Question for you hams....My radio is smoking!

Realtor MA

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I think I'm being punished for antagonizing people on some of the other threads here on NES.

When I got home today I fired up the radio and tuned the amp for 10 meters. It was acting a little funky but there was a contact i wanted to make.
While I was making the contact I could hear a slight buzzing sound.
Anyway there was a smell(like something burning) so I shut everything down. It seems the female connector from my antenna tuner had melted a little. I can't find anything else wrong and everything is now working properly. Anybody have any thoughts?
 
It sounds like a bad ground to me. I know that you are not supposed to let the smoke out however.

While I was inside the tuner checking things out i did notice that the post for the ground connection wasn't perfectly tight so I took care of that. I hope is was that simple:)
 
Loose connections are never a good thing, especially ground connections. Without a ground, circuits can float to very high and damaging voltages. I would bet the
buzzing sound you heard was arcing.
 
I'd bet it was a loose connection causing the burnt wire. A transformer smoking would be permanently damaged and that does not seem to be the case.
 
Thanks for the info guys.
My setup goes like this. Radio, Amp, wattmeter, tuner, antenna. It was the connection between the tuner and the coax leading to the antenna that got hot enough to slightly melt the insulation on the female uhf connector on the outbound side of the tuner.
 
I'm using this generic photo to help explain.
In the photo. The female connector on the left. The white insulation is what I'm referring to. Mine happens to be brown and it is now slightly warped.
I was running about 800 watts. As for the type of coax; I always get my numbers confused but it is the thicker type. Either rg8 or 213 or one of those. Hope that helps.

UHF.jpg
 
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