The good news is that I called MFJ, got a technician immediately, he
agreed that the 30M trap is the problem, and said he would send me a new
one under warranty. Elecraft-style service (so far).
The bad news is that despite the statement in the manual that it is
rated at "1500W CW," he told me not to exceed 800-1000 watts. Not
Elecraft-style design/documentation!
So if you have an R8 or similar antenna, be warned. I wasn't tuning up
or running RTTY -- I was calling CQ on 40M running about 1200W.
Other bands are unchanged but 30 and 40M are gone.
Thanks to everyone that responded.
On 15 Dec 2014 15:07, David Cole wrote:
Hi,
No matter what happens, you will probably end up taking the antenna
down... If nothing else to check to be sure it is fine...
Grab an analyzer and connect it as close to the antenna base as
possible, and see if it is resonant on all bands... Probably won't
anymore. If you are lucky, it is some strange feedline thing, or a
connector issue, but having the antenna work on some bands, while not on
others reeks of blown trap. I fear your diagnosis is in fact
correct...
If you are going to "fix" it, and if it were me, I would get a trapless
antenna of some sort... No traps blow. I currently use a GAP
Challenger DX, (trapless), and have a band by band review of it at:
http://nk7z.net/review-of-the-challenger-dx-antenna-by-gap-antenna/
The antenna takes power, and does not break, I have run 1000 Watts into
it on RTTY for 15 minutes with no issues. I have had it up for at least
7 years, and I think 10 or more years. Never a problem beyond the three
radials coming off once... It is a pretty good performer on 40, and 20.
I finally got one of the mono gaps, and it does a good job. I do take
it down every few years and check things, and change out anything that
looks like it is going bad.
--
73,
Vic, 4X6GP/K2VCO
Rehovot, Israel
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/
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