end. I cut off the connector & there still was a dead short in the coax so I cut away the roll of coax I used for a choke thinking it would be found there but no. I started the long grind of pulling up the coax from under the leaves & snow & came to something I'd forgotten about, I had run short of coax and needed to use a female/female jumper to add a length of coax to reach the switch box. I undid the sealant & could smell the burn. The end going to the house was undamaged but the other end had fried at the connector. I'd forgotten that the last part was foam coax & my long run used the hard plastic dielectric; it was the foam that melted & shorted. All's well now with the coax and antennas, all read just where they should and I now have a vial of that Coyote urine under the switch to deter any more of those wascally wabbits. Thanks again for the replies. Gary KA1J --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband