- Dec 30, 2012
- 6,996
Thanks.
Amateur Radio FAQ
- Thread starter K31
- Start date
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Thanks.
Winged Pig
Active Member
Don't give up hope.
There are several options you have that can be of limited visibility to your neighbors, and also the flagpole route. You don't need to get the antenna up above one hundred feet to make it work. My first wire antenna was up about ten feet and while it didn't work as well as it did when I elevated it, it still worked well enough to make lots of contacts.
Keystone70
MSI Executive Member
You said no trees in back. What about the front yard?
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Following up on my earlier post: just got a heads up from the FCC that I’m now the proud licensee of my late uncle’s call sign. Only took about two weeks, and that’s with two federal holidays in the mix. I’ll smile in his memory every time I use it. OK, time to start actually pushing that transmit button!
- Dec 30, 2012
- 6,996
Congrats Occam!
Winged Pig
Active Member
Congratulations, now start making contacts!
- Jan 31, 2009
- 3,285
Congrats! Hope you were able to get a 1x2
Didn't feel the urge - wanted to scoop up my late uncle's call that he had for more than half a century. He had (and now I have) a W0xxx and that extra character is pure nostalgic charm and homage for me. Couldn't be happier.
My lot is a big triangle I only have about 40’ frontage my house ls about 25ft from the street. There are two tall Maples marking the property corners but it seems like it would be extremely obvious to attach an antenna to them as the wire would be suspended directly over the sidewalk below.
I’m not giving up. I’ve been reading up a bit on everyone’s suggestions and I think there is a lot I can do to reduce the effects.
First off, my antenna is really too short to be resonant at 80m, and I suspect that trying to transmit at that wavelength created a very high SWR and that may have contributed to the current transfer to the devices. I’ll just stick to 20m and 40m for now, it seems like I can reach pretty far in the right conditions.
Just in case 20m and 40m present a problem, I can take K31’s advice and put ferrite chokes on the thermostat control wires, and ground the unused wires. Also I’m thinking about wrapping the entire 8 wire control line in foil tape and clamping it to the air handler frame which is grounded.
Also I think I do have the ability to measure current transfer. I’ve got a mico-current probe and an Oscilloscope. So I’m thinking of conducting a simple test, where I isolate one of the thermostat control wires that run parallel first. Then with the breakers off to the lights and HVAC up stairs, I’m going to transmit some ft8 again at 80m, 40m, 30m and 20m, and record any measured current in the control wire. At least this way I can see what’s really going on.
Thanks again for all of your guys advice.
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Man I was looking forward to calling our for KCBOOB on the air.
I’m glad you got your uncle’s call. Thats cool.
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Keystone70
MSI Executive Member
You might be surprised. My wire hangs over the driveway. I don't think HOA can say anything about a wire in the trees. People put Xmas lights in trees. I would do it and see if anyone says anything and then fight it. Won't cost you much
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I’ll still answer to that just on principle.
I got the news to his wife, my aunt, who is thrilled. She has her General and her own call, and is really happy I could get it done.
To give credit where credit is due, another member, mac1_131, brought up ferrite cores before I did.
I don't know if your amp meter is going to read accurately at HF frequencies. I was going to suggest a power meter, most SWR meters will read power also but again this would be going down the road of using a device for something it wasn't originally meant for. IANAEE
If you go the ferrite core route, I would add them to both ends. I don't know your HVAC system but it's possible you have electronics on that side as well.
Ferrite cores effectiveness is increased quite a bit by looping the conductors through the ferrite ring or clamp-on. The clamp-on has to be made for several times the diameter of the control wires of course. That is if you have slack to do wraps. It quickly eats up wire length. If you don't, multiple clamp-ons can add opposition but IIRC not as much as looping the wire through the ferrite core.
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Winged Pig
Active Member
As of yesterday your new call sign was in the FCC database, but not on QRZ. That appears to be rectified today! Congratulations again!
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- Dec 30, 2012
- 6,996
Just watched a good video from Josh Nass on rfi in the shack & how to isolate & lessen it.
Winged Pig
Active Member
Nice vid. Thanks for posting it.
I've seen some of this other videos. Always informative.
Fired up a new to me Icom 7300 last night. Made my first HF contact in probably 15 years on 40 meters to Italy on about 25 watts and a crappy wire.
FUN! So cool to put something out there and have a far off station come back.
Still seems like magic every time.
I need to get my tower and beam up this summer.
KD4VMM
FUN! So cool to put something out there and have a far off station come back.
Still seems like magic every time.
I need to get my tower and beam up this summer.
KD4VMM
