Carl Built

[groundwire]

This. You know how often I have customers tell me, "all my jumpers are new!", "My swrs are perfect!", It's always shitty jumpers, bad grounds, fucking 90degree so-239s, wet chipmunk chewed coax in a tree, a 50 year old antenna on 290ft of mini8 coax from the truck stop...
It's always the box...yeah right.

I'm not saying it's not, but honest to God, my brother in Christ, it's usually all the other shit.

hahaha, thats funny shit right there. and true...

 

[TimmyTheTorch]

This. You know how often I have customers tell me, "all my jumpers are new!", "My swrs are perfect!", It's always shitty jumpers, bad grounds, fucking 90degree so-239s, wet chipmunk chewed coax in a tree, a 50 year old antenna on 290ft of mini8 coax from the truck stop...
It's always the box...yeah right.

I'm not saying it's not, but honest to God, my brother in Christ, it's usually all the other shit.

Which is exactly why I did and continue to do what I have been doing. I have been going through this again from mic to antenna and at the same time communicating with the builder for his advice. I have previously fully implemented all of the grounding and bonding advice given to me by members here. I've tested the most minimal configuration I can to eliminate as many variables as I can. I've replaced patch cables multiple times with different brands of new ones. I've run this stuff from two different PSUs and also directly from a very large truck's battery. I've used what is supposed to be high quality RG-213 coax, nothing is spliced/soldered/hacked/butchered. I'm doing this like we do in our software engineering world: make the single change and measure/evaluate the result.

And I fully agree that it could definitely still be something I have done, not done, screwed up, etc. I just may not even recognize what a symptom is telling me. Not every hobbyist that is not a black belt in electronics is a dumb-ass/idiot. It doesn't exactly encourage less-knowledgeable people like me to ask questions of the very smart and skilled folks here. I try to remember that when young folks do not very bright things at work. They're learning and some lessons are more painful than others. We've all been there on some learning curve.

Anyway, I'll try to follow up on the appropriate forum if/when this is sorted.

 

[groundwire]

Which is exactly why I did and continue to do what I have been doing. I have been going through this again from mic to antenna and at the same time communicating with the builder for his advice. I have previously fully implemented all of the grounding and bonding advice given to me by members here. I've tested the most minimal configuration I can to eliminate as many variables as I can. I've replaced patch cables multiple times with different brands of new ones. I've run this stuff from two different PSUs and also directly from a very large truck's battery. I've used what is supposed to be high quality RG-213 coax, nothing is spliced/soldered/hacked/butchered. I'm doing this like we do in our software engineering world: make the single change and measure/evaluate the result.

And I fully agree that it could definitely still be something I have done, not done, screwed up, etc. I just may not even recognize what a symptom is telling me. Not every hobbyist that is not a black belt in electronics is a dumb-ass/idiot. It doesn't exactly encourage less-knowledgeable people like me to ask questions of the very smart and skilled folks here. I try to remember that when young folks do not very bright things at work. They're learning and some lessons are more painful than others. We've all been there on some learning curve.

Anyway, I'll try to follow up on the appropriate forum if/when this is sorted.

but seriously though, if you do have an appropriate sized dummy load, i encourage you to put it inline and do a test.

 

[AudioShockwav]

Man it's ugly outside right now in NE Wisconsin.

It's real windy here by Yosemite, 55 mph gusts and the say we are getting 20+ inches of snow.....
Here is a picture of upper Yosemite Falls 3 days ago

It's been cold enough that it freezes into a giant snow cone.


73
Jeff

 

[Elliott Hart]

Which is exactly why I did and continue to do what I have been doing. I have been going through this again from mic to antenna and at the same time communicating with the builder for his advice. I have previously fully implemented all of the grounding and bonding advice given to me by members here. I've tested the most minimal configuration I can to eliminate as many variables as I can. I've replaced patch cables multiple times with different brands of new ones. I've run this stuff from two different PSUs and also directly from a very large truck's battery. I've used what is supposed to be high quality RG-213 coax, nothing is spliced/soldered/hacked/butchered. I'm doing this like we do in our software engineering world: make the single change and measure/evaluate the result.

And I fully agree that it could definitely still be something I have done, not done, screwed up, etc. I just may not even recognize what a symptom is telling me. Not every hobbyist that is not a black belt in electronics is a dumb-ass/idiot. It doesn't exactly encourage less-knowledgeable people like me to ask questions of the very smart and skilled folks here. I try to remember that when young folks do not very bright things at work. They're learning and some lessons are more painful than others. We've all been there on some learning curve.

Anyway, I'll try to follow up on the appropriate forum if/when this is sorted.

Do you have anything extra in line (ie filters,tuners) if so; I would remove them until you figure out where the problem lies. I would invest into an adequate dummy load. What happens when you plug the antenna coax directly into the back of the amp? Does it still hang up? I hope you get this problem solved...

 

[Eldorado828]

I think timmythetorch is gone. He said he would reply to the appropriate forum, hopefully he'll come back around here.

 

[TimmyTheTorch]

Do you have anything extra in line (ie filters,tuners) if so; I would remove them until you figure out where the problem lies. I would invest into an adequate dummy load. What happens when you plug the antenna coax directly into the back of the amp? Does it still hang up? I hope you get this problem solved...

I have a MFJ-264 dummy load due to arrive on Saturday. I'm not doing any more testing until it arrives.

 

[TIN_CAN]

View attachment 62726

Nice little box 357, is that a 2 or 4 pill? I run one similar just less the preamp with 4 toshiba 2879's

 

[S&W357]

It’s a two pill base amp. Two red dot Toshiba 2879 transistors.

 

[9C1Driver]

Nice little box 357, is that a 2 or 4 pill? I run one similar just less the preamp with 4 toshiba 2879's

View attachment 62854

The next question, is that SSB switch even hooked up to anything? There was a time that they would laugh at you and hang up when you asked about SSB over the phone.

 

[TIN_CAN]

It’s a two pill base amp. Two red dot Toshiba 2879 transistors.

View attachment 62862View attachment 62863

Nice 2 pill Base unit.....explains your power switch, Mine is a 4 pill mobile unut. works well. Cheers!

 

[DoctorAudio]

Are those white brick resistors non-inductive wirewound?

 

[S&W357]

The next question, is that SSB switch even hooked up to anything? There was a time that they would laugh at you and hang up when you asked about SSB over the phone.

Yes it’s hooked up. Next question please.

 

[TIN_CAN]

Are those white brick resistors non-inductive wirewound?

Cant answer that as I am not a tech in any way.

 

[nomadradio]

Are those white brick resistors non-inductive wirewound?

They appear to be ceramic-body radial-lead wirewounds. Designed to stand up vertically on a printed circuit board and consume less real estate than a part with axial leads.

Wirewound resistors are not always useless in RF circuits. Just most of the time. If the resistor's inductance is low enough, they'll work. Amplifiers meant to be wide banded will have a small inductance wired in series with the resistor and capacitor you see in the 11 meter-only linears. Some things work by accident. A wirewound in that spot probably qualifies.

73