Mods move this if needed to the proper forum. No comm forum and since there is a Comm sticky here this is where I put it.
I built a role up j-pole out of 450 ohm ladder line per this link A NEW and IMPROVED roll-up J-Pole Antenna by Chris McBride, KB7QXQ
Feeding it with about 30 feet of RG-8x I cut, crimped and soldered with pl-259's. I cut the long and short elements down till I got to about 1:1 SWR per my MFJ-259B analyzer.
I went back after covering all exposed wire with liquid tape and tested and now the SWR is 8.4? I put a 6 foot purchased coax lead on and its 1:1. Both 30 foot lenghths I have are at about 8:4.
So my question is what/how do I test or narrow down my problem? I fully admit being a noob on the engineering side of ham, but I am learning.
I built a role up j-pole out of 450 ohm ladder line per this link A NEW and IMPROVED roll-up J-Pole Antenna by Chris McBride, KB7QXQ
Feeding it with about 30 feet of RG-8x I cut, crimped and soldered with pl-259's. I cut the long and short elements down till I got to about 1:1 SWR per my MFJ-259B analyzer.
I went back after covering all exposed wire with liquid tape and tested and now the SWR is 8.4? I put a 6 foot purchased coax lead on and its 1:1. Both 30 foot lenghths I have are at about 8:4.
So my question is what/how do I test or narrow down my problem? I fully admit being a noob on the engineering side of ham, but I am learning.