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Bill, VE7ISV has a condo in Victoria which he uses for work. It is a
top floor unit, and before Christmas of 2005, he put up an eighty foot Stealth
Delta Loop antenna on the roof. He was able to tune it using his SGC
MAC-200 automatic antenna tuner, and it appeared to work just fine. The
MAC-200 isn't designed to be used outdoors, but it was suitable to prove that
the antenna idea would work.
Santa brought Bill an SGC 239 automatic antenna tuner for Christmas 2005.
Bill and Jeff, VE7HPS, got together over the holidays and built a water-tight,
secure enclosure for this unit, and these pictures document the project.
These are thumbnails - please click on the picture for the bigger version.
 Jeff
- Building the Jumpers.
 The
plan called for a water-tight electrical enclosure, with an internal plexi-glass
holder that would support the tuner, and provide a platform for the auto-tuner
to be held in, and which would allow a quick disconnect and removal of the
auto-tuner on weekends.
 The
two bottom water-proof, strain relief connectors, through which the coax and the
power cables were going to be passed. If you look carefully, you can see
the clear silicone which was used to ensure that it was truly water-tight.
 A
view inside the box - a grounding strap has been installed between the body and
the door. In addition, at the top left and right of the box, are two
additional strain relief connectors through which the antenna wires will be
passed.
 In
this picture, you can see the auto-tuner is in its plexi-glass case. The
two top banana connectors are for the RF loop antenna to be connected. RF hot
and ground. At the bottom of the picture, are additional banada
connectors, the left most two for power, and the right most two for RF in and RF
ground.
 The
tuner, in its plexi-glass container, in the waterproof container and the power
has been connected. First sign that we might be a little tight on the male
banana connectors. They will work, but it wasn't optimum.
 DC
ground also connected to the chassis.
 So
we weren't really happy with the banana plugs and how tight they appeared to be
in the case. Bill called a few places in town looking for right angle
banana clips, and it appears that they may not be available. He was
talking to Charlie, VE7MEC, on the radio while coming back from an unfruitful
hunting trip for the elusive right angle banana plugs. He described to
Charlie the problem, and what it was that he was looking for. Charlie had
a great idea.
 Double,
stacking banana plugs. Charlie's idea was to cut the barrel off of the
upper part (the stacking part) and then cut them in half.
 Couple
of minutes with the hacksaw - and voila!
 Another
couple of minutes with the hacksaw. They've been dressed up with a file,
and look a little rough cosmetically. There is a screw in the end.
The wire is inserted through the hole and then tightened in place with the
screw. A bit of heat shrink tubing, and it will look 'big-time', and get
rid of our concern about the turns being tight. More pictures to follow.
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