Since making my first contact, I’ve been experimenting with my 2 mobile radios, a QTY 980 Plus, and a Yaesu FT2500. For my very first contact ever, just 6 days ago, I had the Yaesu hooked up to a Tram 1480. The antenna was leaning in the corner of my basement, and I was just checking SWR before I put the antenna in my attic. I heard a conversation from a repeater 26 miles away. It was crystal clear, and my signal was reported back as being clear and strong. Read my other post for more details about my accidental first contact.
So, the next day I installed the antenna in my attic, ran the cabling down into the house, and hooked everything up. Everything was hooked up exactly the same as it was before, except the antenna is about 20 ft higher than it was, and now ABOVE ground! Remember, the antenna was in my below ground basement the first time I made a contact. Elevation is everything, so it should all work better now, right???
I’ve been having a lot of trouble making contact. As a matter of fact, I have made no more contacts from home. I tried both the QYT and the Yaesu, and haven’t been getting anything. I spent a whole day thinking that I was probably programming the radio improperly, and trying to change different settings, but still no replies. I have been able to get a couple of signal reports when the radios are installed in my truck, but nothing from my home setup. Looking back now, I don’t know if its because no one was answering me, or if I simply couldn’t hear them! More on that in a minute…
Yesterday we planned to spend a lot of time driving, so I put the QYT in my truck, with the mobile antenna. I called out a few times, and got no response, which I already know is typical. I just let the radio scan most of the day, picking up occasional repeater identifications. At least I knew I could hear someone. Later in the evening, the Barnesville repeater ( W8JI) had their Wednesday night trivia. I didn’t check in to the net, but I did ask for a signal report, which came back clear and strong. We listened to trivia all the way home, with only a few fade outs in low areas as we were driving.
When we got home, I rushed inside to hook it up to my house antenna, and got nothing. I hit the monitor button to open the squelch, and I could faintly hear some voices, and a ton of static, so I knew they were still talking, but why would they sound so bad on an antenna that’s 5x longer than my mobile??? I got my Baofeng hand held out, with the bootleg antenna, and they sounded clear. Then, I hooked the Baofeng up to the Tram (the antenna in my attic), and got the same exact problem, nothing but static and barely audible voices. I got the mobile antenna from my truck and hooked it up to the QYT, and although there was a little static, it sounded WAY better than the Tram. The mobile setup worked better on my truck, but I’m sure that’s the difference between being on the roof of the truck, vs sitting on a cookie sheet. This also ruled out any sort of interference coming from my power supply. At least now I know its a problem with either the Tram antenna in my house, or the cabling going to it.
Today, I started troubleshooting. The first thing I did was just double check my connections. After that didn’t improve anything, I unhooked the cable from the antenna and checked it. I did purchase it from the big online store, so I was already assuming I got a bad cable. I figured it was probably a break in the wire that was somewhat positional since the wire worked the other day just fine. There was continuity from center post to center post, and shielding to shielding, but not between the 2. So, now I know the cable is good, with continuity on both parts of the cable, and no shorts between them.
So, on to the antenna…. I’m not sure exactly how to check it, and no one online seems to know much either. Most troubleshooting posts I found automatically assume that any problems are in your cables, not in the antenna. I guess every antenna is a little different, so continuity checks aren’t necessarily the appropriate way to check functionality. After bringing it down from the attic, I started with the easiest thing to check, and made sure everything was assembled properly. No improvement. I started checking continuity again. With the cable hooked up, I had continuity from the shielding all the way to the end of the radials. But, from there, I had no continuity from the center wire to the actual antenna…. but I couldn’t find anything that said I was supposed to either.
After a while, I finally just put everything back together and tried again. I tried a few different repeaters with no luck, until I went back to the Barnesville repeater, and someone answered. Again, he sounded terrible like they did the other night, and I had to hit the monitor button to open the squelch to hear him. He said I sounded clear and strong, but on my end I could barely hear him. We talked for a few minutes, with me only barely able to understand him, but he reported back that I sounded fine the whole time.
So, there it is. It has to be the antenna. Right? I can transmit, but I can’t receive. My SWR meter says I have 1.0 to 1.02 SWR, and transmit 45+ watts, but I can’t hear anything but static and faint voices.
Something I discovered during my troubleshooting is that the guts inside the fiberglass housing looks like the picture to the left. This is the base, where the coax attaches to the antenna. The bottom is where the coax attaches, and the top is where the actual antenna (a stiff copper wire) attaches by inserting into a hole, and held by a set screw. On the coils you’ll notice two brown capacitors sticking out from under the electrical tape, and I’m assuming that one of these has decided to quit on me. I have no idea how this works, or what purpose they serve (other than to make the antenna work), but they’re the only parts that could “go out”. Everything else is just solid wires and screws.
Tomorrow, I’m going to HRO. I’m glad I figured this out before heading up, so I can either get some advice on how to fix it, or just get a new one. Honestly, I’ll probably get a new one, and attempt to fix this later. I have no experience soldering yet, but this seems like it would be easy enough to unsolder and resolder a new capacitor, assuming that’s the problem.
At the time that I purchased the Tram, I was simply going off a recommendation to get it while it was on sale. I knew nothing (and still know very little) about what’s good, and whats not, but I’m disappointed in this purchase. Now, I know that its a cheaper clone of a better antenna, or at least that’s how most descriptions are worded. I bought it 4 or 5 years ago. I assembled it to make sure all the parts were present, then stored it in the space above my laundry room ceiling, just waiting on my to finally get my license. It’s been in a controlled environment, never wet, and never used. It apparently decided to work once, then quit. It’s essentially brand new. I was hoping to make contact with the manufacturer to find out about trouble shooting, or maybe purchasing a replacement part, but I can’t seem to find them. Tram antennas are made by a company called Tram Browning, and they have no web presence to speak of. This, of course, means no customer service. While I do not know what brand I’ll be using in the future, I do know which brand I will NOT be purchasing moving forward.