The antenna is a 23 foot Shakespeare whip. I´ve checked the
connections to it and they appear to be good. I´ve been told that my
signal sounds good although I can only transmit at low power. I would
have thought that at some frequency that the antenna would be tuned.

-- Geoff

Freebee wrote in message . ..
you didn't say what the antenna is - assuming sailboat backstay -
maybe check the condition of the HT wire from the tuner to the
backstay?

On 3 Jan 2004 11:25:06 -0800, (GeoffSchultz)
wrote:

I just got down to my boat on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala and found
that
my SEA-235 SSB tuner isn't tuning. The tuner should automatically
tune

On 4 Jan 2004 05:28:37 -0800, (GeoffSchultz)
wrote:

The antenna is a 23 foot Shakespeare whip. I´ve checked the
connections to it and they appear to be good. I´ve been told that my
signal sounds good although I can only transmit at low power. I would
have thought that at some frequency that the antenna would be tuned.

-- Geoff

The wire inside the fiberglass whip has broken and is making
intermittent contact. The only thing that's inside the fiberglass is
a piece of hookup wire wrapped around a form then fiberglassed to form
a continuously loaded shortened whip. They break.

Disconnect the whip from the tuner and haul up a 40-50' piece of wire
hooked to the tuner's high voltage output with insulating line on the
outer end. Any wire will do, even a dropcord. At your dock, haul it
up your neighbor's mast or anything you can get to. Once set, try to
see if the tuner will load the longwire. This will separate the
possible whip problem from the possible tuner problem so we can
determine which of them is the true problem. Don't let the longwire
get near any metal objects. Stand it off any rigging with a boat
cushion or insulating pole if you have to. It also doesn't need to be
string tight.

If it tunes, the whip is toast. If it doesn't send the tuner to the
shop.

On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 14:02:31 GMT, (Larry W4CSC) wrote:

On 4 Jan 2004 05:28:37 -0800, (GeoffSchultz)
wrote:

The antenna is a 23 foot Shakespeare whip. I´ve checked the
connections to it and they appear to be good. I´ve been told that my
signal sounds good although I can only transmit at low power. I would
have thought that at some frequency that the antenna would be tuned.

-- Geoff

The wire inside the fiberglass whip has broken and is making
intermittent contact. The only thing that's inside the fiberglass is
a piece of hookup wire wrapped around a form then fiberglassed to form
a continuously loaded shortened whip. They break.

Disconnect the whip from the tuner and haul up a 40-50' piece of wire
hooked to the tuner's high voltage output with insulating line on the
outer end. Any wire will do, even a dropcord. At your dock, haul it
up your neighbor's mast or anything you can get to. Once set, try to
see if the tuner will load the longwire. This will separate the
possible whip problem from the possible tuner problem so we can
determine which of them is the true problem. Don't let the longwire
get near any metal objects. Stand it off any rigging with a boat
cushion or insulating pole if you have to. It also doesn't need to be
string tight.

If it tunes, the whip is toast. If it doesn't send the tuner to the
shop.

I've been away from the radio shack too long.

Good advice.

Later,

Tom
S. Woodstock, CT
----------
"We may say of angling as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries:
Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless
God never did and so, if I might be judge, God never did make
a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling."

Izaak Walton "The Compleat Angler"(1653)

Lessee: 23 feet, say 7 meters is a quarter wave
so a wavelength is 28 meters.
300/28 = 10.7 MHz or a little lower....

The wire in a glass whip can break.
Checking it for resonance would eliminate this possibility.

Brian W

On 4 Jan 2004 05:28:37 -0800, (GeoffSchultz)
wrote:

The antenna is a 23 foot Shakespeare whip. I´ve checked the
connections to it and they appear to be good. I´ve been told that my
signal sounds good although I can only transmit at low power. I would
have thought that at some frequency that the antenna would be tuned.

-- Geoff

Freebee wrote in message . ..
you didn't say what the antenna is - assuming sailboat backstay -
maybe check the condition of the HT wire from the tuner to the
backstay?

On 3 Jan 2004 11:25:06 -0800, (GeoffSchultz)
wrote:

I just got down to my boat on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala and found
that
my SEA-235 SSB tuner isn't tuning. The tuner should automatically
tune

On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 22:34:19 GMT, Brian Whatcott
wrote:

Lessee: 23 feet, say 7 meters is a quarter wave
so a wavelength is 28 meters.
300/28 = 10.7 MHz or a little lower....

The wire in a glass whip can break.
Checking it for resonance would eliminate this possibility.

Brian W

The wire in the whip isn't a straight piece of wire. It's coiled
around a form to form a continuously-loaded shortened whip. The
electrical length of it is considerably longer than 23'. It'll
resonate lower than 10 Mhz somewhere......

On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 05:48:15 GMT, (Larry W4CSC) wrote:

On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 22:34:19 GMT, Brian Whatcott
wrote:

Lessee: 23 feet, say 7 meters is a quarter wave
so a wavelength is 28 meters.
300/28 = 10.7 MHz or a little lower....

The wire in a glass whip can break.
Checking it for resonance would eliminate this possibility.

Brian W

The wire in the whip isn't a straight piece of wire. It's coiled
around a form to form a continuously-loaded shortened whip. The
electrical length of it is considerably longer than 23'. It'll
resonate lower than 10 Mhz somewhere......



Nope, it is just a straight piece of wire. No coils at all. Unless it
is one of the old antennas for 2 mhz only.
With a coil in them they will not work above 4 mhz. Only a small part
of the antenna would be effective on the higher frequencies.

Regards
Gary

On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:40:51 GMT, Gary Schafer
wrote:


Nope, it is just a straight piece of wire. No coils at all. Unless it
is one of the old antennas for 2 mhz only.
With a coil in them they will not work above 4 mhz. Only a small part
of the antenna would be effective on the higher frequencies.

Regards
Gary

God, that must suck! Base loaded with a crappy, lossy tuner AND a
way-too-short antenna with only an E-field with almost no antenna
current......

NO wonder they all sound so crappy!