NVIS and VHF?
 

On 27 mayo, 21:30, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
wrote:
John KD5YI said the following on 5/26/2011 8:56 PM:



On 5/24/2011 11:05 PM, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan wrote:
Dave Platt said the following on 5/24/2011 2:54 PM:
In ,
'Captain' Kirk wrote:

All of this leads me to think that something else is wrong. I can
hit a
repeater 20 miles from me with 5 Watts and its antenna is on a 300 ft
tower. My antenna (half wave end-fed dipole) is on a 20 ft mast.

There may well be something wrong with the antenna. I don't have an SWR
meter handy but will try and borrow one from a club member. The J-pole
was beat around quite a bit over the years but since the radio has a
limiting circuit if the SWR is too far out of whack I am assuming it is
fairly close. It will transmit of full power.

One of the things to know about the American Legion J-pole (and most
vaguely-similar J-poles) is that it has no feedline or mount-point
isolation to speak of. The outside of the feedline coax, and any pipe
or tower or other metal to which you strap the antenna, become part of
the antenna's ground system, and can radiate a significant amount of
RF. This can interact with the RF coming from the main radiator, and
significantly alter the antenna's pattern... it no longer behaves like
an idealized half-wave vertical radiator.

In most installations this doesn't seem to matter all that much... but
it's possible that you've got some sort of weird interaction (feedline
emissions, reflections from the ground or nearby metal, etc.) which is
creating a null in the antenna's pattern in just the wrong direction.
If this is an issue (not all that likely but perhaps possible) you
could insulate the antenna from the mounting mask, and install a choke
(e.g. a few ferrite cores) on the feedline just below the antenna.

It is mounted on an angle bracket about 12" from a mast 20' above my
metal roof. The mast is isolated from roof but is not yet grounded.

Also, the American Legion J-poles are subject to a couple of forms of
mechanical/electrical failure after a few years. The plastic
insulator which spaces apart the radiator and matching arm can degrade
(UV from sunlight is the main offendor, I believe) and crack, allowing
the two arms to change spacing. More subtly, the connection between
the two arms and the metal base can degrade... it's aluminum-to-
aluminum using a set-screw, and the connection can loosen and corrode..

My spacer basically disintegrated. I replaced it with 1/2" pvc pipe. I
measured the spacing at the base and got it as close as possible.

I will check out the other connections. There is obvious aluminum oxide
on the assembly so it is very possible it is down between the parts.

I'll get up on my steep metal roof after the rains stop. :-)

It might be worth checking the spacer (replace if necessary), and
checking and tuning up the set-screw connections (squirt with Liquid
Wrench if necessary, loosen and remove, take out the rods, clean the
ends of the rods and the mounting holes in the place, dab with NoAlOx
or a similar corrosion-blocker, reassemble and tighten).

I'm using 75' of
professionally assembled RG8X which is required to get from the
radio to
the antenna.

That's probably costing you about half of your power (assuming a
typical RG8X-type coax). Some lower-loss types (e.g. LMR-240 are
better than this.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Hey, Kirk -

After reading Wim's response, I am more convinced than ever that you
have a problem with your antenna, coax, or transceiver.

What type of coax are you using? Could it have gotten water inside? Are
you using the coax that you used 10 years ago?

Try to think of other question similar to these and we'll get to the
bottom of this.

Cheers,
John

Hello Kirk,

John,

I believe it is either the trees or the antenna. *The coax is new and
the transceiver worked fine last time I used it. *Also works fine with
this setup getting into the repeater on Schweitzer , 145.230, with 5
watts and the signal report from a gentleman I spoke to was 59. *That is
a clear shot and a few miles closer. *Although the profiles show there
should be a clear shot to the .780 repeater I can gurantee there is a
wall of trees on the first little ridge on the profile.

Are you pointing to the trees that are about 160m south of you and
below (that are also visible in google earth)?

If so, I can't believe that this will put down your signal from about
-76 dBm towards unreadable (so in the -117 dBm range). Reason: the
first Fresnel zone has a diameter of 36m (118ft) at 160m (525ft) from
your antenna and I don't expect all trees are over (for example) 20m
(60ft) height.


*I found that my
club, which I've only been with for a month, has an SWR meter and an
antenna analyzer. *I hope to borrow them to see what's up. *In the
meantime I will pull the J-pole down and clean it up as suggested.
There is considerable aluminum oxide on the outside of the parts so
there may be some between the base and uprights. *When I put it back up
I will move it 180 degrees from it current location. *That will only
move it about 2' but who knows.

--
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

"Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life here"

Wim
PA3DJS
www.tetech.nl

NVIS and VHF?
 

"'Captain' Kirk DeHaan" wrote in message
news:pZCdnVd2h- I believe it is either the trees or the antenna. The coax
is new and
the transceiver worked fine last time I used it. Also works fine with
this setup getting into the repeater on Schweitzer , 145.230, with 5 watts
and the signal report from a gentleman I spoke to was 59. That is a clear
shot and a few miles closer. Although the profiles show there should be a
clear shot to the .780 repeater I can gurantee there is a wall of trees on
the first little ridge on the profile. I found that my club, which I've
only been with for a month, has an SWR meter and an antenna analyzer. I
hope to borrow them to see what's up. In the meantime I will pull the
J-pole down and clean it up as suggested. There is considerable aluminum
oxide on the outside of the parts so there may be some between the base
and uprights. When I put it back up I will move it 180 degrees from it
current location. That will only move it about 2' but who knows.


I may have missed it, but have you tried riding around with a mobile rig and
seeing if you can hit the repeater ?

A SWR meter may not tell you much about the antenna. I think you are using
rg-8x. The coax will have enough loss at 2 meters to give a very low false
reading. YOu can probably unhook the coax from the antenna and only show
about a 3:1 swr.

NVIS and VHF?
 

On 5/26/2011 11:53 AM, JIMMIE wrote:
On May 22, 2:04 pm, 'Captain' Kirk
wrote:
I'm living in a wooded area and am trying to hit our club repeater
reliably. It's cloudy now so I'm and getting a bit of ducting but I
have a lot of trees, mostly poplars, in the direct path. I would have a
line of sight if not for the trees as I'm up enough in altitude. I can
cut the trees, they're mine, but finding the right ones is difficult and
i don't want to waste the whole grove.

I go from keying the repeater with no intelligible signal to not being
able to hit it. Today I actually have an S meter reading due to the
clouds. I am currently using a J-pole and will put up a Yagi soon but
wonder if NVIS would work on 2m? I have only seen references to it
being applied in HF.

'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

Im convinced that my J antenna that I used while camping radiated
mostly verticaly. The situation sounds very similar to yours. I
couldnt hit the repeater back home with 50 watts using the J- while
my wife could make contacts on her HT on the same repeater, Her
antenna was either a telescoping .5 wl or 5/8 wl connected directly to
her HT.

Jimmie

The antenna itself could not have radiated a significant percentage
vertically if used near the design frequency. It is effectively a half
wave vertical if properly constructed and fed. Fed being the most critical.

If you didn't choke the coax properly and it was parallel to the ground
you may have radiated some towards the zenith. But I doubt it was most.

tom
K0TAR

NVIS and VHF?
 

On 27 mayo, 21:30, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
wrote:
John KD5YI said the following on 5/26/2011 8:56 PM:



On 5/24/2011 11:05 PM, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan wrote:
Dave Platt said the following on 5/24/2011 2:54 PM:
In ,
'Captain' Kirk wrote:

All of this leads me to think that something else is wrong. I can
hit a
repeater 20 miles from me with 5 Watts and its antenna is on a 300 ft
tower. My antenna (half wave end-fed dipole) is on a 20 ft mast.

There may well be something wrong with the antenna. I don't have an SWR
meter handy but will try and borrow one from a club member. The J-pole
was beat around quite a bit over the years but since the radio has a
limiting circuit if the SWR is too far out of whack I am assuming it is
fairly close. It will transmit of full power.

One of the things to know about the American Legion J-pole (and most
vaguely-similar J-poles) is that it has no feedline or mount-point
isolation to speak of. The outside of the feedline coax, and any pipe
or tower or other metal to which you strap the antenna, become part of
the antenna's ground system, and can radiate a significant amount of
RF. This can interact with the RF coming from the main radiator, and
significantly alter the antenna's pattern... it no longer behaves like
an idealized half-wave vertical radiator.

In most installations this doesn't seem to matter all that much... but
it's possible that you've got some sort of weird interaction (feedline
emissions, reflections from the ground or nearby metal, etc.) which is
creating a null in the antenna's pattern in just the wrong direction.
If this is an issue (not all that likely but perhaps possible) you
could insulate the antenna from the mounting mask, and install a choke
(e.g. a few ferrite cores) on the feedline just below the antenna.

It is mounted on an angle bracket about 12" from a mast 20' above my
metal roof. The mast is isolated from roof but is not yet grounded.

Also, the American Legion J-poles are subject to a couple of forms of
mechanical/electrical failure after a few years. The plastic
insulator which spaces apart the radiator and matching arm can degrade
(UV from sunlight is the main offendor, I believe) and crack, allowing
the two arms to change spacing. More subtly, the connection between
the two arms and the metal base can degrade... it's aluminum-to-
aluminum using a set-screw, and the connection can loosen and corrode..

My spacer basically disintegrated. I replaced it with 1/2" pvc pipe. I
measured the spacing at the base and got it as close as possible.

I will check out the other connections. There is obvious aluminum oxide
on the assembly so it is very possible it is down between the parts.

I'll get up on my steep metal roof after the rains stop. :-)

It might be worth checking the spacer (replace if necessary), and
checking and tuning up the set-screw connections (squirt with Liquid
Wrench if necessary, loosen and remove, take out the rods, clean the
ends of the rods and the mounting holes in the place, dab with NoAlOx
or a similar corrosion-blocker, reassemble and tighten).

I'm using 75' of
professionally assembled RG8X which is required to get from the
radio to
the antenna.

That's probably costing you about half of your power (assuming a
typical RG8X-type coax). Some lower-loss types (e.g. LMR-240 are
better than this.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Hey, Kirk -

After reading Wim's response, I am more convinced than ever that you
have a problem with your antenna, coax, or transceiver.

What type of coax are you using? Could it have gotten water inside? Are
you using the coax that you used 10 years ago?

Try to think of other question similar to these and we'll get to the
bottom of this.

Cheers,
John

John,

I believe it is either the trees or the antenna. *The coax is new and
the transceiver worked fine last time I used it. *Also works fine with
this setup getting into the repeater on Schweitzer , 145.230, with 5
watts and the signal report from a gentleman I spoke to was 59. *That is
a clear shot and a few miles closer. *Although the profiles show there
should be a clear shot to the .780 repeater I can gurantee there is a
wall of trees on the first little ridge on the profile. *I found that my
club, which I've only been with for a month, has an SWR meter and an
antenna analyzer. *I hope to borrow them to see what's up. *In the
meantime I will pull the J-pole down and clean it up as suggested.
There is considerable aluminum oxide on the outside of the parts so
there may be some between the base and uprights. *When I put it back up
I will move it 180 degrees from it current location. *That will only
move it about 2' but who knows.

--
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

"Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life here"

Hello Kirk,

Did you receive my PM with the path profile and propagation
prediction from RMW?

I now added clutter because of trees (I used 30m high trees with 80%
density). The predicted signal strength goes down from -76 dBm to -81
dBm (10W transmitters into 2 dBi antennes, your height 10m, repeater
heigth 30m).

Jeff (AE6KS) sent me a .kml file with the path profile from you to the
repeater on the hill, there is good agreement between the data I used
in RMW.

So before going to the paper/plywood production plant, you may search
for some other problem.

With kind regards,


Wim
PA3DJS
www.tetech.nl

NVIS and VHF? (Update)
 

'Captain' Kirk DeHaan said the following on 5/22/2011 11:04 AM:
I'm living in a wooded area and am trying to hit our club repeater
reliably. It's cloudy now so I'm and getting a bit of ducting but I have
a lot of trees, mostly poplars, in the direct path. I would have a line
of sight if not for the trees as I'm up enough in altitude. I can cut
the trees, they're mine, but finding the right ones is difficult and i
don't want to waste the whole grove.

I go from keying the repeater with no intelligible signal to not being
able to hit it. Today I actually have an S meter reading due to the
clouds. I am currently using a J-pole and will put up a Yagi soon but
wonder if NVIS would work on 2m? I have only seen references to it being
applied in HF.

'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

I am still working on finding where the problem is. I pulled the J-pole
down and checked the resistance of the separate connections. I didn't
want to pull it apart if not necessary. Everything showed 0.0 to 0.1
ohms. Seems fine to me. I then cleaned the connector as throughly as
possible using emory cloth inside and dremeled the outside with a fine
wire brush. There was a small amount of oxidation and it appeared much
cleaner and brighter after. I also straightened the two elements but
they were not really that bent. You had to look down the long axis to
see any deviation. They are as straight as they are going to get but I
can't believe that would make much difference.

After all this I put it back up to it's original height. There was not
discernible change. I was almost unreadable at the repeater.

Next I pushed up my mast a few feet more. It is a 50' pushup that
normally requires guy wires. I am not using any so I am leaving
considerable overlap of the sections. I would estimate it is up around
32'. Even in high winds here I saw little deflection with just the
J-pole. The 3 or 4 feet I pushed it up gave me a little bit of
improvement. When I win the lottery I'll get a 100' tower put up.
Guess I'm stuck with this then :-)

I still think it is the trees and have taken a picture from the roof
peak towards the repeater so you can see what I am dealing with.

http://www.ncc-1701a.net/Ham Radio/ForestObstruction.jpg

It is deceiving as there are many more trees behind this line on my
neighbors property. I wouldn't even think of asking him to cut any.
They are money in the bank for him.

--
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

"Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life here"

NVIS and VHF? (Update)
 

On 6/1/2011 4:48 PM, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan wrote:
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan said the following on 5/22/2011 11:04 AM:
I'm living in a wooded area and am trying to hit our club repeater
reliably. It's cloudy now so I'm and getting a bit of ducting but I have
a lot of trees, mostly poplars, in the direct path. I would have a line
of sight if not for the trees as I'm up enough in altitude. I can cut
the trees, they're mine, but finding the right ones is difficult and i
don't want to waste the whole grove.

I go from keying the repeater with no intelligible signal to not being
able to hit it. Today I actually have an S meter reading due to the
clouds. I am currently using a J-pole and will put up a Yagi soon but
wonder if NVIS would work on 2m? I have only seen references to it being
applied in HF.

'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

I am still working on finding where the problem is. I pulled the J-pole
down and checked the resistance of the separate connections. I didn't
want to pull it apart if not necessary. Everything showed 0.0 to 0.1
ohms. Seems fine to me. I then cleaned the connector as throughly as
possible using emory cloth inside and dremeled the outside with a fine
wire brush. There was a small amount of oxidation and it appeared much
cleaner and brighter after. I also straightened the two elements but
they were not really that bent. You had to look down the long axis to
see any deviation. They are as straight as they are going to get but I
can't believe that would make much difference.

After all this I put it back up to it's original height. There was not
discernible change. I was almost unreadable at the repeater.

Next I pushed up my mast a few feet more. It is a 50' pushup that
normally requires guy wires. I am not using any so I am leaving
considerable overlap of the sections. I would estimate it is up around
32'. Even in high winds here I saw little deflection with just the
J-pole. The 3 or 4 feet I pushed it up gave me a little bit of
improvement. When I win the lottery I'll get a 100' tower put up. Guess
I'm stuck with this then :-)

I still think it is the trees and have taken a picture from the roof
peak towards the repeater so you can see what I am dealing with.

http://www.ncc-1701a.net/Ham Radio/ForestObstruction.jpg

It is deceiving as there are many more trees behind this line on my
neighbors property. I wouldn't even think of asking him to cut any. They
are money in the bank for him.


Hi, Kirk -

It looks more formidable than I had imagined. I am sure the picture will
generate some comments.

Nobody can say you aren't making maximum effort, for sure.

When will be that club meeting?

73,
John - KD5YI

NVIS and VHF? (Update)
 

On 6/1/2011 4:48 PM, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan wrote:

I am still working on finding where the problem is. I pulled the J-pole
down and checked the resistance of the separate connections. I didn't
want to pull it apart if not necessary. Everything showed 0.0 to 0.1
ohms. Seems fine to me. I then cleaned the connector as throughly as
possible using emory cloth inside and dremeled the outside with a fine
wire brush. There was a small amount of oxidation and it appeared much
cleaner and brighter after. I also straightened the two elements but
they were not really that bent. You had to look down the long axis to
see any deviation. They are as straight as they are going to get but I
can't believe that would make much difference.

After all this I put it back up to it's original height. There was not
discernible change. I was almost unreadable at the repeater.

Next I pushed up my mast a few feet more. It is a 50' pushup that
normally requires guy wires. I am not using any so I am leaving
considerable overlap of the sections. I would estimate it is up around
32'. Even in high winds here I saw little deflection with just the
J-pole. The 3 or 4 feet I pushed it up gave me a little bit of
improvement. When I win the lottery I'll get a 100' tower put up. Guess
I'm stuck with this then :-)

I still think it is the trees and have taken a picture from the roof
peak towards the repeater so you can see what I am dealing with.

http://www.ncc-1701a.net/Ham Radio/ForestObstruction.jpg

It is deceiving as there are many more trees behind this line on my
neighbors property. I wouldn't even think of asking him to cut any. They
are money in the bank for him.


Kirk -

Do you have parts on hand such as extra coax, connectors, wire, etc?

Although you have done a thorough job of examining your installation, it
behoove you to make a test separate from your present antenna installation.

For example, you could simply strip 1/4WL from the end of a coax feeder
and put that end on the roof temporarily. I know, not the best match,
common mode currents down the line, signal launches upward, etc. But, it
is simple and might tell you something.

Maybe a quick, thrown-together ground plane?

Just a thought.

73,
John

NVIS and VHF? (Update)
 

On Jun 1, 2:48*pm, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
wrote:
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan said the following on 5/22/2011 11:04 AM:

I'm living in a wooded area and am trying to hit our club repeater
reliably. It's cloudy now so I'm and getting a bit of ducting but I have
a lot of trees, mostly poplars, in the direct path. I would have a line
of sight if not for the trees as I'm up enough in altitude. I can cut
the trees, they're mine, but finding the right ones is difficult and i
don't want to waste the whole grove.

I go from keying the repeater with no intelligible signal to not being
able to hit it. Today I actually have an S meter reading due to the
clouds. I am currently using a J-pole and will put up a Yagi soon but
wonder if NVIS would work on 2m? I have only seen references to it being
applied in HF.

'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

I am still working on finding where the problem is. *I pulled the J-pole
down and checked the resistance of the separate connections. *I didn't
want to pull it apart if not necessary. *Everything showed 0.0 to 0.1
ohms. *Seems fine to me. *I then cleaned the connector as throughly as
possible using emory cloth inside and dremeled the outside with a fine
wire brush. *There was a small amount of oxidation and it appeared much
cleaner and brighter after. *I also straightened the two elements but
they were not really that bent. *You had to look down the long axis to
see any deviation. *They are as straight as they are going to get but I
can't believe that would make much difference.

I don't think anybody asked you:

How much power are you putting out?

How well do you hear the repeater; are there times when it fades below
squelch while you're listening to other people?

(No, I don't have a 2m PA that I'm trying to unload.)

Sal

NVIS and VHF? (Update)
 

Sal M. Onella said the following on 6/1/2011 10:37 PM:
On Jun 1, 2:48 pm, 'Captain' Kirk
wrote:
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan said the following on 5/22/2011 11:04 AM:

I'm living in a wooded area and am trying to hit our club repeater
reliably. It's cloudy now so I'm and getting a bit of ducting but I have
a lot of trees, mostly poplars, in the direct path. I would have a line
of sight if not for the trees as I'm up enough in altitude. I can cut
the trees, they're mine, but finding the right ones is difficult and i
don't want to waste the whole grove.

I go from keying the repeater with no intelligible signal to not being
able to hit it. Today I actually have an S meter reading due to the
clouds. I am currently using a J-pole and will put up a Yagi soon but
wonder if NVIS would work on 2m? I have only seen references to it being
applied in HF.

'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

I am still working on finding where the problem is. I pulled the J-pole
down and checked the resistance of the separate connections. I didn't
want to pull it apart if not necessary. Everything showed 0.0 to 0.1
ohms. Seems fine to me. I then cleaned the connector as throughly as
possible using emory cloth inside and dremeled the outside with a fine
wire brush. There was a small amount of oxidation and it appeared much
cleaner and brighter after. I also straightened the two elements but
they were not really that bent. You had to look down the long axis to
see any deviation. They are as straight as they are going to get but I
can't believe that would make much difference.

I don't think anybody asked you:

How much power are you putting out?

How well do you hear the repeater; are there times when it fades below
squelch while you're listening to other people?

(No, I don't have a 2m PA that I'm trying to unload.)

Sal

Sal,

My TM-721A is putting out 35 watts. At least that is the spec. The
repeater is always scratchy and barely readable. I've only had one time
when it even showed up on the S meter. That was low clouds so I assume
it was cloud bounce.

--
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

"Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life here"

NVIS and VHF?
 

On 27 mayo, 21:30, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
wrote:
John KD5YI said the following on 5/26/2011 8:56 PM:



On 5/24/2011 11:05 PM, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan wrote:
Dave Platt said the following on 5/24/2011 2:54 PM:
In ,
'Captain' Kirk wrote:

All of this leads me to think that something else is wrong. I can
hit a
repeater 20 miles from me with 5 Watts and its antenna is on a 300 ft
tower. My antenna (half wave end-fed dipole) is on a 20 ft mast.

There may well be something wrong with the antenna. I don't have an SWR
meter handy but will try and borrow one from a club member. The J-pole
was beat around quite a bit over the years but since the radio has a
limiting circuit if the SWR is too far out of whack I am assuming it is
fairly close. It will transmit of full power.

One of the things to know about the American Legion J-pole (and most
vaguely-similar J-poles) is that it has no feedline or mount-point
isolation to speak of. The outside of the feedline coax, and any pipe
or tower or other metal to which you strap the antenna, become part of
the antenna's ground system, and can radiate a significant amount of
RF. This can interact with the RF coming from the main radiator, and
significantly alter the antenna's pattern... it no longer behaves like
an idealized half-wave vertical radiator.

In most installations this doesn't seem to matter all that much... but
it's possible that you've got some sort of weird interaction (feedline
emissions, reflections from the ground or nearby metal, etc.) which is
creating a null in the antenna's pattern in just the wrong direction.
If this is an issue (not all that likely but perhaps possible) you
could insulate the antenna from the mounting mask, and install a choke
(e.g. a few ferrite cores) on the feedline just below the antenna.

It is mounted on an angle bracket about 12" from a mast 20' above my
metal roof. The mast is isolated from roof but is not yet grounded.

Also, the American Legion J-poles are subject to a couple of forms of
mechanical/electrical failure after a few years. The plastic
insulator which spaces apart the radiator and matching arm can degrade
(UV from sunlight is the main offendor, I believe) and crack, allowing
the two arms to change spacing. More subtly, the connection between
the two arms and the metal base can degrade... it's aluminum-to-
aluminum using a set-screw, and the connection can loosen and corrode..

My spacer basically disintegrated. I replaced it with 1/2" pvc pipe. I
measured the spacing at the base and got it as close as possible.

I will check out the other connections. There is obvious aluminum oxide
on the assembly so it is very possible it is down between the parts.

I'll get up on my steep metal roof after the rains stop. :-)

It might be worth checking the spacer (replace if necessary), and
checking and tuning up the set-screw connections (squirt with Liquid
Wrench if necessary, loosen and remove, take out the rods, clean the
ends of the rods and the mounting holes in the place, dab with NoAlOx
or a similar corrosion-blocker, reassemble and tighten).

I'm using 75' of
professionally assembled RG8X which is required to get from the
radio to
the antenna.

That's probably costing you about half of your power (assuming a
typical RG8X-type coax). Some lower-loss types (e.g. LMR-240 are
better than this.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Hey, Kirk -

After reading Wim's response, I am more convinced than ever that you
have a problem with your antenna, coax, or transceiver.

What type of coax are you using? Could it have gotten water inside? Are
you using the coax that you used 10 years ago?

Try to think of other question similar to these and we'll get to the
bottom of this.

Cheers,
John

John,

I believe it is either the trees or the antenna. *The coax is new and
the transceiver worked fine last time I used it. *Also works fine with
this setup getting into the repeater on Schweitzer , 145.230, with 5
watts and the signal report from a gentleman I spoke to was 59. *That is
a clear shot and a few miles closer. *Although the profiles show there
should be a clear shot to the .780 repeater I can gurantee there is a
wall of trees on the first little ridge on the profile. *I found that my
club, which I've only been with for a month, has an SWR meter and an
antenna analyzer. *I hope to borrow them to see what's up. *In the
meantime I will pull the J-pole down and clean it up as suggested.
There is considerable aluminum oxide on the outside of the parts so
there may be some between the base and uprights. *When I put it back up
I will move it 180 degrees from it current location. *That will only
move it about 2' but who knows.

--
'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

"Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life here"

Hello Kirk,

If you have access to both ends of the cable and have access to some
VSWR measurement equipment, you may measure following things (and post
them overhere):

VSWR of cable when terminated with a dummy load
VSWR of cable when open
VSWR of cable when short-circuited
VSWR of cable with J-pole antenna

Now reduce the output power of your transceiver to avoid damage

VSWR when nothing connected to the output of the VSWR meter
VSWR when output of VSWR meter is shorted.

Make sure to check the reference (forward) reading after every change
in load, as this may change due to varying load as seen by the
transceiver. You may also do these measurements with the antenna
analyser (preferably both antenna analyser and VSWR meter).

Regarding the trees, it looks dense. Sadly to mention, if it are the
trees, you have to live with this as tree attenuation at 2m is
relatively low and first fresnel zone is relatively large at 160m.
You need to remove lots of them to get remarkable improvement and you
mentioned that you couldn't remove lots of them because of financial
reasons.

With kind regards,


Wim
PA3DJS
www.tetech.nl
Don't forget to instruct your racing pigeon to remove abc before
letting him cross the Ocean.