[Hi-zreceivingarraydiscussions] Hi-zreceivingarraydiscussions Digest, Vol 44, Issue 1

[daraymond at iowatelecom.net]

Several people have inquired as to how I isolated the faulty amplifier. 
Actually, it was pretty simple.  At Lee's suggestion, I started by 
disconnecting the antenna elements from the amplifiers mainly in an effort 
to see if it was something coming in on the element.  As it happened, I 
disconnected the amp from the #1 element (North) and, presto, the artifacts 
and garbage in the receiver disappeared.  Not knowing whether the problem 
was in the amp or some odd thing with either the coax or the 
controller/phasing unit, I moved the amplifier to the #8 position and 
connected there.  The problem immediately reappeared which confirmed it was, 
indeed, the amp.  Just to further test the array, I did disconnect the amps 
all the way around the array and reconnected them one by one just to see if 
any others were contributing to the problem.  They were not.  I replaced the 
amp with borrowed one from N0NI.  The array performed as it should.

As a follow up I opened up the defective amp and found a tablespoon or two 
of water in it.  My amps are all protected and covered with a 3" piece of 
PVC tubing about 12" long to which passes through the 1" tubing which is the 
base section of the 24' element.  So there is some moderate weather 
protection for the amp but certainly not "waterproof."  My amps are very 
early version which Lee subsequently made some significant improvements in 
making the amps more weather resistant.  Lee and I have discussed his 
methods which I will apply to my amps when warm weather arrives.

In the meantime, my array is back playing like gangbusters.     73. . . 
Dave, W0FLS

-----Original Message----- 
From: Doug Turnbull
Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2017 4:46 AM
To: hi-zreceivingarraydiscussions at hizantennas.com
Subject: Re: [Hi-zreceivingarraydiscussions] Hi-zreceivingarraydiscussions 
Digest, Vol 44, Issue 1

Dave,
    How did you isolate the faulty amplifier?
                 73 Doug EI2CN

-----Original Message-----
From: Hi-zreceivingarraydiscussions
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Subject: Hi-zreceivingarraydiscussions Digest, Vol 44, Issue 1

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Today's Topics:

   1. 160m 8 circle array (daraymond at iowatelecom.net)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2017 14:57:29 -0600
From: <daraymond at iowatelecom.net>
To: "Hi-Z" <hi-zreceivingarraydiscussions at hizantennas.com>
Subject: [Hi-zreceivingarraydiscussions] 160m 8 circle array
Message-ID: <6D19FF290E4B42BD857E2FBB493B0235 at DavidBrentPC>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was seeing numerous, low spurious low
level signals in my 160 meter Hi-Z 8 circle array.  The array showed some
directivity and did not pick up weak signals.  After consulting with Lee
(who was very responsive and helpful) I did some troubleshooting and
isolated the problem to one of the element amplifiers.  The receiver went
?bonkers? with low level junk as soon as the antenna element was connected
to the bad amp.  It appears likely that it was going into oscillation.  I
installed a new amp and the array is back working well.  Just wanted to pass
this along in case someone else ran into a similar situation.

73. . .Dave, W0FLS, in cold and windy Iowa (current afternoon temp +8F)

------------------------------

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