The result of 45 hours of CQWW SSB October 2000 on one of the 40m traps of my Cushcraft A3S+40m. I was running 1500W PEP from a Ten-Tec Titan. The trap diplayed quite a light show. There was nothing left of the plastic piece which kept the coil centered in the capacitor. It dripped slowly in flames to the ground over the weekend! 40m was the ony band we could not use. While the SWR on 20m went whacky every now and again the antenna continued to "play".

  Click any picture to enlarge it.

  The trap from the far end. Severe arcing occured between the capacitor and the element. A close up of the burnt trap.
The coil removed from the capacitor body. Quite a bit of soot from the melted plastic endcap and internal support.   Another view of the coil removed from the capacitor body.
A view of the inside of the capacitor body. Note both the soot and the arc "landing marks".    

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