What a day!!!!!!!!! I don't know how to act!!!!!!!!!!!

[bobcat4109]

I haven't been able yet to make a good and proper installation of my A99.....
I haven't yet dug up the time to do the recap on the Console V and see what else it needs....

But today......   I just got antsy to do SOMETHING.

For the first time in this house (that is 4 years come June)..... the VERY first time....

A Cb.... was hooked up to an antenna..... that was OUTSIDE the house...... and I heard something.

Here is the craziness.....

A couple of years ago at a hamfest I bought a handful of really nice SO-239s for next to nothing.
I remembered where they were today.... and went wild....building the cheapest, chintziest dipole/inverted V you have ever seen in your life.
Took a couple of guitar picks that I don't use.... drilled appropriate holes in them and hand riveted them to the SO-230 as insulating spacers....
Got out a bunch of hookup wire....measured it out.....looped it through the spacers... soldered them to the pin and shell of the SO-239....measured out the length that the inverted v calculator told me for 11m,... and looped the ends through more guitar pick insulators.  Walked outside.... threw a cord over a branch about 12 feet up... hoisted it up .... spread the arms out to about 45 degrees......
back inside and....

actually HEARD something on 19.   Either distant.... or weak.....
I was using my Sears Roadtalker 40 SSB that frankly....probably needs caps....

That inverted V does 1.7:1 on Channel 1
                               1.4:1 on Channel 20
and                          1.2:1 on Channel 40

so, yeah, I got it a little bit short....but that isn't bad.

On 38L.... I could almost pull out some sideband  waaaaayyy    wayyyyy in the grass....

The PDC700 meter says it is putting out about 3 watts...and goes forward with modulation.
It also says when I hold the mic really close that it goes just beyond 100% mod.   Not good....but just wanted to see what it would do.

Over all, it sounds like somebody is pulled up next to the antenna with leaky spark plug wires.   THAT kind of crackle...at a constant rate.  Don't know if it is the radio (age... in need of a recap) or something inside or just outside the house....but it seems to overshadow the signals that I do hear.   NB slightly reduces it....but it is still there...and fairly prominent.....

I am "basking in the glow" over here.   I know it's no big deal...but this was fun!!!!

[Sandbagger]

May 14, 2019 13:46:40 GMT -5 bobcat4109 said:

I haven't been able yet to make a good and proper installation of my A99.....
I haven't yet dug up the time to do the recap on the Console V and see what else it needs....

But today......   I just got antsy to do SOMETHING.

For the first time in this house (that is 4 years come June)..... the VERY first time....

A Cb.... was hooked up to an antenna..... that was OUTSIDE the house...... and I heard something.

Here is the craziness.....

A couple of years ago at a hamfest I bought a handful of really nice SO-239s for next to nothing.
I remembered where they were today.... and went wild....building the cheapest, chintziest dipole/inverted V you have ever seen in your life.
Took a couple of guitar picks that I don't use.... drilled appropriate holes in them and hand riveted them to the SO-230 as insulating spacers....
Got out a bunch of hookup wire....measured it out.....looped it through the spacers... soldered them to the pin and shell of the SO-239....measured out the length that the inverted v calculator told me for 11m,... and looped the ends through more guitar pick insulators.  Walked outside.... threw a cord over a branch about 12 feet up... hoisted it up .... spread the arms out to about 45 degrees......
back inside and....

actually HEARD something on 19.   Either distant.... or weak.....
I was using my Sears Roadtalker 40 SSB that frankly....probably needs caps....

That inverted V does 1.7:1 on Channel 1
                               1.4:1 on Channel 20
and                          1.2:1 on Channel 40

so, yeah, I got it a little bit short....but that isn't bad.

On 38L.... I could almost pull out some sideband  waaaaayyy    wayyyyy in the grass....

The PDC700 meter says it is putting out about 3 watts...and goes forward with modulation.
It also says when I hold the mic really close that it goes just beyond 100% mod.   Not good....but just wanted to see what it would do.

Over all, it sounds like somebody is pulled up next to the antenna with leaky spark plug wires.   THAT kind of crackle...at a constant rate.  Don't know if it is the radio (age... in need of a recap) or something inside or just outside the house....but it seems to overshadow the signals that I do hear.   NB slightly reduces it....but it is still there...and fairly prominent.....

I am "basking in the glow" over here.   I know it's no big deal...but this was fun!!!!

A horizontal or diagonal dipole is not the best antenna setup for local comms, but will work gangbusters for skywave skip conditions. We're entering the time of year where Sporadic-E skip will start to be a more regular occurrence, so you might be in a good position to make some contacts. Your best bet would be on 38 LSB with a barefoot radio. SSB usually does better than AM when you're running low power. As for your noise issue, that is most likely some electronic widget(like an air purifier, internet routers, or some other electronic device). Best way to determine if it's coming from your house, or somewhere else is to put the radio on a battery and then pull your electric mains. If the noise drops off, then you know it's something in your house, and you can then start pulling individual circuits until you find the offender. If it's not coming from your house, then you have less control over the situation. You might try moving the antenna to a different location to minimize the noise. Lastly there have been some reports of the return of the "woodpecker". The woodpecker was an over the horizon radar that the Russians used to use back in the 70's and with any skip conditions, it could be heard tap-tap-tapping across the band. It was decommissioned in the 80's (The antenna array was not far from Chernobyl) after the nuke plant disaster. Here's a clip of what it sounded like:

[321 treeclimber]

Hey bobcat, good for you! That's the kind of day i need! 321

[bobcat4109]

Thanks!   It was a blast just DOING something!!!!!!

[321 treeclimber]

Right on !