i have just bought a solacon a99 and i cant get the SWR down below 2 .. the antenna is not close to anything and is mounted on a 10ft alloy pole .. ive tested the coax end to end for continuity and that checks out when i plug the coax back in to the antenna it gives me a dead short the two parts of the coax wire seem to be touching is this correct ?? and plus when i ( TX ) on my radio i get a very bad loud buzzing i have moved the psu and this happens with any psu i use and with any radio im no expert but any help please thank you mark
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solacon a99 problem
- Thread starter markie-mark
- Start date
try a different coax . if that dosent change anything then something might be wrong with the antenna. 73s and good luck midnight special
im going to take the antenna down today and test the sections for continuity .. ive tested my coax end to end no shorts from that.. the coax is the thick low loss type i just seem to have the problem of shorting when the coax is connected to the antenna.. the antenna how ever is brand new ive never had this problem before
The Solarcon (and other varieties) of the '99' use an impedance matching network at the base that will appear as a short when checked with an ohm meter, they are a DC short. That doesn't mean that it's a short at RF, which is AC and an entirely different thing. It's normal. If you found the feed line isn't shorted then it's probably not very likely that the feed line is the problem. I'm also assuming that the coax is 50 ohms impedance?
As for why you are seeing a high SWR, there can be several reasons. The most likely being that the antenna is just mis-tuned, adjusted incorrectly. That also assumes that it's new, not used and already tuned for another situation by the previous owner.
From there it can get complicated real quick and my guessing about it isn't going to help so I won't. Good luck.
- 'Doc
As for why you are seeing a high SWR, there can be several reasons. The most likely being that the antenna is just mis-tuned, adjusted incorrectly. That also assumes that it's new, not used and already tuned for another situation by the previous owner.
From there it can get complicated real quick and my guessing about it isn't going to help so I won't. Good luck.
- 'Doc
Many vertical antennas will show a dead short if you use a DC meter to test it. But at RF freqs - which is AC and not DC - it sees the antenna differently than DC does. IOW - that is normal and should be expected. No foul.
These antennas benefit with a ground plane kit. They will work fine w/o it. You say you have it on a 10 ft pole. Fine. How high up is it and what do you consider 'close' to any object?
Best results are had with the antenna as high as you can get it with a ground plane kit and at least 20-30 ft away/above from any metal object.
Owned and used two of these antennas and never had a problem with either of them.
Your power supply is wigging out because of RF feedback from the antenna. Make sure the supply is properly grounded and get it as far away from your antenna as you can. IOW - move the antenna farther away and up.
You probably are already aware that there are tuning rings on the A99. Sure you adjusted them right?
There are copy-cat antennas of this antenna model and not very well made at that. Hope yours is genuine.
Most people just put these things up right out of the box and don't need to tune it, as they come pre-tuned.
Did you test the SWR on ch 1, 20, & 40?
What were the results?
Did you re-calibrate the SWR meter each time you tested on each of these channels?
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my antenna i got from truck king a very good shop it is an original solarcon .. have tested the SWR at 27.601 result 1.5 and 27.991 result just over the 2 thats with an external SWR meter on a standard 4 watt radio .. my president lincoln has biult in SWR and shows higher SWR is that because of the power out put being 10 watts ?? i have a zetagi 70 watt amp cant use it because makes the radio buzz on TX at 4 watts input to the amp .. im going to try some thin coax as ive got the really thick sort i all so have a bigger alloy pole so i can get the antenna about 16ft from the guttering my radio is in the attick room but i have tried the radio down stairs and still have the buzzing noise on TX with no amp its not so loud and with the amp its worse with the amp on my psu is a50 amp and have another 10 amp of witch ive tried both psu and still have a buzz i know there are many factors that cause these problems but ive never had this before now and have set it up the same as allways well im going to have a mess around with it tomorrow see if i can SWR it on a 10 ft pole on ground level the SWR is not really an issue as i can sort that but its the buzzing i cant seem to get rid of
op:there are no power lines near me so thats ok .. have just got some thin coax from our local radio shop so im going to try that insted of the thick stuff i have .. its just a matter of getting everything correct now that i know the antenna is working correctly i thought the antenna had a short but its ok so i will post back on my progress thank you all for the advice help