We started on 20m and all fine. When moving to 40m could not get swr below 14:1. Changed to brand new identical antenna. Still no go. Changed feed line and still bad. Tried 10m and had w6 qso. Can rf from nearby comms towers cause high swr on a particular band if at all? Anyway…sorry no 40 on w3/PO-002.
73 M & H
Herman and Merle,
If not the RF, maybe the towers themselves? I have had SWR difficulties with a few peaks here in PA that have old, unused towers on them. Maybe if room allows, put some more distance between you and the towers. Or back down into the “shadow” of the peak, as far as activation rules permit.
You are both loyal activators and chasers. No apology is necessary!
73 de KB3UYT
Eric…
[quote=“KB1RJC, post:1, topic:11796”]Can rf from nearby comms towers cause high swr on a particular band if at all?[/quote]Have you re-measured the antennas back at home (or somewhere more RF-quiet)? Any signal being picked up by the antenna will contribute to that being measured by the return side of the SWR bridge. If that’s the antenna side of your filters then RF even quite a way off the frequency you think you’re measuring can mess with your SWR readings, if it’s a strong enough signal. It’s a particular problem with antenna analysers which use a low power oscillator and have a sensitive return signal detector…
73, Rick M0LEP
Hi Eric,
Nice to hear from you. We were thinking of you and Scotty as we were calling out in your state. 40M would have been nice. If you know that Ararat summit, the towers are actually next to and on a slightly lower summit. It was just frustrating to not get the more local contacts.
73 Herm and Merle
Hello Rick,
Appreciate the reply. Yes, just back today and have come in from winterizing the RV. In the next day or so we will put the station back up near home in a more benign RF atmosphere and check it all out to see if we can gather some insight. Thanks for the info!
73 Herm and Merle
Alas, work has been interfering with pleasure of late. I hope to get out a few times before the snow flies. I’ll watch the reflector and listen for you, and hopefully we can have some more contacts.