Okay thanks again for all your kind assistance guys, going to give it a rest as feel I am not getting anwhere with this at the moment and want to make a fresh start tomorrow !!

going to test on am as opposed to cw,just cant understand why the atu is clearly tuning the antenna up fine( amp switched to standby ) but still getting the load fault light / only rig power ( 50 or 100watts )showing on the amp`s meter  on 20-15 and 10 metres with or without the atu in line ( could understand why it could show a load fault without the atu ie. due to a very high swr etc with the atu taken off line ) but again its clearly showing a very low swr on the atu prior to switching the amp actually on, and yet on 80 and 40 mtrs its fine ie. full power / no load fault lights showing on amp with or without the atu in line.

argh !! fresh start tomorrow - any further advice/ suggestions please do post back.

thanks.

john - fife in scotland, uk

Argh- why is nothing so simple ??!! okay at first I thought I had found the problem ie. the 10 mtr band portion not being activated on my particular amp and this is what was causing the load fault / no power from the amp itself but seems not ??!!  , removed the aatu from the line up and just thought I would check the other bands and yep just the same - load fault light comming on the amp on all bands apart from 40 and 20mtrs on these bands I am getting full output from the amp with no errors.

I get the feeling the amp itself is not faulty but for some reason the amp is getting a good enough match on 40 and 20mtrs with and without the atu so as to not cause a load fault and give the full power output but the other bands are not a good enough match and hence causing problems with the lack off power output / load fault - strange as again am getting a perfect match indicated on the at1000 atu when its in line and the amp switched to standby.

anyone ??!!

Okay guys as always thanks so much for your kind assistance, a bit more testing on other bands soon seemed to find the problem !! seems the previous owner neglected to mention the "10mtr export " part off the band was never enabled !!!

Help ... never did get around to getting this Ameritron als600 solid state amp hooked up to my ft1000mp mkv field that is until I tried today and failed !!

okay here goes -

Ft1000 mp mkv field- rca phono plug / lead from " tx ground " on the rear off the radio to the " relay " socket off the amp as well as an rca phono plug / lead from " ext alc " on radio to " alc " on amp.

rg213 patch lead from ft1000mp antenna socket " A " to the " rf in " on the amp and patch lead from " rf out " on rear off amp to the " transmitter " so239 on the rear off my LDG at1000 atu and then finally " antenna " socket on the atu accepts the antenna coax.

the linear slider switch on the rear off the ft1000mp is switched to on, amp set to standby and I switch to cw and press the key where I then tune the antenna for lowest swr, after this I then switch amp on when I key down I only get the actual power thats comming from the actual radio showing on the meter off the amp ie. power control set to fully clockwise it indicates 100watts on the amps meter and set halfway its 50 watts, the green xmt light as well as the red load fault light shows up on the amp`s front panel.

help!!! please tell me the amp is not faulty and its purely down to something obvious that I am perhaps missing ??!!

Okay guys, the windom 80 special is now up and just need to get the rg58 coax cable from the shack down the wall into the garden and then onto  the antenna itself.

within the link is a picture off the finished result, nowhere near as heigh as I would have liked it, 22 feet one end down to around 20 feet at the far end, main thing is the vertical section is in the clear and  off the ground !!   

have taken the vertical section towards the wall as looks slightly better so hopefully this will be okay - comments ??

thanks again for your kind assistance guys appreciatte that.

john  - gm1zvj

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk191/jono400/SAM_2230.jpg
 

Thanks so much for the kind advice guys, looks like  there is only one place to mount it and thats at the very top off the mast !!

  Now after   installing the Carolina Windom 80s at my home I am now looking at installing my Cushcraft R6000 HF vertical,   if I was to mount this vertical on a short length off pole at ground level would I  loose much performance in the real world as opposed to it being mounted say 25 feet up and on top off the roof off my house ?

wonder what would be the recommended minimum height for ground mounting bearing in mind its built in radials ?

regards,
john - gm1zvj

Okay thats fine thank you for that, to be honest again I honestly cant see where it mentions within the Radioworks manual this recommended length off coax and just wondered why a few had mentioned it. anyway thanks again for your kind assistance.

 

Read off a few folk saying that they are using 86 feet off rg58x coax to feed the cw80s as per the recommendation by Radioworks, can see no ref to this within the notes included with my one, anyone confirm if indeed 86 feet off cable is a must to get a good match on the various bands ??

having just measured my own length off rg58 I see I only have 82 feet, likely to make much difference ??

Appreciatte the information guys have now put that idea to bed !! will stick with getting this windom as high up as I can and hopefully get the vertical section that bit higher and without too much sag !!

thanks again.

john - gm1zvj

Just wonder if anyone here has replaced the rg58 coax within the vertical section off the CW80S with ladder line ?? been advised that this   indeed cure the sagging problem. having never used this 300 Ohm line before just wonder what would be involved in replacing it on this particular antenna and if there would be likely to be any downsides to doing so ??

regards.
john - gm1zvj

Greg thats exactly the information / answers I was looking for ! thank you so much !

to be honest although yes a short pole within the tree would take the antenna slightly higher I feel I would get a better, more secure fixing with it fixed directly to the tree itself and this will hopefully pull up the slack on the line and help bring the heavy vertical section slightly further up from the ground.

have two off these spring tensioners that I plan to use   at both ends off the windom to hopefully get the dipole length that bit tighter to again hopefully bring the centre section slightly up which is proving to be a bit off a problem due to the combined weight off it !!

unfortunatly this end only have around 25 feet in height one end down to around 22 feet or so at the far end although it is going to be in one complete straight line so thats fine.

anyway thanks once again, your advice is much appreciatted.

john - gm1zvj

Carolina Windom 80 special, having just put up the support pole for the short leg off my Carolina windom80s today I am planning on taking the other longer leg straight down to the bottom off my garden where there is a tree situated where I am going to tie the second leg off the windom to. the questions I have are :

1/ would it effect the performance off the antenna if the antenna was tied to the main trunk off the tree but within the foliage  ?? or would it be advisable to fit a short pole to take the end off the dipole above the tree and obviously clear off this foliage ??

2/ should the vertical section off the CW80s be kept 100% straight ot would taking it at a slight angle be okay for joining up with the main feeder coax ??

Okay thanks for the info but 400w max legal limit here in the uk hence the qrp requirment !!!!

Appreciatte that Phil, thanks again