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An Interesting Turn of Events......

WX2MIG

WX2MIG

Still Alive & Well
Dec 10, 2008
730
6
28
39° 19' 23" N X 74° 36' 30" W
After my three days of torment & expense building a 2m J-Pole, and finally getting the SWR's down to a respectable level, I did a little horse trading yesterday and came away with a used Cushcraft AR2B Ringo Ranger II.

When it was removed from it's previous location, two of the ground plane radials got broken off, I had to drill & tap new mounting holes, screwed them back on, and mounted the antenna in place of the J-Pole.

Since I no longer needed a choke coil, I was able to straighten out the coax and get this arrangement a few feet farther up than the J-Pole. The result is being able to bring in more distant repeaters with a much stronger signal, which should also result in better simplex operation.

Now for the down side.....
My SWR's are back up..... :scared: ...... Not as high as the first J-Pole, but not as low as the second reconfigured J-Pole. Once this present cold snap subsides, I'll have to lower this AR2B down to where I can safely reach the tuning ring, and try to get the SWR's down.

I'm beginning to think that my neighbor's tree is just too close, and anything I put up there is reflecting signal back into the antenna. I believe it's also time to do a little tree trimming.....(after they leave for work)...:wink:

Anyway, this Ringo Ranger II is kicking out a strong signal, and bringing in signals from police and fire dept's in the next state like they're across the street.

I also got an old AR2 Ringo in the deal, and I will be taking that to work with me. We have a radio tower out back that's right outside the window of my work shop. A couple of lengths of uni-strut, some "U" bolts, a short piece of 1" pipe, and a coil of coax, and I'll be able to plug my VX-170 into this arrangement and keep up with the area nets while at work......:thumbup:

The first J-Pole will be scraped, the second I'll keep for now, if the AR2B blows down I'll have an instant back up, if I ever get a 6m rig, I'll modify it into a 6m antenna......
 

It should be Fine But, I use My Own J-POLE Built By Me & I Can Reach Repeaters over 100 + Miles Away With just 50 Watts & Incredible Amounts of DX on My H.B. 6 meter J-Pole 21 States Without Trying Just Depends on the Design & If its Colinear design or not The Cushcraft is & My Design Has as Much or More Gain & Lower Radiation Angle The the Cushcraft let me know if you want the Dimensions give me a Frequency & I'll give them Too You !
 
Tony,
That 'Ringo' sounds like it's working just fine. I would expect it to 'hear' more than the 'J'-pole because it's a 5/8w collinear array. You'd probably get about the same results from 'stacking' a couple of 'J'-poles on top of each other, almost, sort of.
If an antenna is tunable, expect to tune the thing to get it close to what it's supposed to be. That's about as 'normal' as it can get. It's unusual not to have to re-tune one when it's been moved from where it was originally tuned. (Oh boy! More ladder fun.)
A couple of suggestions.
You might try that Ringo without that choke to see what happens, but leave yourself the option of keeping that choke too. Those 'line isolating' 'radials' ought'a work okay, but sometimes they could use a little 'help', you know. What an extra 4 - 6 feet in height gain you might get from un-winding the thing probably isn't going to be a huge enough difference to not have that choke, maybe. Who knows, try it and see.
The higher you go in frequency, the 'touchier' the tuning gets. Or, the size of the 'ball park' you play in changes. At 80 meters, an inch or two makes almost no difference. At 2 meters, a half-inch can make quite a bit of difference. That's with moving that tuning 'rod', or with lengths. When you get to UHF/SHF, it's more a matter of 'praying' a lot, sort of. Taking your time pays off.
- 'Doc


PS - I think we are/were both in the same profession, putting 'wet stuff on red stuff'. That sort of explains a lot. I finally became 'sane' and retired. But it was sure fun while it lasted, ain't it?
 
W5LZ said:
PS - I think we are/were both in the same profession, putting 'wet stuff on red stuff'. That sort of explains a lot. I finally became 'sane' and retired. But it was sure fun while it lasted, ain't it?
Click to expand...

Yup....same profession, 23 1/2 years for me. August 19, 2010 I'll be eligible for 65% retirement pension, and if I stay on the job for 30 years I'll get 70%.


As for the antenna, I'm going to trim back some trees first to see if they are part of the problem, even if they aren't, they're too damn close for comfort anyway. If tree trimming doesn't have any positive effect, I'll take a shot at adjusting the tuning ring.

I've developed a pretty good system of antenna tuning with a fellow HAM, I loosen the bolts on the wall mounts and slide the antenna down just low enough so that I can reach it from the peak of the garage roof. I make an adjustment, walk to the other end of the roof, yell down to my buddy at the radio to test it, and continue this routine until we get it to the best it's going to get.......

The only problem now is.....it's too damn cold out to bother with it......:ohmy:
 
Antenna

Well, there's your problem, you need to put the antenna back up where you will be running it and get off of the roof to get the correct standing wave ratio reading. Both of these things are / can / will affect your reading. JMHO:biggrin:
 
Once you get rid of all the superfluous SWR's and narrow it down to one, tuning will be a snap.:D
 
It's not that you are too close, but that the antenna is closer to the ground/garage/etc, than where it will finally be. That does affect things. Of course, you being up there too isn't really helping, sort of, but doesn't have as much affect as the thing being lower than it'll be when finished. Doing it how you're doing it is certainly easier than 'shinnying' up/down that pole I'll bet.
- 'Doc
 
Doc....

I'm 51 years old, and weigh 240 Lbs......I don't shimmy up anything these days......:biggrin:

Actually I only have to lower the assembly about 2 feet in order to reach the tuning ring, I know it has an effect on SWR's, but I assumed it would be minimal......:confused1:
 
Yeah, two feet or so isn't much, but it does have some effect on things. The adjustment to get that SWR down probably isn't going to be a 'large' one once you get 'close' to the right spot on that 'ring'. Just don't give up too soon, it really will get there eventually.
- 'Doc
 

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