Lo P on 10 and 12 meters

[EMD]

Hello,

Once again I'm getting a Lo P message when I try to tune on 10 and 12 meters.  Last month all was well but after coming home this month and selecting 12 meters I noticed it was quite, not the s meter reading I expected, 10 meters was also quite.  I tried tuning, using AUTO and ALT, and got the Lo p message even with the power set to 10 watts.  

I have had this issue before and it was a bad solder joint on D4 last time.  So since it worked before and now it's not it makes me wonder what other component can have a bad solder joint.

I was also wonder if maybe my antenna might be an issue.  I'm using just a long wire hanging out an up stairs window for now connected to a tree about 25 feet in the air.  Would getting a better antenna like a G5RV( I think thats it ) would help the situation? Or maybe a better quality wire?  But I think it's an internal issue.

Going to need a watt better so can anyone recommend a good QRP watt meter.

73,
Ed KE7HGA

[EMD]

Some how I think I solved this issue.  What I did was I selected the individual inductors and capacitors in the ATU menu and tuned each one on 10 meters.  Now 10 and 12 meters are loud with good power on the bands.

73's

Ed KE7HGA

[Don Wilhelm-4]

Ed,

If your antenna is just the end of a wire, what does it have to work
against?  It needs some sort of reference for the "ground" side of
things.  The RF WILL find its "ground" reference somewhere, but unless
you control where that may be, you can have strange and inconsistent
results.
So put up another wire of the same length, but running in an opposite
direction and connect it to the shell of the BNC connector.  I believe
your results will be much better.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 1/10/2012 8:18 PM, EMD wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Once again I'm getting a Lo P message when I try to tune on 10 and 12
> meters.  Last month all was well but after coming home this month and
> selecting 12 meters I noticed it was quite, not the s meter reading I
> expected, 10 meters was also quite.  I tried tuning, using AUTO and ALT, and
> got the Lo p message even with the power set to 10 watts.
>
> I have had this issue before and it was a bad solder joint on D4 last time.
> So since it worked before and now it's not it makes me wonder what other
> component can have a bad solder joint.
>
> I was also wonder if maybe my antenna might be an issue.  I'm using just a
> long wire hanging out an up stairs window for now connected to a tree about
> 25 feet in the air.  Would getting a better antenna like a G5RV( I think
> thats it ) would help the situation? Or maybe a better quality wire?  But I
> think it's an internal issue.
>
> Going to need a watt better so can anyone recommend a good QRP watt meter.
>
> 73,
> Ed KE7HGA
>

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[EMD]

Hello Don,

Thanks for your advice.  One thing I have noticed is that when I have the Lo P on 10 and 12m, if I go to 15m and cycle through the inductors and capacitors in the ATU menu it solves the problem.  Go figure.

So thanks again, and when it dries out and warms up a little I might get energetic and string another wire to a tree in the back yard.

73,

Ed KE7HGA

[EMD]

Problem solved.  I did some reading on antennas and come up with a simple solution on the Lo P problem I was having.  So I took my K2 parts bag and pulled out some toriods I did not use and made what I think would be called an RF choke.

Since I have added this to my ladder line feed point on my G5RV I have never had the LO P message again.  I have using this for the last six months.



It's not pretty but it seems to work;-)

73's Ed
K3ENV