Do you have fresh batteries? MFJ goes crazy when they are barely low.

Buck
N4PGW


On Tue, 20 May 2008 10:51:26 -0700, "Lumpy"
wrote:

I'm a little stumped.
I'm sure I'm missing something obvious
but I just can't see it.

Built a 40m wire dipole, 33ft per side, symmetrical.
Center mounted on an 18' pole. Ends of the
legs drop about 2 ft to 16' above ground.
Slack/dip in the wire legs is pretty minimal.
The mechanical connections of my antenna allow
me to get it pretty tight.

Without any balun, running coax to the center
feed point of the dipole, I get an impedance
of around 6-7 ohms.

Different lengths of coax, different pieces of coax,
make no difference. All the coax pieces I've
tried test ok for shorts and continuity. Two
of the test coax pieces are brand new.

Dipole legs aren't touching anything, including
each other. Nearest piece of metal is at least
a half wave away from the end of one leg.

Mast is an aluminum tubing tripod in sections.
The sections aren't particularly bonded, the
section connectors are plastic/nylon. The
telescopic sections of the tripod/mast are
4' long each. The mast has rubber feet on
it's tripod legs, it is not bonded to earth.

Same 6-7 ohms shows up on the MFJ meter whether
the mast is at 10 ft or 18 ft.

Same 6-7 ohms shows up whether I stand at
the base of the mast with a 17' piece of
coax attached, or if I add a 50 or 100 ft
length of coax and stand virtually anywhere.

Why isn't my dipole showing a more expectable
impedance? Any guesses?

Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke

www.n0eq.com


--
73 for now
Buck, N4PGW

www.lumpuckeroo.com

"Small - broadband - efficient: pick any two."