Overview:
I thought I would share a few of my notes on tuning up a 6BTV, (review of the DX Engineering 17 meter add on kit here), antenna, and constructing a radial field. I have been using a GAP Challenger DX, (review here), for the past fifteen years, unbeknownst to me, and over that time, water had been slowly seeping into the tuning harness of the antenna.
The harness finally gave up the ghost one day, presenting a dead short to my Solid State ALS-1306 amp, (review here), as I increased power. At about 800 watts CW, the harness shorted out, killing the ALS-1306, and necessitating the amp make a trip back to ALS-1306 heaven, (Ameritron), to have a replacement RF output device installed.
Replacing the Challenger was one of the options on the table, but I did not want to do a new install of a Challenger– I remember the last install. The entire phasing harness installation process is not fun, nor is it easy, so– given there were a few things about the Challenger I was not happy with anyway, I began looking for a different antenna.