>I guess it is time to let out a secret.
> I have access to an antenna which allows me to be one of the biggest
of the big guns from the East Coast. BUT, there is a problem.
> I am an active duty member of the USCG, and while stationed at
Training Center Capy May (NJ) I have been eyeing the Loran Support Unit,
another USCG base across the harbor. They have 2 towers on sight, a 625ft
top loaded Loran C tower, and a 129ft tower Loran A tower that is no longer
in use. I finally contacted the right person, and I have been granted
permission to use the 129ft tower whenever I'd like.
> As I mentioned, it is a 129 foot tall, base insulated tower, guyed with
with a fiberglass like material. There are 100+ radials, each 300ft long.
It is in an awesome location, the Atlantic ocean is only 300ft to the South
East, with salt marsh in all other directions for miles. There is quite a
bit of open space for Beverages. If you want to look it up on a map, find
the southern tip of NJ, it is located between the towns of Cape May and
Wildwood.
> I am presently feeding the tower directly with coax, center conductor
to the tower and ground braid to the ground system. The tower is reasonant
at 1500KHz, so I am using a MFJ 300w tuner and my kenwood 930 barefoot.
Testing with Peter WW2Y and his 4 square 100 miles to the north, we are
very similar strength wise. GW3YDX said Peter was a little louder in
Europe, while KP4SN said I was louder in the caribbean.
> Now the problem. I am suffering some MAJOR interference at the site I
have never heard before. It seems to me to be Broadcast interference. On
the transmit antenna it is almost 40Db over S9 across the band. Is is a
wideband hash which varies by 5 Db in strength every 5 KHz or so (gets
weaker, then stronger, then weaker, ETC). It makes SSB quite difficult. On
CW, my primamry mode of choice, it isn't as bad, about S7, and on the 700ft
northeast beverage it is only S3 (the only Beverage I have up at the
moment). I hear Europe OK on the beverage, but I think weak callers would
be covered up by the noise.
> Here is the question: Am I correct in thinking this is BCI? What are
the possible solutions? I have 3 possible sourses. #1 there is an AM
broadcast tower about 4 miles NW of me, just across the salt marsh. When
listening on its TX frequency it pegs the needle with 30db of attenuation.
This is what I think the cause is. #2 The Loran tower 1/2 mile to my west.
It is only used for testing, and is rarely on the air. I don't think they
have used it the last couple weeks while I have been on the air from the
site. #3 there is a Navy VHF aircraft relay beacon (something like that) on
the top of the tower. It is isolated from ground, power is fed to it
through an isolation transformer, the type used to feed electricity to
lights on other broadcast towers.
> I plan on using a 160m bandpass filter which should help a little. Any
other ideas a poor coastie (no money) can try out to eliminate or reduce
this noise?
>Sorry for running on, I wanted to describe the situation best as possible.
>Thanks for reading it....
>73, Dave N2NL
>
>
N2NL@ALGORITHMS.COM
******************************************
Dave Mueller, N2NL
ex KE2PF/NH2/KH0/DU1,3/V63PF
Machinery Technician, Active Duty
US Coast Guard, Cape May NJ
******************************************
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