"Jim I'm only a doctor"

 

When I opened up HamClock today I was reminded that September 8th is Star Trek day. I had the USS Enterprise NCC 1701 slowly moving across my screen on HamClock. Hats off to those at Open HamClock Back-end for making this happen. 

Time for antenna work.

 

Before the DX Engineering radial plate

The vertical antenna I have is the Hustler 4BTV, which gives me 10–40m, and I am very happy with its performance. One shortfall for me is the method this antenna uses to fasten the ground radials. At the base of the antenna, there are two stainless steel nuts and bolts. All the radials are bunched together and fastened to one of the two nuts and bolts. The antenna works just fine this way, but for me, I wanted something better.

Part 2 of..... Antenna solve one problem to only create another.

 

If you have not read Part 1 of this post, go HERE and then make your way back.

To recap, I was having an issue with my Hustler 4BTV vertical antenna, and I discovered that water was making its way into the 15m trap. Once I had the antenna reassembled and back in the upright position, I went into the house to check the SWR. I like to do this whenever I work on the antenna.

To my surprise, the minimum SWR was 2.4:1 on 15m, but10m, 20m, and 40m were all ok. I had taken my time putting the antenna back together, so I really wasn't sure what had happened.

My new SWR on 15M

Antenna...solve one problem only to create another.

 The antenna I have is the Hustler 4BTV, and I have owned it for about four years. I had been noticing that after a couple of days of rain, the SWR on 15 meters would increase.As the weather warmed up, the problem disappeared. My suspicion was that water was making its way into the 15-meter trap and causing the SWR issues.

I waited for a forecast of a few nice, dry days before taking the antenna down for inspection. The first thing I noticed was that I had accidentally covered the drainage slots at the bottom of each trap with electrical tape. If water was getting into the traps, those slots were intended to let it drain out. My first course of action was to remove the tape from all three traps.