Hi Greg,
My noise is not S-9 - at least not over the entire band nor constant
around the clock. I do have some manmade noise issues. In my case a
mag-loop antenna on receive has been a lot of help. I doubt there is any
perfect antenna. But it won't cost you a lot to brew a mag loop from
some soft drawn copper tubing, a half decent variable cap and some wire,
glue, screws, plastic or wood supports. Just whiz it together for a
'proof of concept' at your location. If it seems useful build a better
version or reinforce the one you have made. Things need to be
weatherproof to live outdoors very long.
The nulls are the main 'feature' of those antennas and can be sharp and
deep looking through the donut on each side. They are fairly narrow but
if you rotate the antenna and/or tilt it the nulls will be *OBVIOUS*.
Due to the size (about five or six feet diameter for top band) the
signal strength will be less than for a five element yagi at 150 feet. I
have not needed a preamp with my radios to hear some DX. The tuning is
very touchy too. Without a reduction gear (or similar) drive you'll need
a light tough on the tuning cap and you may need to hold your breath to
get it right. I have a dual gang tuning cap with the reduction gear
built in and that helps a lot.
So spend an afternoon putting something together on the cheap and try
it. You won't have much to lose (the materials can be re-used) and it
may help you.
73,
Bill KU8H
On 04/20/2016 07:38 AM, Greg's wrote:
Always I have wanted to permamanently run Topband, but there is just too much
QRM and RFI at BOTH my station locations.
After a late season ice-storm took out power for much of my area last weekend, I was
SHOCKED at the activity and weak signals that were now heard. Totally amazing- but also a
disappointment -as it proved just how much of our S9 hash-noise is manmade,
electrically generated or supported RFI from "inferior design" devices, bad
power line connections etc. It is not
just atmospheric.
Are quiet magnetic loops the answer? I can't believe they will come close to
providing what I heard ( or didn't hear!) , but am open to advice. Is it worth
having a 160m system on standby for those opportune times when an electrical
blackout gives me my bands back? I wonder.
Q For you folk in the quiet locations, enjoy and protect!
But it was almost a religious experience hearing a 160 metre band full of
signals over an S-0 background noise. Yes. All other bands from 70 KHz to UHF
were, equally ethierial! Spectacular experi
Z
Tthanks for letting me share my awakening.! Oh, if only it were like this all
the time!
Greg
VE3FAX
FN04
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