Transmission problem

James Madden

Transmission problem with cushcraft vertical R9 antenna. I have hooked up this antenna to my flex 6700 and have no response digitally or voice. The swr is about 1.8. How can I measure what the problem is and do I need to abandon this vertical antenna?thanks, jim

George KF2T

Good afternoon,
Not sure I understand the problem. Is it that no one is answering your calls? There's no output from the Flex? Are you hearing stations? All bands, or just some? 

James Madden

Hi George. I'm receiving on all bands. It appears there is output from the flex, when I transmit the meter on the upper right show power and about 1.8 swr. Thanks.

George KF2T

1.8 isn't bad for SWR. If you have a wattmeter on the output, confirm there is signal there. How much power is outbound? Do you have the auto-tuner installed and engaged? That should clear up the minimal SWR for the rig and allow full output. If you're still not getting full output, confirm the setting for maximum power isn't set too low (both in the settings/TX and on the main screen slider - separate from tune level).

At the antenna, check the resonance with an antenna analyzer or SWR bridge. What's the coax situation? Long runs of poor-quality coax can attenuate your signal a LOT. Finally, placement of the antenna matters - if it's close to a structure, odds are coupling to said structure is affecting your results. 

If all's well with the rig, you're receiving okay, and the antenna is installed properly, I'd chalk it up to the currently lousy band conditions.

Good luck!

Brian Morgan VK7RR

Jim,

As George is suggesting, you need to do a basic diagnostic.

Checking power out and audio are available on your Flex, RF power should increase up to near the red zone as you transmit, so long as your RF power slider is fully to the right. If there is no audio then you will not see any power out. The Level meter also shows the level of your transmit audio. It is easy to forget to choose "mic" when wanting to use your mic audio or "Dax" when digital. I would check all these .

If this is confusing, check with another receiver that you have audio on transmit.

As my old friend George said, Good Luck.

James Madden

Thanks. I do see power out when I speak into the mic. Jim

James Madden

I see about 40 watts out when I talk. Power level is set to 100 in setup and all the way to the right in sir. The auto tuner is engaged and I've triggered it to have the best match. Jim

Brian Morgan VK7RR

Okay, so call a nearby ham and set up a sched with him /her. Use a repeater as your liaison frequency and see if you can work each other. Sounds like you have RF and audio and a good VSWR so you should be good to go unless you have insufficient audio, or distortion etc. So getting a ham who is within 20 miles of you to listen to your signal should put you on the right track.

James Madden

Thanks I have a friend and we are arranging exactly this. I'll give the result once we try. Thanks.

James Madden

Ps, 2m and 70 cm don't work so what repeater are you referring to? Thanks, jim

Brian Morgan VK7RR

Jim, I am in VK land so don't know an actual repeater in your area. If there aren't any nearby and your friend is within 20 miles or so, you might try a 2 metre simplex channel. Otherwise, use your phone to call  your friend and know what is going on, to make sure your contact on air is successful.

k3Tim

Interesting antenna... From reviews on eham, someone had the SWR down to 1.1:1  so a SWR of 1.8 seems suspect. Of course, SWR is not indicator of efficiency in a (transmit) antenna, ie. there could be significant 'real' loss and SWR would be low even though RF power is being dissipated as heat.

You could send out some CQs in JT mode and check pskreporter.info to see who is hearing you.

Good Luck,

k3Tim

James Madden

Thanks

WV9L

I have used http://websdr.org/ to test my signals before as well as seeing where propogation is taking my signal

James Madden

How do you use the Webster site. I went there and it just appears to be remote controlled sir radios in Europe.. thanks jim

George KF2T

There are many outside of Europe, including one in the Bay Area, 69.27.184.62:8901 Determine what band you will have propagation on, and tune the remote receiver to your transmitter's output. It's a great way to get verification things work.

George KF2T

Are you seeing 1.8:1 after auto-tuning? My earlier comment about it being okay was referring to the "real" SWR at the antenna, before any antenna tuner.

James Madden

More results of testing: I was advised by support to use tune rather than speak into the mic. When I did this all the bands showed a very small amount of power except for 20 meters. I'm using an mfj-826b power/swr meter and an mfj-264 dummy load. Does this radio need repair? Thanks, jim

Tim - W4TME

Yes, probably.  Open a HelpDesk ticket so we can generate an RMA for you