Two other points of interest with the original Big Stick antenna. One is they do not handle a lot of watts and some have built in clocks that only allow operation with a low VSWR, during daylight hours...
I know the second symptom sounds ridiculous but I have seen more than one Big Stick with a VSWR that climbed into the red, every night it was damp enough for dew to form outside. Oddly enough, rain did not seem to mess it up but high levels of condensation in the absence of sunlight, did make the problem appear consistently.
I suspect some had sealing problems in the base matching section that allowed enough condensation to build up on the matching coil, that it shifted the impedance substantially. Every morning that started with a high VSWR, would result in it dropping to a 1.2:1 by about 11 AM, with several hours of sunlight drying out the condensation. Me and my Uncle had the same exact problem with Shakespeare antennas purchased through Radio Shack in the 1970's.
The Radio Shack Blue Stick which replaced the Shakespeare, was far worse since it was sold with a 100 watt firecracker in the base of every one. Hit it with 100 watts and it pops like a firecracker. Incidentally neither one of the old Shakespeare antennas, was ever hit with more than 12 watts PEP. We didn't have linears back then.
I know the second symptom sounds ridiculous but I have seen more than one Big Stick with a VSWR that climbed into the red, every night it was damp enough for dew to form outside. Oddly enough, rain did not seem to mess it up but high levels of condensation in the absence of sunlight, did make the problem appear consistently.
I suspect some had sealing problems in the base matching section that allowed enough condensation to build up on the matching coil, that it shifted the impedance substantially. Every morning that started with a high VSWR, would result in it dropping to a 1.2:1 by about 11 AM, with several hours of sunlight drying out the condensation. Me and my Uncle had the same exact problem with Shakespeare antennas purchased through Radio Shack in the 1970's.
The Radio Shack Blue Stick which replaced the Shakespeare, was far worse since it was sold with a 100 watt firecracker in the base of every one. Hit it with 100 watts and it pops like a firecracker. Incidentally neither one of the old Shakespeare antennas, was ever hit with more than 12 watts PEP. We didn't have linears back then.
