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Old March 13th 05, 03:12 PM
Ken Bessler
 
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Default Little help....choke position

My upper band antenna is a Van Gordon "All Bander". It
started out life as a 134' dipole fed with 100' of 450 ohm
ladder line. I cut half the ladder line and installed a PL-259
on the end.

My feedline going to it is a length of rg-58 coax with the end
being a coil of 12 turns wound around a CD case. The turns
were wound, glued then the case was removed, leaving a
perfect air coil.

I later trimmed the antenna so it has a low SWR at 7.18 mhz
and it works fine.

Now to the issue - yesterday I bought a LDG AT-100 PRO
autotuner with the idea that I could tune my 40m antenna
to the upper bands. It works but if I tune or operate higher
than 85w on 10m FM, the tuner erratically flashes it's SWR
bargraph and if I push it further, locks up. Powering the tuner
off and on again fixes it (unless I push my luck again).

I've got a good ground but it's 25' away. I'm hooked up to
it with braid and 12 awg wire. All station equipment is tied
with braid to a central point where the 12 awg wire starts.

I was wondering what would happen if I removed the coax
running to my choke? There is enough ladder line to reach.
Maybe I should buy a LDG balun and eliminate the coax
completley? I would think that would cause more problems
as I would have ladder line in the shack?

I tried disconnecting the ground to the tuner and re routing
the tuner's power cord with no real resolution of the problem.

Help?

--
73's es gd dx de Ken KGØWX
Grid EM17ip, Flying Pigs #1055,
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