OK, I messed with the beam for about 3 hours Sun. I started out with stock lengths and no pigtail to get a baseline, it was terrible 4.3 on Channel 1 and 3.4 on 40 so I took it down and installed the pigtail just for giggles. I still had a 4.3 on 1 and then ended up with a 4.7 on 40.
The next time I took marconis advice and lengthened out the driven stinger to 86" for a start and got 2.8 on 1 and 2.9 on 40 and was still confused. I lowered the driven stinger to 82" and this is when I discovered my first mistake after watching the 259B, the readings were jumping all over the place and I couldn't figure out why. In my effort to stay as far away from the antenna as possible I was pulling the coax into the hoop section, I corrected that and let it hang down straight and the readings stabilized and were 1.1 on 1 with R=59 X=0 and on 40 R=78 X=32 and the SWR was 1.9 I ended up shortening until I got to 74 5/8" and got R=40 X=4 and SWR of 1.2 on 1 and R=64 X=0 and SWR of 1.2 on 40.
I was happy until I realized my second mistake, I used a 18' piece of coax to test with,(the antenna is 15' off the ground). When I climbed the tower and retrieved my coax and went into the shack to test it I was right back where I started.
I ended up with 89" on the driven stinger in the end and have R=54 X=15 and SWR 1.3 on 1 and R=37 X=6 and SWR1.3 on 40.
Once again I am happy until I turn the power on and with the SWR meter inline the SWR jumps to a 3. I still see the same output as before, around 500 watts. Once again I am confused. I have a Palstar WM150 meter and it does not show any SWR with the amp off. Maybe my meter is not functioning properly but with the Avanti Sigma IV I have up now it shows 1.3 on my MFJ and with the power on with that antenna it doesnt show SWR with the amp on.
I wonder why the SWR changed when I switched the coax, does this show another problem somewhere?
Any suggestions Marconi?
=
