What a nice night last night. VE6WZ 579, N6TR 579(heard), OK1CF 599...(I am forgetting someone().etc.
I am in the midst of rejuvenating and repairing my Comtek 2-el array (model PVS-2-160 I think>?). I didn't get the control box, or docs and iirc this was the model)
My 2 wire inverted-L's that I am running are both resonant give/take 1.835-1.840 with nice low SWR's. The issue is in (NW/SE) "Omni" mode, the SWR just dances off 3.1:1 (to the NE or SW it's more like 1.7:1 or lower) making the amp very cranky & unhappy. In fact, when I called Steve/WZ last night in Omni mode, the amp tripped and I locked up my YCCC SO2R+ controller into key down transmit. I am sure he wondered who this lid was, so I called him a couple minutes later aimed SW. Anything obvious I can look at? I've not put a voltmeter in the box yet, but going by the RBN it does seem to fire NE, SW and what amounts to Omni.(NW/SE)
My 2nd question is on pattern. I've noticed that after hundreds of RBN hits I've put into a spreadsheet over the past 7-10 days that just at dusk and a little after, the closer in skimmers in NH (to my SW) have me nearly at the same dB reading whether I am firing NE, SW or Omni (but Omni is always a little less) but as the night wears on, the F/B changes (which is of course impossible) and the SW direction is always better in 95% of cases. Anyone ever noticed something like that? The skimmers are all about 300-350miles away that I am talking about. I swear my F/B used to be in the 15dB range (should be 20dB) and now it's 5-10dB depending on the time of night and nearly 0dB at/just after dusk.
The last comment is, the 2 antennas are not perfectly vertical or horizontal. They kinda zig-zag up across various trees to the 60-65' mark at a 45 or 50 degree angle and both antennas are sorta sloped away from each other, but the bases are 130' apart. Kinda/sorta 100' "up" (at an angle) and then 30' "down" at a 45 degree angle. Like 2 lazy inverted-J's. The north antenna has over a mile of ground radials and the south antenna has 2 raised radials @ 8' AGL.
I presume my coupling between them is fairly loose, but can't imagine that would affect SWR in Omni mode.
I last used this as an array I guess about 6+ yrs ago and only now getting it repaired. Inside the box looks pristine and relays physically move with ease when I push on them.
A lot of fun to hear some decent signals on 160M again and even though the 2nd vertical was a little lower in CQWW SSB, I was able to get some DX which was cool.
Thanks for any insight on any of my rambling and if I worked you the past week on CW or in the CQWW SSB, thank you !
Mike VE9AA "NB" _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
