The AM Forum

No wonder I went piss weak the other night. On the bright side, I think the branch was burned enough to kill it.

  Open Wire Line???

   I have a small California urban lot, 50' X 100', right on the back property line, 10 feet in from one corner, is a 60 foot tree, my "antenna tree". The antenna is a 80/40 coax fed dipole with a balun, because of my narrow yard the two ends come off in a rather sharp V. One end comes down the property line and the other end runs diagonally to the other side of the yard.

   I was running a T-368, I use an antenna tuner for a best match. I had been on the air a few days before and since I was going to use the same frequency did not recheck things closely. After transmitting for a short time, FLASH BANG!!! I put the T-368 in tune position (low power), the match did not look good and the antenna tuner did not change that. I did a bit of troubleshooting, the problem appeared to be the antenna and outside, it was after dark so that was all I could do that night. Sweeping the antenna with my MFJ-259 confirmed it looked like a short.

  We had had a storm with strong winds come through here a few days prior, my antenna tree is a Redwood and sheds needles and small branches constantly, more so after a wind storm. What I found was a branch that was hung up between both ends of the antenna just off the balun. Luckily all I had to do was untie one end of the dipole and shake it and the branch fell away.

  Now I ALWAYS check the match at low power EACH time I use the set even if I was one the same frequency the day before!!

Yes, open wire.

I was on CW and always keep an eye on the meters, but didn't notice anything wrong until I moved back up the band and tried to tune up. Oh well, its an easy fix plus after lowering the ant I saw some other things that need maintenance.