Diving into Ham Radio... uh oh!

[k0ua]

No, not in a 7300. It is very clean. There are a very few, very weak and they fall outside of the ham bands. I think there was a big one at the bottom of its receive range at 30khz, but who cares. It seems like there was one up around 72 Mhz, but again who cares.

Ok, I lied. I went "birdie" hunting. and found the following. The one at 30khz is not actually at 30 khz, it is at what would be 0.000 khz, you can see it on the spectrum scope, but you cannot tune there as it wraps instantly back to 74.800 Mhz the top of the rigs receiver.

BUT birdies were found on the following frequency's, all outside of the Amateur bands. All are in Mhz. 69.768, 41.344, 38.766, 15.505, 3.304, 2.478, 1.652 Mhz.
So yes there are some. Pretty good though for a span of over 74 Mhz to have a few. And most were not all that strong.

 

[Industrial Toys]

A radio that features a sprectrum analyizer with a ton of loud birdies might be quite embarrassing.

 

[dragoneggs]

Okay guys... up and running.

Got the antenna properly grounded... still lots of noise... about. S7 to S10 depending on band.



The big job was to pull the antenna out to the tree. First I tied some 1/8in parachord to the fishing line and slowly fed and reeled. Once the parachord reached the tree, it hung up of course... even though I was extra careful to make sure the transition between the lines was smooth. :smiley_aafz:

After some back and forth, it freed and I had the cord coming back at me. :dance1:

Still nervous... the drag was getting more and more and I started worrying that the fishing line might snap. I used what on a reel and probably 15 years old and maybe 20lb test?

Anyways, worked it a bit like bringing in a big fish. Reeling when I was walking toward the line to lessen the load. I was so happy. when I got my hands on the parachord. Turned out that the distance to the tree is about exactly the length of the antenna!

I pulled the antenna out and the end terminal/pulley reached the tree. Don't know how these pics will show but...

 

[dragoneggs]

AND... I got some chatter. Still a lot of noise but picking up guys on the 80m band! :cool2:

 

[dragoneggs]

Listen up on 3960 LSB every evening @ 6pm local for the Columbia Basin Net!

I'M HERE!

 

[B7510HSD]

I'M HERE!

Are you hearing anyone?

 

[dragoneggs]

Are you hearing anyone?

Yep!!! Lots of folk checking in from Western WA.

 

[B7510HSD]

Yep!!! Lots of folk checking in from Western WA.

good deal did you hit the TUNE button on the radio?

 

[Industrial Toys]

FINE business old man! lol

 

[k0ua]

Go up to 14 Mhz (20 meter band) Single Sideband mode Filter1 , and find an empty spot where you hear no signals. Make SURE that neither pre-amp is on and attenuator is off, rotate the RF gain control to 12 o'clock, Now tell us what the S meter reads for ambient noise. Repeat on higher bands up to 6 meters. Report the ambient noise level on each band. It is not uncommon to have some noise level below 20 meters. From atmospherics etc, but 20 meters on up should be fairly quiet. Even down to S0 in good quiet locations and with no local thunderstorms in the area. Tell us what you got, and we can go from there.