Towertalk
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [TowerTalk] Field Day

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Field Day
From: Kim Elmore <cw_de_n5op@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2017 15:26:39 -0500
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
I'll bear witness to the "good connectors, properly installed" aspect of Jim's post. At this year's field day, the GOTA station was running a 43 ft vertical with an SGC 237 remote tuner about 200 ft away from the end-to-end dipoles was getting trash no matter what bands were being used. Then, it quit altogether. A brief inspection showed perhaps the worst coax connector installation I'd ever seen. On RG-8 sized cable, every bit of any solder joint I saw was cold as ice. If we wiggled it around, trash appeared everywhere, all bands, when we transmitted. My guess is that the same crummy piece of coax had been to every club FD for years. We concluded that this was clearly a case of local rectification RFI. It was at the end of field day, so we simply closed up the GOTA shop. But, I raised the issue with the next FD captain and gave him a decent write-up on all of what we saw and what needs attention. Sometimes, it's the things that shouldn't need looking after... For example, the 10 kW generator at the site donated for our use FD by the local campus police department was set to 50 Hz for some inexplicable reason. Anyone with a linear power supply was complaining that their regulation was very poor. The air conditioner wasn't acting happy, either. Everything magically got better when we switched to 60 Hz.

Kim N5OP



On 7/4/2017 11:53 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
On 7/4/2017 3:48 AM, Ed Sawyer wrote:
I have done quite a bit of "in band" low power 2 radio work. At 100 W, 2 A4 tribanders, tip to tip, 225ft separation should have still audible sounds
on the cross band portion CW vs SSB - maybe 2 - 3 S units.

SHOULD is the wrong word. MAY is the better one. And when they DO have this problem, what is needed is better radios and/or feedline chokes, not attenuation. See k9yc.com/RFI-Ham.pdf for band-by-band guidelines on the chokes. The feedline also can make a big difference. We use nothing but high quality coax with Amphenol 83-1SP connectors, carefully installed, and Amphenol (or MIL-spec surplus) adapters. "High quality coax" means that it has a very good copper braid shield. And all connectors are wrench-tight. We also use nothing but that big, high quality coax WITHIN our stations -- rig to to bandpass filters, filters to amp, amp to tuner, (or stubs), and for any switching. A poor shield connection, or coax with mediocre shielding, anywhere in the system is a BIG window through which noise and crosstalk can enter a system.

With K3s, KPA500s and C3SS on each station, we run on the CW and SSB same band for CQP with that sort of spacing and no QRM between them. At home, I've done the same with K3, Ten Tec Titan (legal limit tubes), a 3-el SteppIR on one rig and a 3-el monobander on 20M, antennas parallel/colinear about 200 ft apart within 60 kHz on CW and each not hearing the other! And I did NOT need attenuation on the K3s, and I did have the pre-amp on, needed at my often quiet QTH to hear the weakest signals on 20M and above.

However 10 -
15dB of attenuation on the receivers should kill it if it becomes
bothersome.  If you are not seeing that, consider grounding the systems
together and trying other radios (making sure the SSB radio is not over
driving).

Grounding is NOT a solution for RFI or crosstalk. Good engineering practice with respect to antenna balance, choice of feedline, and chokes on feedlines IS part of the solution.

On 40 - 160, try running a long - directional beverage, separated and to the side of the antenna if you have the room. At 100W, and with the improved S/N ratio, you should do really well. Potentially both stations could use
the same beverage for receive.

As others have suggested, dedicated RX antennas can also be a good solution, BUT -- they also require very good coax with good connectors properly installed and effective feedline chokes both at the feedpoint and at the station(s).

73, Jim K9YC
_______________________________________________



_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk


--

Kim Elmore, Ph.D. (Adj. Assoc. Prof., OU School of Meteorology, CCM, PP SEL/MEL/Glider, N5OP, 2nd Class Radiotelegraph, GROL)

/"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." //– Attributed to many people; it’s so true that it doesn’t matter who said it./

_______________________________________________



_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>