JR,
I have also run the FC-40 as well as SGCs' and SEA couplers. One
thing I have noticed is that the couplers sometimes have a problem
with 1/2 wavelength wires. I would either take off about 10' of wire
or add about 10' of wire on the radiating element. I have run the FC-
40 with a 9' whip and also with 48' of wire with pretty good success.
Let us know how it works out.
Thanks,
Mike-KB5OZE
--- In YaesuTuner@..., "jay_hendershott" <jrcomp@...>
wrote:
Thanks for all the helpful information. I have found a combination
that works pretty well although I still cannot tune 75/80 meters.
I
am really baffled though about the current ground setup. The
ground
I have in plave is the original 4' long rebar. It is approximately
15 feet away from the tuner with a 12 guage wire running from the
tuner to the rebat. I am able to tune 160, 40, 20 up to 6 meters.
I
can not tune 80 or 30 meters. I thought the rebar was to far from
the tuner so I drove a 5 foot chunk of copper pipe into the ground
right below the tuner. Testing afterward showed that I could only
tune 20 meters through 6 meters. I am baffled by this. Clearly
the
copper tube and shorter ground wire should function better that the
rebar and 15 feet of wire or is the long ground wire to the rebar
acting like a counterpoise? I tried running counterpoises with the
copper pipe but they seemed to make no difference. I am limited on
counterpoise because the tuner is located in my crawl space. It
would not be easy for me to move the tuner outside. I made a few
contacts over the weekend, one being a station in Tokyo, Japan so I
cannot complain but I would like to get 75/80 meters back. One
poster noted the addition of a capacitior in series with the output
wire. How should I determine size and rating of the capacitior?
Again thanks for the help, it has been a learning experience so
far.
--- In YaesuTuner@..., "wb0m" <wb0m@> wrote:
Is there anyway to move the coupler outside the house? Your
antenna
starts at the coupler, which means you are probably getting RFI
and
such from a couple of thing: your antenna is radiating next to
all
the
wires in the house and your ground my not be sufficient. Is the
ground
rod driven into the dirt? And copper will work better than rebar.
Your long wire antenna sounds fine in length, but you still need a
counterpoise of some sort. Also, there my be high voltage at the
end
of the antenna so if anyone can come in contact with it, you might
move it up out of the way. - Jeff/wb0m
--- In YaesuTuner@..., "jay_hendershott" <jrcomp@>
wrote:
The antenna starts off at the corner of my
fence which is about 5' up from the ground. It then runs
straight to
the top peak of my house which is about 30'+ high. This run is
about
65'. The wire passes through a ceramic insulator then it comes
down
to the left corner of my house were it is looped in a ceramic
insulator. It then passes through the wall to the tuner which
is
inside the crawl space. The tail from the insulator to the
tuner
is
about 14 inches long. I have buried a 4' long piece of rebar
into the
moist dirt of the crawl space. I attached a ground rod lug and
a
piece of 12 guage wire from the tuner to the lug. One question
I
have
, does distance from ground rod to tuner matter? After some
testing
last night I confirmed again that I cannot tune 80 or 30
meters.
I
have also picked up rfi in one tv and the surround sound of
another.
This was not a problem with my OCF. Hope this helps, I will be
experimenting more today. Thanks again.
73
JR
Hi JR,
You shouldn't have to do anything to the tuner. This tuner,
or more
accurately, antenna coupler, is a great tuner when used
correctly
(similar to Icom's AH-4. and SCG couplers).
We need more info on your antenna. You said you're have
about
90'of
wire, but how is it set up, i.e. long wire, inverted L, etc.)
and most
importantly, what are you using for a counterpoise?
And the coax is fine. The SWR from the tuner to your radio
will
(almost) always be around 1.5 to 1 so loss should low, even
with
longer lengths.
I will also e-mail a PDF on antenna's from the SCG company.
It's very
good reading. I use an AH-4 with a vertical loop, about 200'
of
wire.
Keep asking questions and we'll help. 73, Jeff/wb0m
