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3 & 4 Element Troubleshooting Guide 1 of 5
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The Most Common Problems
(read this first!)
● The antenna is out of calibration, perform the calibration as described in the manual.
● The factory defaults have been inadvertently changed, reset factory defaults “all”. There are two default
modes, “all” and “current”. “Current” only resets the band segment you are currently on.
● The control cable is mis-wired.
● Interaction between power lines, other antennas, metal roofs, house wiring, gutters, etc, and the antenna.
● The automatic tuner is enabled on your rig, your linear or your external tuner that is in line.
● Your antenna selector is on the wrong antenna
● Your rig is in the split mode and worse case, to a different band!
● A low pass filter is in line and 6 meters has very high SWR.
● Your in-line linear has a transmit / receive switch some of which may be poorly designed or faulty. This
can make the SWR give incorrect higher readings. Remove as many things in-line on the coax as possible
so you get a more accurate SWR reading.
● Low cost SWR meters, especially those built into transceivers, can give incorrect readings, both higher and
lower than reality. They also can be drastically affected by the length of the coax line. Removing a few feet
of line can cause drastic differences in the reading ranging from 10% to as much as 100% ! Directional
couplers such as the Bird watt meter or antenna analyzers are much more reliable. Make sure you really
have a problem before you hit the panic button.
● Blown driver board from shorting the control cable with power plugged into the controller. Even with the
power button pushed “off” the cable is energized.
● Broken or damaged control cable or connector. See Cable Problems section.
● Bad coax or coax connector.
● Damaged driver board is pulling power supply voltage down causing the microprocessor to malfunction.
Check to see if the green LED is lit on power supply
● Ground the controller, this prevents crashes of the microprocessor and provides a path for static discharge.
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3 & 4 Element Troubleshooting Guide 2 of 5
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GENERAL:
Be aware that just because the controller display says an element is a certain length there is no guarantee
that it is, the motor could be running backwards due to a miswire, the element could have mechanical
problems, or a broken wire in the control cable (the motor will run with only one winding driven in some
cases) or a faulty driver board. The controller runs open loop and has no way of knowing if the element is
really moving. The motors in the elements make three distinct noises:
1. A ratcheting sound lasting 1 – 2 seconds at the start and finish of the motor running. This is the rpm rampup the stepper motors require and is normal.
2. A smooth whirring sound indicating normal operation.
3. A loud rattling sound that sounds like gears slipping indicates the stepper is stalling. This occurs during the
middle portion of a “calibrate” with the smooth running sound before and after it and is normal. Any other
time (even for brief durations) this noise indicates unwanted stalling of the motor and should be
investigated.
Check the resistance with an ohmmeter between the center conductor and ground of the coax connected to the
antenna, it should read zero ohms.
HIGH SWR:
Whenever the antenna has a problem you will most likely observe higher than expected SWR. However, this is
not always the case, as there are many situations where the SWR looks good but one element on the antenna
may not be working at all. This is what makes it so difficult to diagnose problems and why we emphasis
building and wiring the antenna carefully. In our experience an SWR of 1.4:1 or less is normal. In most cases
the lowest SWR will not be at the same frequency as the best performance. This is because we have optimized
the antenna for performance first, SWR second.
If the problem is with the driven element the SWR can be very high (over 3:1 and as high as 10:1). If the
problem is with a passive element the SWR will not be over about 3:1 no matter how far off the passive element
is.
INTERACTION PROBLEMS:
The most common reason for higher than expected or shifted SWR is unexpected interactions. Usually only
one or two bands are affected but not always and the antenna will probably have reasonable gain and front to
back. It is important to take good notes so if you need to call us we can do a better job of helping you. Record
the SWR on each band and each direction mode at least one place in the band, this is a good idea anyway so you
can assess the health of your antenna over time. Rotate the antenna and look for changes in SWR greater than
.2 or so, this indicates interaction if it changes very much. The usual culprits are slopers, other nearby antennas,
gutters, power lines, house wiring, metallic guy wires, etc. If the SWR is not too high you can “tune” it out by
using the “Create, Modify” mode to adjust only the driven element for best SWR and save it as described in the
manual. Don’t adjust the passive elements to improve SWR it will degrade the performance. Adjusting the
driven element won’t. Otherwise you will need to change your installation to reduce the interaction to an
acceptable level.
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3 & 4 Element Troubleshooting Guide 3 of 5
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CABLE PROBLEMS:
The control cable uses 4 wires per motor (one motor in each element housing). Each motor has two wires for
each of its two motor windings. This test assumes the antenna is connected to one end of the control cable and
the measurements are taken at the 25-pin connector that mates to the controller. You need a ohmmeter capable
of measuring 15 – 35 ohms with reasonable resolution or at least one that you can tell the difference between a
dead short and 15 ohms. Remove the 25-pin subD control cable connector from the controller. Hold it so you
are looking at the pins with them pointing at you. Orient the connector so the row with 13 pins is on top, now
the upper left-hand pin is pin 1. You should read between about 18 ohms to 30 ohms depending on cable length
between the pins listed below. (100’ is about 23 ohms)
● Dipole has a Driven
● 2 Element has a Driven & Director
● 3 Element has a Driven - Director & Reflector
● 4 Element & MonstIR has a Driven - Director 1 - Director 2 & Reflector
Pin Numbers
Driven 1 – 2 20 ohms (approximately)
3 – 4 20 ohms
Director 1 5 – 6 20 ohms
7 – 8 20 ohms
Reflector 9 – 10 20 ohms
11 – 12 20 ohms
Director 2 13 – 14 20 ohms
15 – 16 20 ohms
Next make sure there is an open circuit between the following pins:
● Connector case to any pin
● pin 1 to pin 12
● pin 14 to pin 16
● pin 2 to pin 3
● pin 4 to pin 5
● pin 6 to pin 7
● pin 5 to pin 9
● pin 10 to pin 11
● pin 12 to pin 13
● pin 14 to pin 15
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3 & 4 Element Troubleshooting Guide 4 of 5
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If your antenna passes this test it does not mean it is wired correctly. You could still have swapped two
elements or even wired the whole thing backwards (started at the wrong end of the terminal strip) and it will
still measure correctly because each connector pair has a motor winding connected to it but it is the wrong one.
This test just takes you to the next step of trying to determine if the antenna is wired correctly and then finally
determining if the elements are physically moving. This is an open loop system and the controller has no way
of knowing if the elements are really moving when commanded to.
MISWIRED CABLE:
It can be a difficult to figure out what exactly has been miswired. Once you have determined it is likely you
have a miswire it is advisable to go up on the tower and check the terminal wiring. Since there are many
combinations of incorrect wiring we will give just a few examples of common miswires and the symptoms they
cause.
● Two or More Elements are Swapped:
This is easy to do if you don’t mark the 4 conductor cables before you tape them along the boom. The SWR
will usually be high on every band. Often by changing the controller frequency, while keeping the transmit
frequency fixed, the SWR may go quite low at a higher or lower controller frequency. In any case of SWR
problems don’t be surprised if the SWR is okay when you switch to the 180 degree mode. If it isn’t good in the
forward mode you have a problem.
● If you Suspect Elements are Swapped:
First try to identify which one is the driven element. You can identify the driven element easily because it has a
much greater effect on SWR than the passives do. The driven element is also very easy to identify by retracting
all of the elements and then use “Create, Modify” to extend each element individually until signals are heard in
the receiver. Obviously you will only hear signals when the driven element is extended. The best way to
determine if the passives are switched is to point the antenna in the normal mode at a station you know the
location of and then switch the antenna to 180-degree mode, if he gets stronger you probably have switched the
passives. If it seems like they are switched you can use “Create, Modify” mode to “swap” the elements back by
first recording what the controller says each one should be and then go put the reflector length into the director
and vice-versa for the director. If the antenna now works normally you have swapped the cables of the two
passives and will need to correct the wiring.
● One or More Elements are not Moving:
If the driven is not moving you will have very high SWR at all frequencies. However, it may have stopped at
some length and you might have good SWR only at one particular frequency.
Next go into the “Create, Modify ” mode and vary each element length and monitor the SWR while you do it
(100 watts or less is okay) and watch for dramatic changes (.5 SWR change, minimum). When you adjust the
driven element driven you should be able to get an SWR of 5:1 or greater. The passive elements can only cause
an SWR of 3.5:1 maximum no matter what length you make them. Adjust the passive elements from minimum
length to maximum length and you should see at least a .5 change at some point. When the passive element is
near the length of the driven element interaction is the greatest and you should see very noticeable change in
SWR. You will find that Director 2 has much less of an affect on the SWR because it is so far away from the
driven element, but you should still see some change.
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3 & 4 Element Troubleshooting Guide 5 of 5
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If any element does not affect the SWR the cause is one of the following:
● Bad or intermittent cable, check it again.
● Damaged driver board in the controller
● Mechanical problem with the element
Be aware that lightning or shorting the cable can partially disable a driver chip and it will still limp along
moving the tape but you will see inconsistent SWR when changing from band to band.
Mechanical problems can range from an obstruction in the element, usually in the tip, such as packing material
or in rare cases fiberglass bumps or imperfections. We check this by running a gage in the tip but once in a
great while that doesn’t catch it. DO NOT ever tape or block the end of the element tip, water can collect
and freezing can cause a blockage or trap the element. The foam plug must be left in the tip so wind driven
rain and bugs are kept out but the element can breathe.
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