Diving into Ham Radio... uh oh!

[k0ua]

Also when you get time contact me on the telephone and we can run some more tests.

 

[dragoneggs]

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.

20m = S5
17m = S5
15m = S5
12m = S4
10m = S6
6m = 0 (note my EFHW antenna is 80m to 10m)

 

[k0ua]

20m = S5
17m = S5
15m = S5
12m = S4
10m = S6
6m = 0 (note my EFHW antenna is 80m to 10m)

Not so good.

 

[dragoneggs]

Not so good.

Yep 'we' are going to have work on it. I am taking your advice and will set up to go battery power and then try to isolate the RFI in the house.

 

[k0ua]

Yep 'we' are going to have work on it. I am taking your advice and will set up to go battery power and then try to isolate the RFI in the house.

Rgr that, worked some DX on 12 today after talking to you. Fiji and Peru. Been trying to get the guy in Guam's attention, but he is working others and ignoring me. These recent sunspots have helped 12 meters a bit.

 

[dragoneggs]

Did some Antenna tuning with the excellent help of K0UA. :thumbsup:

A learning experience on how to plot your SWR across each of the bands and then adjust length of antenna best 'dial' it in. I'm learning that my 80 to 10m End Fed Half Wave is not so good if I want a good match at both 80 and 10m. Maybe another antenna for the 6 and 10m bands will be in my future. I can see a DIY project to add to next year's list.

 

[Industrial Toys]

A friend used to be into bootleg, out of band CB radio in the early 80s. I think maybe the second time he came to my house in a subdivision, he was a little lost, but actually found the place homing in on my TRS 80, model I. True story!

 

[B7510HSD]

Did some Antenna tuning with the excellent help of K0UA. :thumbsup:

A learning experience on how to plot your SWR across each of the bands and then adjust length of antenna best 'dial' it in. I'm learning that my 80 to 10m End Fed Half Wave is not so good if I want a good match at both 80 and 10m. Maybe another antenna for the 6 and 10m bands will be in my future. I can see a DIY project to add to next year's list.

Thats strange my home built 80-10 is fine on both bands without a tuner. I added a capacitor in the balun to help with the 10m side works great.

 

[dragoneggs]

Thats strange my home built 80-10 is fine on both bands without a tuner. I added a capacitor in the balun to help with the 10m side works great.

I will probably do some more playing around but here are my measurements if anyone cares. Shown are EFHW-8010-2W Antenna tune measurements: Band / (AS IS antenna length 130ft) SWR, and SWR after antenna shortened 2ft. Sorry I don't know if it is possible to embed a file so here is the raw plain readings I took. The 'red' numbers are well above 3. You can see I sort wiped out my 10m bands trying to tune for 80m.


80m (MHz) / SWR / SWR (-2ft)
3.54 1.1 1.3
3.62 1.3 1.1
3.70 1.7 1.3
3.80 2.5 2.0
3.90 3.0 3.0


40m
7.03 1.1 1.5
7.10 1.0 1.2
7.20 1.1 1.0
7.30 1.4 1.0


30m
10.13 3.0 3.0


20m
14.0 1.2 2.0
14.1 1.0 1.5
14.2 1.0 1.3
14.3 1.0 1.1


17m
18.0 1.3 1.0
18.2 1.2 1.1


15m
21.0 1.3 2.8
21.1 1.2 2.4
21.2 1.0 1.9
21.3 1.0 1.6
21.4 1.1 1.3


12m
24.9 1.1 2.2


10m
28.05 2.9 3.0
28.15 2.3 3.0
28.25 1.8 3.0
28.35 1.4 3.0
28.50 1.3 2.9
28.60 1.5 2.4
28.70 2.0 1.8

 

[Grumpycat]

You NEED a Lollypop mic! D104 or something equally substantial. Sure 55sw? Can't be talking into no plastic mic!

I have a couple impressive Shure 55S. But I like my Heil better for communication.