Tag: cushcraft ma5b

Cushcraft MA-5B is repaired with a new MT1 trap

Cushcraft were always known for good quality products but some years ago they were taken over by MFJ.  It’s no secret that MFJ have a bit of a reputation for poor quality control and they may or may not deserve the many nicknames that they’ve been given. Personally, I’ve had no problems with any of […]

One of the traps on my Cushcraft MA-5B has melted

Today I took down my Cushcraft MA-5B again to investigate the problem of high SWR on 20m and 15m and after a struggle to get the traps on the driven element disassembled, this is what I found. The bottom section was taken from the ‘hot’ side of the feed, ie the centre core of the […]

Looking forward to the AFD PSK contest this weekend

Since I got my IMD meter recently, I’ve been looking forward to the AFD PSK contest this weekend.  It’s only the second time it’s been run and I gave away a few points last year.  From what I remember, it seemed a lot more relaxed than some of the bigger contests.  The contest runs from […]

More work on the Cushcraft MA-5B along with VSWR plots

After I replaced the balun and coax tails on my MA-5B, I posted recently to say I wasn’t quite as happy with the results as I could have been.  I contacted Bob at Balun Designs who suggested that if I’d made the coax tails a different length to the originals that I may need to […]

A replacement balun for my Cushcraft MA-5B from Balun Designs

After the investigative work a couple of weeks ago where I tracked the fault on my Cushcraft MA-5B to the cable between the balun (matching network) and the 12m/17m element I decided that I wanted to replace the entire balun, including the two coax tails out to the elements.  I figured that because one tail […]

Cushcraft MA5B is broken – and repaired

Last weekend was the Hungarian DX contest and I decided a few days prior that I was going to enter it.  I planned on a single band entry which would allow me to spend a few hours on the Saturday afternoon and then come back again on Sunday morning when the band re-opened. I worked […]

Mast is up, beam is up – It’s all done in time for CQ WW SSB

The crowds descended on my QTH again today in order to finish what we started back on the 10th September, just six weeks ago.  Today we had Chris, M6GSD, Tony, G0MBA, Colin, M1EAK, Yan, M0YNK, Bill, G0OAX and Chris’ son, Dean here. To start with, Chris drilled the holes to mount the chemical anchors for […]

Assembling a Cushcraft MA5B and finishing the second Alimast section

Some time ago I bought a second hand but never assembled Cushcraft MA5B and yesterday I collected it with the plan to get the aerial all built and ready to go.  It’s a couple of years old so it comes from the time before MFJ acquired Cushcraft so I hope that it will be a good one. Once I’d got […]

Band conditions – wallop, what happened there?

Today is Saturday. I woke up and got up around 08:00, at 08:15 I was on the wireless giving away a few points in the CQWW RTTY contest.  I only operated S&P and in 45 minutes I’d worked 25 stations starting off on 40m and switching to 20m after a while.  I worked all over […]