Anyone suffer from poor tune on 20m when the Midi loop gets wet? When I build this one I noticed that the Gamma match tubing had a badly seated cap, when I removed it to inspect a few drops of water came out of the tube. Am going to take the loop down today and inspect this again as its been quite wet recently but am interested to know if this is a known issue. This is a used loop and as far as I know it was stored indoors prior to my assembly and when I did the build, the loop was only outdoors for about 2 days before it went on the mast. Was rather surprised to see the water and trying to tun last night when raining, 20m was nothing below 2.1, today now its dry kinda back to normal at 1.6 ish. Real concerned that water is getting into the co-ax section and thats bound to be bad news.
73s
Pete
Mmm, I'd be thinking that low rail would detune the loop quite well when wet. The tow small bushes at each end would drive it mad too. I reckon if you give the loop clear space it would tune much better in the wet.
73s
Pete
This is the SWR of the antenna "tuned" on this frequency. As you can see, this is a very wet antenna.
Aye, since I spent so long working in Maritime, you develop an eye for spotting water ingress points and a real shame a $1000 antenna is let down by a 10c cap. My latest seal does seem to have worked so far, we have had a period of 7 days solid rain and all ok but will continue to watch it. The lack of any response from Mazzoni means I will delay the drilling of the drain hole but I see it as the only reliable solution.
73s
Pete
What a coincidence! Just posted a similar problem on my brand new Stealth Loop regarding inclement weather in this forum today. Just purchased from RadioWorld and shipped to the States last week. I also own a BabyLoop but that has been in my attic for 3 years. The manual states the preferred placement is outdoors. Not very happy considering I just paid over $1300 USD for this antenna. There is nowhere, on this antenna, for water to accumulate.
73
Mark
KK2L
And my fear was real, took the loop down and emptied about half an egg cup of water out of the Gamma match tubing. Now dried out and have resealed with better cap, hopefully this will cure it but am thinking that a hole drilled in the bottom of the curve of the gamma match tubing would allow water just to drain out on its own. Anyone got some thoughts on this?
73s
Pete