Diving into Ham Radio... uh oh!

[k0ua]

In my case I have the real estate... the 'polluted' view is the problem for both my wife and/or neighbors depending on my placement.

I solved the wife problem back in the 80s. I got her interested enough to get her own license. (KA0NXI) Never had a problem after that. She even helped me dig the hole for my tower base when we moved here. It was hot and I was taking a break and she took pity on me. Back in the 80's she was even president of the radio club in Springfield for a while. She gambled and spent most of the treasury funds to organize the first "real" hamfest we had ever put on, renting a big expo hall. Many grumbled that she was going to bankrupt the club. Well the return on the money invested was about 3:1. The most successful hamfest anyone had ever seen in these parts. All of the grumblers loved her then of course. I never doubted her for a minute. I know when it came to organizational skills she far outranked me. People came to the nice air conditioned expo hall from hundreds of miles.

 

[k0ua]

It could be the cheapest or the most expensive consumer device in your house causing RFI.

Just hope and pray it IS in the house. Then it can be fixed.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I don't know. Kind of miss getting sunburned on the Tarmac at Dayton, or Rochester! lol

 

[k0ua]

I don't know. Kind of miss getting sunburned on the Tarmac at Dayton, or Rochester! lol

I went to Dayton 3 times. I think I got rained on at least 2 of those times. It was "back in the day" when Hara Arena wasn't SO bad. I heard it was a mess on the last ones they had there, hence to move to Xenia Oh.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I lament much, that the magic of THOSE days is gone forever! I came home with everything from printer/typewriters, fence chargers to HD garden hose! Once even got a RS model 4, BNIB for maybe twenty five bucks.

 

[k0ua]

I lament much, that the magic of THOSE days is gone forever! I came home with everything from printer/typewriters, fence chargers to HD garden hose! Once even got a RS model 4, BNIB for maybe twenty five bucks.

I used to make quite a tidy sum of profit from going to Dayton. I took a pickup truck with an 8 foot bed and camper shell and we usually came back with "stuff". One trip netted me $600 after all expenses. Bought a bunch of brand new headsets in the box and sold them to a call center when I got back. One of the guys that went with me that year, made about $2000 on some Duplexers he bought and sold to his employer.. Anytime you can finance your hobby with real money is a good thing.

 

[dragoneggs]

Just hope and pray it IS in the house. Then it can be fixed.

Well I think I have good news. I shut the main breaker off and went battery power on my rig and the noise floor dropped from 6 to 7 down to bouncing between 1.2 and 1.3.

My day job is getting in the way so I powered all back on before I started to isolate circuits.

 

[k0ua]

Mark, reference your e-mail about possibly moving your antenna, a couple of things, one thing you can do is paint it in a camo pattern that matches the background. That might make everyone happy and it won't hurt the antenna. Also if you do decide to go ahead and move it, go ahead and keep the A55Zoom for a while as you will need to take and possibly adjust again if you move it. As antennas are sensitive to the ground they are over. I am in no hurry, as I don't have any projects planned for this fall/winter.

 

[k0ua]

Well I think I have good news. I shut the main breaker off and went battery power on my rig and the noise floor dropped from 6 to 7 down to bouncing between 1.2 and 1.3.

My day job is getting in the way so I powered all back on before I started to isolate circuits.

Wonderful news. Don't forget what we discussed about moving the whole kit and kaboodle a little further from the house. One possible easy fix. Fixing everything that radiates in the house will not be easy, but of course you could get lucky and only 1 or two things might be the biggest culprits. Touch lamps are the BANE of receivers. Those things put out so much RFI they should be eliminated from our vocabulary. But good news indeed. Now all it is going to take is work and money to fix the offenders. No wonder you were having so much trouble with your AM radio in the garage.

 

[dragoneggs]

Mark, reference your e-mail about possibly moving your antenna, a couple of things, one thing you can do is paint it in a camo pattern that matches the background. That might make everyone happy and it won't hurt the antenna. Also if you do decide to go ahead and move it, go ahead and keep the A55Zoom for a while as you will need to take and possibly adjust again if you move it. As antennas are sensitive to the ground they are over. I am in no hurry, as I don't have any projects planned for this fall/winter.

Thanks James. I'm feeling pretty good about it after my second length adjustment adding back 1ft. Not sure it is worth the trouble to extend the coax and play Tarzan to get the box up in the tree. I could add a pole and raise it straight up from under the eave of the house to get some distance and some height from the house.