Wow.  Ah, look at the breaking strength.  14 ga copperweld is really tough.  I use 14 ga hard drawn copper stranded and it's still strong enough for an 80 meter.

You need to handle it to avoid kinking - I think you can pull it between two clamped wood blocks and get some of the set out of it that way.

There is also stranded copperweld, 14 gauge - that might suit you better.

I'm pretty sure that tubes will eventually be replaced in amateur use by some sort of solid state amplifiers.  It seems inevitable eventually.  As many have pointed out, the modular amplifiers in use in AM and FM service will likely be eventually pressed into amateur service, since they are designed for continuous service, they should work pretty well for us.

But all the additional hardware required to keep a solid state amp happy is just going to cost us all.  Tubes certainly have the advantage of being pretty robust when lightly abused - meaning that they survive the hamhanded learning cycle for tuning long enough for the owner to gain the needed experience to do it correctly.

I suppose the real question is "When" not if.  I wonder how many 3-500's are sold every year now.

But what about Swing watts?  Snort.

I suspect the guy running 15 kw is probably using 24/28 volts input?  Would make sense.  I also suspect some large caps in the PS to handle those 'peaks'.

I've only operated CB legally, so I don't know anything about using an amp on that band.

So my AL-80 is a "One Bottle" amp? 

Goes without saying that this type of design was pioneered in submarines, both diesel and nuke designs.  At least one ice breaker, the USCG Glacier had dual screw diesel/electric drive.  In the case of the Glacier, because ice breakers back up a lot in preparation to ram, it's much easier to use electric drive as they can reverse direction much more quickly.  Plus, with up to 12 prime movers [diesel-electric generator sets], you can run only the number of PM's for your needed power demands.

It certainly will simply power management overall I would think.  I wonder if it's safer than high pressure steam?

Hm, well, I suspect that with HF it is primarily a structural consideration, then a field assembly consideration.

I assembled a 2-meter beam with 5 elements that used thru-boom elements but the stresses on that are significantly lower than they are on HF sized beams.

I don't know a whole lot about heat treating aluminum, but I would be concerned that welding might cause the temper of the aluminum to be compromised?  Additionally, in a commercial antenna, how would you design it for shipping?  Welded stubs that the elements telescope on/in and bolt thru?  I don't think it would be an improvement worth the additional cost.

Sounds to ME like your Tech is the one with the problem - how's the HV in YOUR shack under load?  Put the dummy load on the amp, tune 'er up for max power on CW and measure the voltages - I believe that 300 volts on the HV is acceptable drop.

I suspect your TECH has a lousy 120 supply because a truely stiff 120 circuit should have plenty of stuff for this amp.  However, this assumes a DEDICATED circuit as at full power this amp draws about 12 amps.

Also, your idea to use a boost transformer only exacerbates the problem by requiring even MORE amps from your 120 circuit.

first make sure you actually have a problem.

SOUNDS like the fault is with your radio, not with your tuner - I pulled the O+M manual from the web.  Looks to me like the unit requires you to ground the [Star] terminal - or drop it to under 1 volt with no more than 100 ma.  I THINK a 70 ohm resistor will do that for you.

You need to drop your output power to 10 watts or so, then ground [Star], and if you can, put an LED across Key - when the light comes back on [8 volts 100ma max] you are tuned.

That should work.

Good luck.

I've got a square 160 meter loop made of 12 ga stranded THNN wire from Home Depot.  It's survived one full winter and a couple of really good windstorms with no damage so far.  I used the same wire to homebrew open wire feedline.  Stuff will handle all the power we are allowed with quite a bit of spare capacity.

However, for most wire antennas, I tend to favor all copper 7 conductor 14 ga stranded antenna wire, and I last bought from Wireman, a 500' roll of it.  They have this same configuration in copperweld also, which is about twice as strong.

I put my loop up on short notice, so I had to use what I could lay hands on TODAY, and so far, I'm not disappointed.  If it breaks, I'll reconsider - it's easy enough to splice it back together - if I were given time to plan it properly, I'd likely use the copperweld for it's superior breaking strength, although for my antenna it might have been a nightmare to layout in the sagebrush scrub.  I had enough fun with the THNN!

Wireman has an intereresting stranded copperweld with a black poly jacket - it's strong and being black it's reasonable stealthy - I've got some of the 18 ga. to experiment with and the jacket is really durable and slippery.

Even with 12 ga wire and jacket, I only needed about 20 lbs of counterweight at each of two corners to support this loop, so the stress on the wire is not all that much anyway.

the MFJ dry dummy loads for 300 watts will take care of your needs then.

But if you think you might need a legal limit, the oil filled cantenna type is rated for serious operation if/when you get an amplifier.

Not the most portable of items however, so in the field a dry one might be handy.

I suspect that for ultimate durablity, the David Clarks might outlast the Heil products, but given the hassle of plug conversion and all of that, I see no reason for an amateur to buy an aviation headset.  Course, I don't own either now, but I used DC's for years flying light aircraft and loved 'em, but don't think they would be very good for long radio operations.

No, height above ground and ground itself are more important than any wire size that is practical at HF.

Worst case?  You melt the finals on your radio.

Maybe you can borrow an analyzer and sweep the antenna - you might get lucky.

Mostly likely case is it won't work all that well.  an 18" wire stuck in the mounting center hole will probably work better.

I've got a couple of the AT-200Pro's.  I like them a LOT.  Here's my favorite tip for getting the MOST out of your tuner.

Once it's installed and hooked up to antennas, on a quiet day, turn your tranciever to AM and turn the power down to about 5 watts - you want just enough power to cause the tuner to go active.

Switch to say, your 20 meter antenna and tune your TR to 14.155 on AM at 5 watts.

Transmit until the AT-200 gives you a "Happy Match" sign - the diodes flash to the center.  At that point, ID and unkey.

Move up oh, 5 or 10 K and repeat.  If the tuner does not retune, then increase the interval to 20 K - until it forces a retune.  Do this from one end of band to the other with EVERY antenna and band.  At this point, you have taught the tuner most of your needed matches and a short AM at low power anywhere should give you a really quick match.

Oh, other tip:  SWR tends to fluctuate when you talk - don't set the retune threshold below 2:1 so as to avoid nuisance tuning.  The tuner will always get a better match than that, but it keeps it from tuning while you are talking.

As you use it, it will learn more and more data points and retuning will get faster and faster.

Last item:  Yes, it sounds like nickles bouncing around inside during tuning.  Totally normal, those relays work FAST.

Well, I use a similar multi stage system.

first, I have a cheat sheet for all antennas and my manual tuners - that gets me close.

Then I use my MFJ-269 set near or on the frequency and switch it thru the tuner and antenna - then I dial it in nice and tight.

Switch to radio and operate.

If I am using the amp, after I tune the antenna, I switch the Traciver to the amp and the amp to the dummy load, then I load the amp, first using the cheat-sheet, then on CW into the DL until I'm satisfied.

Then I switch from the DL to the antenna - when I transmit, I double check the SWR, but rarely do I have the slightest issue, if I do, I go back and recheck my work.

This way, I don't intentionally radiate much at all - the MFJ is so low power, and if the metal can oil filled dummy load leaks, well, not much I can do about that...sigh.

When I use an auto tuner, I usually go off frequency a few KC, then turn power to minimum and tune quick with AM, then switch back.  IF you have a good auto tuner AND you take the time to 'teach' it the antennas, then usually the match time is a few tenths of seconds, and the more you tune the better it gets.

I really dislike people tuning up on air, so I go to extrordinary lengths to avoid doing it myself.

Don't cut anything - just use barrel connectors to splice in some more coax and see if that changes things at all.

Once you add it in, try the 10 watt AM tuning from 3.990 and then go down in frequency in short steps to see if it works.

If that works, leave it that way for a while and see if you created any other issues.  Some operators have to switch in or out a length of feedline to address certain band mismatches.

Above all, don't despair, you have a quality tuner, you just need to tweak your feedlines - that's pretty common.

Above all, use some of this time to get an antenna book and start looking up how that G5RV actually works - then you can see how other designs work.  By next summer you will be ready to build new or fix up the old.  It's the Amateur Way [TM].