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Post by zman on Dec 8, 2009 0:34:56 GMT -5
Today i just intalled my Astrobeam up on the garage roof and so far SUCESS!!! 1.1=1 on CH 40 and a 1.5=1 on CH 1.
however, i dont have a rotator to turn it yet but thats ithe works. Im not that high up but hey, its working!
Now, however, i do have an oddball RFI issue whenever i use my Maverick 250 with my astatic D 104 mic. The mic. will squeal when i key the amp but it wont do it on barefoot. It doesnt do this on the A 99 but it does with the beam.....
I thought about removing the RG 83 jumper to see what it will do SWRS wise but it was getting late and i was getting tired. hehe
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Post by Sniper..Unit 305 on Dec 8, 2009 8:15:29 GMT -5
Zman glad you had success on your Astrobeam! You may want to try a couple of ferrite beads on the mike cable to help solve the problem. I don't have much of a clue as to what is happening there and why you are getting it with the beam and not the omni. Hopefully Sandbagger or someone who has run across this situation can see this post and give you more help. Just a thought, have you grounded the astrobeam? Sniper
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on Dec 8, 2009 12:22:05 GMT -5
Today i just intalled my Astrobeam up on the garage roof and so far SUCESS!!! 1.1=1 on CH 40 and a 1.5=1 on CH 1. however, i dont have a rotator to turn it yet but thats ithe works. Im not that high up but hey, its working! Now, however, i do have an oddball RFI issue whenever i use my Maverick 250 with my astatic D 104 mic. The mic. will squeal when i key the amp but it wont do it on barefoot. It doesnt do this on the A 99 but it does with the beam..... I thought about removing the RG 83 jumper to see what it will do SWRS wise but it was getting late and i was getting tired. hehe Microphone squeals are usually caused by RF feedback, which happens when there is a "hot" RF condition near the radio and mic, and there is ingress into the mic cord. As you observed, when the amp is off, there is no problem, since the RF field will be less intense when you're running barefoot. Knowing what I know about the A99 and how poorly it decouples and the resultant coaxial radiation, I find it curious that the A99 is fine while the beam is not. Is the A99 mounted farther away from your shack than the beam is and/or higher up in the air? Solving antenna radiation induced RF feedback usually involves lots of grounding of both the radio and the antenna (and amp too), along with positioning it (raising it way up) for minimum interference. You may also have some luck winding a cheap and dirty choke "balun" such as what's depicted here: www.hamuniverse.com/balun.html and placing it at the antenna feedpoint. There are also things you can do to the microphone to help minimize the squeal. In the good old days, you could insert a 2.2K ohm resistor or a 22uH choke in series with the audio lead of the mic, usually at the mic plug. The really scary part of this whole thing is that if you are experiencing a "hot" shack, then chances are good that you are probably causing RFI to close by neighbors. So you should try to do what you can to eliminate or reduce the problem. |
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Post by cbrown on Dec 8, 2009 14:14:48 GMT -5
I agree with Sandbagger; try winding the RF choke and getting it as close to the antenna feedpoint as possible.
How good is your coax and jumpers? If you have a bad shield connection on either you'll throw RF all through the shack under power.
Stopping the squeal on the mic is easy, but I'd find the source of the stray RF and deal with that.
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Post by zman on Dec 9, 2009 22:42:41 GMT -5
Well i hooked up another D 104 and the sqeal is gone.
Now for the bad news.
The astrobeam has been dmamged by the 60+ MPH winds we have had today. One of the hoop sections and a section of one of the upright verticle sections broke after the antenna came down from very high winds. I had fun while it lasted!!!
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Post by Sniper..Unit 305 on Dec 9, 2009 23:32:06 GMT -5
Holy heck zman, Really sorry to hear that for sure,after you got it all working! I was watching mine in the wind today and it was doing quite well, but then again we only had gusts of 46mph and that was very sporadic at that. I still had it pointed into the wind. Mine is on my tower and would have to pull a bedroom wall out before it could actually come down. The mast coming out of the tower is 24' tall but has 7' of it down inside the tower and the mast is 2" od with 1/8" wall stainless steel. I know it was a bit of over kill, but I had the mast pipe for years. I had to change out the u bolts and re-drill the plate on the beam to accept the 2" u bolts. Hopefully you have enough parts to rebuild it from your other beam. Again....sorry to hear about the beam coming down. Sniper
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Post by Afterburner(OT-749) on Dec 10, 2009 6:34:20 GMT -5
Do I see a new listing in the "For Sale" section? Parts for Astrobeam available. Or maybe a listing for Parts Wanted?
Hey Sniper, you think you did "overkill" on your mast? What I have is a Moonraker 4 on top of a 78' tower. The Tailtwister rotor sit's on a mounting plate 15' from the top. I have 2.25" ID steel drill pipe that starts about 1 foot above the rotor, through the top of the tower, extending another 15' above. That pipe is welded in place with crossmembers for stability and support.Inside of the 2.25" pipe is my 2.00" pipe that connects the rotor to the Moonraker 4 with a roller bearing at the top and bottom of the 2.25" to prevent any swaying.
Yeah, I know it is "overkill" but understand that my tower is up on the ridge behind my home. It takes two lengths, 612' ea. of "hardline" coax to reach it! Not something that I take down very often to rebuild. The benefits of living in the "Mountain State" and back in the holler. Oh yeah, yesterday here in West Virginia we had recorded wind gust up to 70+ mph and she is still standing proud.
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on Dec 10, 2009 8:13:37 GMT -5
Well i hooked up another D 104 and the sqeal is gone. Now for the bad news. The astrobeam has been dmamged by the 60+ MPH winds we have had today. One of the hoop sections and a section of one of the upright verticle sections broke after the antenna came down from very high winds. I had fun while it lasted!!! Holy heck, you just can't seem to catch a break. Hopefully you have some spare parts you can raid to fix it. |
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Post by Sniper..Unit 305 on Dec 10, 2009 10:08:04 GMT -5
Afterburner you make my setup look flimsy...lol..!! Hopefully Zman can get his setup fixed and back in the air soon. It is really a shame after all his work for the antenna to end up on the ground,just when he had everything ironed out ! Mother Nature is a force that we sure can be wary of. Sniper
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Post by Tombstone (R.I.P.) on Dec 10, 2009 22:17:48 GMT -5
Sorry to hear about the damage, Zman. Those winds hit here in the Pittsburgh area after it was done with you. Shut me off while working skip when a tree fell on power lines down the street. I really don't view anything as overkill when it comes to antenna mounting. The sturdier the better. I can't wait 'till spring when I install some type of aluminum groundplane, haven't deceided exactly what yet. I have an old Super Mag to pick up that's like new, I'll probably just mount it as high in the air as possible. Then I get to chop up the splatter stick "99". Sniper: when I make the antenna change maybe we can finally hook up on the Whiskey net night, I can tell you're in there when you check in, just can't quite pull you out and I usually have some irritating noise here.
Tombstone
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Post by zman on Dec 11, 2009 9:55:43 GMT -5
Well its fixed up and ready to put back up!!! I forgot i had some parts left laying around from an old astroplane i had. The bottom hoop i fixed with a section of copper. The antenna will go back up when it warms up a tad! The CB shop i got the beam from has a few old 5/8 wave antennas layin around that i want to get. Im thinking about replacing my A-99 with a real antenna. Yeah the A 99 works, but im an aluminum antenna guy!!!!
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Post by zman on Dec 11, 2009 10:00:01 GMT -5
The reason the beam came down was because of one of the little clips that holds the fiberglass spreader section in place failed. The when that happened the antenna wobbled off of the mast and fell. I wasnt home when it fell.
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Post by Sniper..Unit 305 on Dec 11, 2009 10:35:03 GMT -5
The reason the beam came down was because of one of the little clips that holds the fiberglass spreader section in place failed. The when that happened the antenna wobbled off of the mast and fell. I wasnt home when it fell. Zman I know the stainless pieces your talking about. I didn't like the way they held the lower hoop section spread apart so I put small hose clamps on the outside of them on my astrobeam so if they would try to slip.....they couldn't ! Glad you got it fixed up and ready to go again. Sniper |
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on Dec 11, 2009 11:07:56 GMT -5
Well its fixed up and ready to put back up!!! I forgot i had some parts left laying around from an old astroplane i had. The bottom hoop i fixed with a section of copper. The antenna will go back up when it warms up a tad! The CB shop i got the beam from has a few old 5/8 wave antennas layin around that i want to get. Im thinking about replacing my A-99 with a real antenna. Yeah the A 99 works, but im an aluminum antenna guy!!!! Great to hear! It's good to know that another classic antenna will live to fight another day...... And I agree on the A99 replacement. I don't like "stick" antennas much. I prefer the aluminum monsters with full 1/4 wave radials. |
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Post by cbrown on Dec 11, 2009 14:41:15 GMT -5
Well its fixed up and ready to put back up!!! I forgot i had some parts left laying around from an old astroplane i had. The bottom hoop i fixed with a section of copper. The antenna will go back up when it warms up a tad! The CB shop i got the beam from has a few old 5/8 wave antennas layin around that i want to get. Im thinking about replacing my A-99 with a real antenna. Yeah the A 99 works, but im an aluminum antenna guy!!!! Glad you got it all fixed up and ready to put back up again!  What type of antennas does he have laying around? |
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Post by zman on Dec 12, 2009 19:58:50 GMT -5
its working great!!!! 1.1=1 on all 40. Whats funny is the SWRS went lower after i ran the Mav 250 through it a few times to "burn off" the fingerprints and get it tightened up somewhat. i finally put it over a rotator i got from R&L just yesterday. I have a few locals that now want to find an Astrobeam, LOL!! I think i started something.
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Post by zman on Dec 12, 2009 20:01:44 GMT -5
He has a few Super Maggies, a couple of CLR-2s, and a couple of 5/8 waves. I am dating a woman that lives up in his area near his shop and i will be going back up there maybe tomorrow or Tuesday to see her. I'll stop by and see what else he has.
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Post by cbrown on Dec 14, 2009 14:24:11 GMT -5
Might want to make a list, some of those antennas might make you a few $$$ if you sell 'em!  |
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Post by zman on Dec 26, 2009 22:40:24 GMT -5
Its working great now that i got a rotator installed under the beam. I believe the hype that Avanti touted about the F/B on this antenna. Actually better than a moonraker 4.
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