Be very careful to wash the antenna, insulators and exposed coils and connections with fresh water and dry them after each use. It only takes a couple of hours to build up a layer of conductive salt crust on any exposed surface, even when it's way above the water line. That "bracing" salt air you smell everywhere is suspended droplets of salt water looking for things to condense upon.
On old MF radio installations on large ships, the antenna feed-through insulators above the radio room up at or above the navigating bridge level (near the very top of the "house" on a ship) and were usually six inches or so around and a foot or more long, with all the ripples to make the surface distance from the hot lead to the ship as long as possible. Still, it was a necessary duty for Sparky to constantly clean them or the salt accumulation would short the RF right to ground. Ron AC7AC _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
