Hi Kyle, sorry it took so long to get back with you.
Your traps may have corrosion inside due to the screws
that secure the coil wire, tubing and insulator together.
Mine were so bad, I had to replace one coil with new
aluminum wire. I also replaced the screws with stainless
screws to help prevent it from happening again.
If your traps have corrosion, they can act like diodes.
Did you measure the resistance of the traps? It should
be zero ohms.
My traps had three screws that connected the outer tube
to the inner tube, I used aluminum screws to replace those
screws. If your traps have the tapered end, then you don't
have those screws.
If your insulators are cracked and broken, you can use
lexan/plexiglass to replace them.
When I disassembled my traps, I used a sharpie marker
to mark the position of the outer tube.
The fact that you are picking up more noise with the
vertical may be a sign it is working. How is the overall
reception of the vertical VS the wire antenna?
I notice the same situation with my 40 M wire antenna
and vertical, and the horizontal wire shows directivity
while the vertical hears signals the horizontal can't
hear off the ends of the wire...
Thanks. I get less noise on 40m on a simple dipole I had for 20m. The antenna was up only about 8 feet and not being a 40m antenna probably help cut down on the noise since it wasn't made for 40m. I may have to look at the traps. I did notice that the plastic trap covers had small cracks so corrosion could be an issue. I am also wondering if grounding the coax shielding may help. There is a ground rod for the power in the house that is right against the house. Should I hook up to that to ground the shielding of the coax?
