Well, with help from Carl Moreschi, N4PY, I think I've solved the mystery of
my computer monitor noise and signal improvement . . . Carl, in e-mail to
me, said . . .
"If any of your coax connectors had an open to the shield side (very common
problem),
you would have a lot of excess monitor noise because of poor shielding in
the shack."
Well, when I hooked up the new 238A, I positioned it in a different spot
than the LDG had been, and grabbed a couple "older" longer patch cords to
hook it up . . . these were some I'd made up some time ago, using genuine
plain jane Amphenol PL-259s. The one's I had taken off the LDG, I put back
on, and problems returned . . . the soldering was bad on the "new" PL-259s
and they also didn't quite fit correctly on the corresponding SO-239s . . .
My fault for sloppy soldering, I suppose, but also the last time I buy
"bargain" PL-259's at Dayton . . . from a major dealer who advertised in QST
regularly. These new ones were the silver Teflon variety that are supposed
to be easier to work with, but I guess the solder flowed before it really
had a chance to work . . . and there were bad connections all around . . .
and the threads just don't quite match up . . .
I went out to the place we're building out in the country and checked the
coax I've run to my G5RV. I thought there was a problem with THAT Antenna
after I put it up. . . but no, another bad PL-259 . . . I had a length of
coax with the standard Ampenol connectors on it . . . hooked it up out there
to my TenTec Century 22 (which I run off a tractor battery, no power run out
to the house yet) and it worked like a champ . . .
Guess I learned a lesson . . . good one to learn . . . now I've got some new
PL259's ordered and I'm going to replace all my patch cords with carefully
soldered ones . . .
Thanks for all the responses . . . 73 de Rick, WQ8Q
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