The 20 meter dipole I was using had issues, some days it would tune up to a flat 1:1, and other days I couldn't get it below 3:1.
The recent snow storm we had here finally brought to light...(at least to me)...what it's main issue was.....Bungie cord insulators....
I had skipped putting proper insulators at the two ends, and just tied a short length of bungie cord on to work as both insulators and to absorb shock when the wind blew the trees around. The center is supported from a branch of marginal strength, one end is tied off to another tree, and the other end is tied off to the water pipe mast that supports my 2 meter Ringo, the bungie cord was used to take some of the tension off the entire works in the wind, but when snow and ice accumulated on the bungie, and it became saturated, it would throw the SWR's into a tail spin.....(it worked fine when it was dry, but no good wet).....
This morning while listening to the Rotten Apple Crew net on 40 meters, I constructed a new 20 meter dipole using one of the support fixtures I made up yesterday......
I just hope the Bomb Squad doesn't see it, they're liable to shoot it down out of the tree......
Some of the other issues I corrected with the New and Improved version was the use of heavier stranded wire that I gutted from 10 gauge extension cord, PVC pipe insulators on the ends, then my bungie cord shock absorbers, and I also lowered it about a foot, this allowed me to straighten it out from a deep inverted "V", to a slightly shallower inversion, and created better clearance to a few wild tree branches that were making contact whenever a breeze was blowing.
Now my SWR's are back down to a 1.2:1 and I'm getting better output signal strength as well.......
The recent snow storm we had here finally brought to light...(at least to me)...what it's main issue was.....Bungie cord insulators....
I had skipped putting proper insulators at the two ends, and just tied a short length of bungie cord on to work as both insulators and to absorb shock when the wind blew the trees around. The center is supported from a branch of marginal strength, one end is tied off to another tree, and the other end is tied off to the water pipe mast that supports my 2 meter Ringo, the bungie cord was used to take some of the tension off the entire works in the wind, but when snow and ice accumulated on the bungie, and it became saturated, it would throw the SWR's into a tail spin.....(it worked fine when it was dry, but no good wet).....
This morning while listening to the Rotten Apple Crew net on 40 meters, I constructed a new 20 meter dipole using one of the support fixtures I made up yesterday......
I just hope the Bomb Squad doesn't see it, they're liable to shoot it down out of the tree......
Some of the other issues I corrected with the New and Improved version was the use of heavier stranded wire that I gutted from 10 gauge extension cord, PVC pipe insulators on the ends, then my bungie cord shock absorbers, and I also lowered it about a foot, this allowed me to straighten it out from a deep inverted "V", to a slightly shallower inversion, and created better clearance to a few wild tree branches that were making contact whenever a breeze was blowing.
Now my SWR's are back down to a 1.2:1 and I'm getting better output signal strength as well.......