Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
  • You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.
  • The Retevis Holidays giveaway winner has been selected! Check Here to see who won!

Hooking up a sweet 16 help please

Good advice above.. I'm late to the party but would echo most above. In my past I had issues with a v58. Could never get a "flat" swr.. good enough after alot of measuring length and tweaking the tuning the ring. Ice would f things up from time to time.. ground plane radials would twist back and forth in the wind and occasionally fall off. The base of mine was around 65-70 feet above ground with open fields all around.. so it was probably subjected to more severe abuse than the average user.. your mileage may vary. It did work well for the time I had it up. I eventually replaced it with an Imax2k. Zero issues after that.. worked about the same.

With my opinions on the antenna out of the way.. take it down again.. recheck measurements and f with the ring.. check your coax also. Use a legit swr meter or better yet ask your locals.. one of them might have an analyzer you could use. Once you get the antenna/coax dialed in.. ditch the tuner. Adjust the output of the Bearcat to achieve 80 watts or so peak out of the driver. Make sure nothing is running hot.. Oh and make sure the TS 1600 has enough current and sufficient voltage to feed it. Dont volt it.. 14 to 14.5 is plenty.. enjoy.

73 good luck
 
  • Like
Reactions: AudioShockwav, Slowmover and Tokin
Blackcat630 said:
Good advice above.. I'm late to the party but would echo most above. In my past I had issues with a v58. Could never get a "flat" swr.. good enough after alot of measuring length and tweaking the tuning the ring. Ice would f things up from time to time.. ground plane radials would twist back and forth in the wind and occasionally fall off. The base of mine was around 65-70 feet above ground with open fields all around.. so it was probably subjected to more severe abuse than the average user.. your mileage may vary. It did work well for the time I had it up. I eventually replaced it with an Imax2k. Zero issues after that.. worked about the same.

With my opinions on the antenna out of the way.. take it down again.. recheck measurements and f with the ring.. check your coax also. Use a legit swr meter or better yet ask your locals.. one of them might have an analyzer you could use. Once you get the antenna/coax dialed in.. ditch the tuner. Adjust the output of the Bearcat to achieve 80 watts or so peak out of the driver. Make sure nothing is running hot.. Oh and make sure the TS 1600 has enough current and sufficient voltage to feed it. Dont volt it.. 14 to 14.5 is plenty.. enjoy.

73 good luck
Click to expand...
I can see where ice would not be a friend of the v58. I live far from ice weather so no worries but the hawks and crows lol.
 
I live on a corner, and I have power lines going up the front AND side of my place, I am sure it's not doing me much favors with my SWR.

I am driving the Texas Star with 100% RF output from my Icom 7300, which should be about 100 watts. I took the bearcat out today and went back to the Icom to see if some of my AM audio issues went away. The locals told me I was fine, but the group about 30 miles north said my bandwidth sounded too narrow. The Icom won't let me adjust much in AM mode, but in hindsight, I think I had things hooked up wrong.

Now that I put my antenna tuner where it belongs, when I power on my amp I get a bad squeal and they say I sound pinched. When I put my tuner in bypass mode, they say I am fine.

Could this be high SWR?
 
It's an MFJ-989D, its supposed ot be able to handle legal power.

When I use this antenna tuner and turn my amp on, I get a squeal, when I bypass the tuner (coax 1 direct) it clears up.

I adjusted my SWR on it by setting my radio to about 10 watts and bringing it down to no reflect. The SWR meter on my icom concurs, and goes flat.

Junky tuner?
 
Hmmm, I use the mfj-949E as a base with no issues and its several years old. I wouldn't necessarily say junk but maybe it could be part of the issue equation.
 
TruckerKevin said:
I figured it out.

When I was fooling around back there today I disconnected my ground wire. None of my equipment was grounded. I fixed the wire,,,,,, problem solved
Click to expand...
I made it late to the party so I'm no help but looks like you were in good hands with lots of seasoned wise men. Glad you got it
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.


      Top Bottom