I recently developed a SEVERE case of TVI to my home.
It was total wipeout on 17, 20, 30, 40. Not so bad on 80 or 160.
Very little on frequencies higher than 18 meters.
Today was mild temps and I tried the following.
I made a dramatic improvement in the above 17 meter tvi.
Imagine this.
I have two sets of 8 ft. ground rods. One rod is right outside the wall and
is connected
to my 'on wall copper strip bus'.
That's a thick piece of 2" wide copper that I mounted a number of brass
bolts, washers, and thumb nuts on.
All my equipment has short lengths of thick braid to the different bolts.
One LARGE braid goes through the wall to a ground rod.
The tower is approx 5 feet away and has it's own ground rods around three
sides of the perimeter of the base. (forth side is adjacent to the
foundation wall but has it's own ground rod going through the concrete to
the earth below.) Well below the bottom of the concrete.
I had a heavy strap connecting the one near the wall to the ring of rods
around the tower.
When I removed that strap, the tvi diminished to almost an imperceptible
level.
Also the harsh, raw sidetone note improved to a normal tone.
Obviously there is a difference in potential in that 5 feet????
Why would the tvi be worse when the tower and the shack systems were tied
together?
I thought that was a good thing?
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I wished the buck stopped here, as I could use a few.
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Bill H. in Chicagoland
w9ol@billnjudy.com
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