Jerry--that's interesting because I will probably end up adding some length to the feedline.  Currently I have a 3' Rohn tripod on my single story ranch style house, with a 10' mast, putting both my antennas at about 25' high.  My plans include setting up a Rohn H50 next to one of the eaves and to do that I'll have to add about 20' of feedline.

The only thing I think I could probably blame the OCF dipole for is that the legs might be just a touch long.  A friend has an antenna analyzer and I'm going to see if I can bribe him into bringing over.

One thing I forgot to mention but I don't know if it's relevant, is that I have a Dimond X300A 2m/70cm antenna mounted just above the OCF dipole balun.  One of the X300's radials is very close to the short leg of the dipole, and fairly parallel to it.  I do have plans to move the HF antenna to a different mast, but I haven't done it yet.

What if I use the Daiwa to get the SWR as low as possible and then use the amp's plate/load adjustments to take it down from there?  Would that work?

I actually have the amp--it's a Dentron gla-1000b.  I haven't done anything other than power it up in standby mode so far.

This is all new to me, so I apologize if my questions are dumb ones.

Mike

Okay, that's about exactly what I'm seeing.   I probably should've done more research on this before I bought it. 

Oh well--it's making me think again about converting my OCF dipole into an OCF cage dipole now.   

Thanks,
Mike

I just picked up a used manual tuner, a Daiwa CNW-518, and I'm having problems getting it to tune adequately on a couple of bands.  For example, on 75m, about 2:1 is about the best it'll do.  Dropping down to 80m though, it has no problems and it tunes up perfectly fine.  40m tunes fine as well, but 20m it'll only do about 2:1.  The antenna I'm using is an 80m OCF dipole with a 4:1 current balun, and feedline of 65 feet of LMR-400UF.

I got this tuner to allow me to use an amp at some point.  My little LDG KT-100 works beautifully with my Kenwood TS-450, but it seems like this Daiwa has a much narrower matching range (if that's the right term) that it's capable of tuning.  When I was considering buying it I looked up the reviews on it here, and they are pretty much glowing with praise.  Of course, that makes me wonder if mine is damaged somehow.  I pulled the case off, and nothing jumps out at me as being obviously wrong.

Is the narrow matching range I describe above normal for this tuner?

Thanks,
Mike

Touch lamps seem to be notorious for picking up RF.  I wasted quite a bit of time messing around with ferrites and relocating our touch lamp to different parts of the house without success.  I think its susceptibility to RF is just inherent to the design.

I actually liked when I transmitted CW using the computer--I'd set up a somewhat lengthy test transmission at about 10 wpm and then go into the other room where it was and watch it cycle like it was possessed!

Mike

When you say Windom, are you talking about an Off-Center Fed Dipole?

I have a similar situation I think--I have an OCF dipole with a Dimond X300A antenna clamped to the top of the same mast as the balun for my dipole.  One of the radials for the X300 is within inches of the shorter leg of my OCF dipole, and I intend to move the dipole to a different mast.

Most of the other folks here have far more antenna experience than I do, so I'll be very curious to hear what they have to say. But in my case I'd like to get at least a couple feet separation, and preferably a lot more which is why I'm moving the dipole balun to a different mast.

Just my $0.02...
Mike

Thanks guys--I actually don't have the commercial mic yet.  I do have two TM-V71A radios, and the stock DTMF mics that came with them are significantly different in how they sound.  One is far quieter than the other and I have to set the mic gain to high with it or I get lots of complaints about low audio.

I guess it doesn't surprise me that Kenwood might use the same mic elements on both the commercial and ham side.  Given that the Kenwood commercial radios I've worked with in the past have sounded better than my current ham rigs though, I was thinking that maybe they used very simplistic components on the ham side, and better stuff on the commercial side.  It's been a long time since I've had hands on Kenwood commercial radios though.  I hadn't thought about a Heil element, but that's a good idea.

The reason I posted this question is because I was thinking about buying a KMC-72B.  I guess if I see one for a good price I might give it a shot just for fun.  If I do, I'll post a follow up message here with what I find comparing it with the stock DTMF mic.

Thanks,
Mike

Okay, I'll broaden the question--does anyone have any experience with ANY Kenwood commercial mics?

Come on--SOMEONE here among the 163 people who've looked at this thread must have something to contribute.

Nobody here has any experience on the KMC-72b mics?

If you don't have to use a rotator for the yagi, I'd go with a 5' Rohn and then guy it if necessary.  The Glen Martin is nice, but boy is it spendy.

I've got a couple of Kenwood 2m/70cm radios (TM-V71A) with the DTMF mics.  I don't use the DTMF keypads for anything, and I was wondering if the quality (durability or audio quality) is better for the stuff Kenwood makes for the commercial 2-way market, like the KMC-72B mics.

Does anyone have any experience with these, and if so, what's your opinion?

Thanks,
Mike

Good points on the price.  I'd planned on offering somewhere between $800 - 1000 depending, but I may hold off and just buy a new one later on.  I don't even have a tuner yet that can handle the power, so it'd be a while before I could use it anyhow.

Thanks guys, this is exactly what I was looking for.  I do have an experienced ham that lives nearby, and I might be able to bribe him into coming with me.

Is 3100v what I should see when I power it up in standby?  That's what the manual shows for "no load voltage".  What would be a normal variance from that value?  For example, should I be concerned if I only see 2900v?

Asking price is $1100, so I could definitely afford to retube it if necessary.

Thanks again!
Mike

I may be buying my first amp soon, and I'm curious what things I should be looking for when evaluating a used amp for purchase.

I'm looking at an AL-80B for sale locally (this is a big deal because I'm in Alaska and shipping for big heavy things is lethal to the faint of heart). It's apparently wired for 110v from talking with the owner.  Unfortunately he's not a ham, but selling off his grandfather's equipment.  This means that trying the amp on the air before buying is almost certainly not going to be an option.

What things would you look on this amp if you were in my position?

Thanks,
Mike