Well, I managed to get my ocf dipole up, but frankly I'm very disppointed in its perfomance. Of course there are many factors to consider, so here goes:
1) the coax feeder : I made a new one from a new roll of coax and new plugs - no effect 2) my transceiver is stuffed : I tied three different hf only transceivers, and also a new quad band on 29Mhz. I find it hard to believe that all of them are stuffed. I am taking the three hf rigs to a mate whos antenna system IS working just to check. 3) the antenna is the wrong length : Thant's a possibility that I havent investigated yet as it involves taking it down, but I was pretty careful when I cut it. 4) its not high enough : a distinct possibility especially on 80m and 40m as it is nowhere near 1/2 wavelength high for either of them. 5) it crosses my flat steel roof : not much I can do about that unfortunately 6) orientation is north - south : again not much I can do about that as that is the orientation of my block, but I am aware that the wire radiated perpendicular to that. 7) adding a tuner has no effect. : perhaps the tuner(s) are stuffed too? 8) poor earth. : I added a new earth spike and wiring to no effect.
Any other advice or clues that anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Tim R VK4YEH
PS, I've almost finished renovating a hygain hf vertical, so hopefully that will perform better. TR
