Your log splitter lowers it to 0.3dB! :-)
Fred
On Wed, Feb 1, 2023, 7:11 PM David Olean <k1whs@metrocast.net> wrote:
> I forgot about my log splitter. That is #10. I'll stick to snow shoes!
> On 2/1/2023 4:52 PM, Fred Stefanik wrote:
>
> Oh come on Dave!.....1 more is only an 11% increase! That's only 0.4dB!
>
> Fred
>
> On Wed, Feb 1, 2023 at 3:03 PM David Olean <k1whs@metrocast.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi VHFers
>>
>> Last night was quite an adventure. With a VHF shack that is way out
>> behind the house, access can be difficult in winter. With about 2 ft of
>> snow, my only way to get on for the activity night was via snow shoes.
>> Fred, N1DPM suggested a snowmobile. I have so many small engines here
>> that I cringe to have any more as they are a huge amount of work with
>> maintenance, storage, and all that goes with it. Too bad my neighbor
>> doesn't have one and likes ham radio! (see below)
>>
>> I was working on all my 160 meter Beverage wires while we had some snow
>> free days, and I made the best of it. We got a big dump of snow towards
>> the end of that project, and I ended my Beverage repairs by using the
>> snow shoes. While I was traversing the property, I decided to break a
>> trail up the hill toward the ham shack. I broke a trail about 2/3rds of
>> the way up there. I stopped when I gained the ridgetop and the remainder
>> of the trail was only a slight upward walk. In hindsight, I should have
>> gone to the top as the snow developed a pretty good crust which made
>> snow shoeing pretty hard. If you have not done any snow shoeing, just
>> imagine your big web feet breaking through a hard crust, and then try to
>> lift your feet up and have those big web feet get caught on the crust
>> and you have to lift that crust along with your feet! It is difficult.
>> Last night I broke the remainder of the trail and it took a long time. I
>> left the house cat 6:15 PM and made my first contact 47 minutes later.
>>
>> It was quite beautiful trudging through the woods with all the snow, but
>> then I had to dig out the two doors of the shack. There was a lot of
>> snow all drifted up! I keep a snow shovel up there just for that
>> reason. I stowed the snow shoes and entered the building and turned on
>> the genset, 30 seconds later I saw the voltmeter come off the bottom peg
>> and go up to 120 volts. (Yay!) The 30 second delay is due to glow plugs
>> heating the cylinders for awhile so the fuel will ignite in cold
>> weather. My old military 30 KW diesel did not have glow plugs. That
>> beast had a metal bottle of ether, and you yanked a lever and sent pure
>> ether into the cylinders to aid starting in cold weather. Kaboom!
>> Since my generator repairs, the diesel has been working great! I have
>> its 12 volt battery on a tiny solar panel and charge controller, and it
>> keeps the battery healthy in winter.
>>
>> Here is my log. Conditions were OK. I cannot complain when I have two
>> contacts over 500 miles in January!
>>
>> DATE TIME CALLSIGN FREQUENCY MODE SENT RECEIVED PROP
>> GRID REMARKS
>>
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 02/01/2023 00:04 N1YCQ 222.100 SSB 59
>> 59 TR FN41LP 1st contact solid signals from
>> the Cape.
>> 02/01/2023 00:08 N1GLT 222.106 SSB 59
>> 59 TR FN42IW Wally in the derry area
>> 02/01/2023 00:10 KA3FQS 222.106 SSB 55
>> 55 TR FN20JF 311 MILES
>> 02/01/2023 00:11 K1FSY 222.106 SSB 59 55
>> TR FN31LN I think my 1st QSO.
>> 02/01/2023 00:13 K1PXE 222.106 SSB 59
>> 59 TR FN31KE Voice of Milford!
>> 02/01/2023 00:15 WW1Z 222.106 SSB 59
>> 59 TR FN42ET reliable John
>> 02/01/2023 00:15 WZ1V 222.106 SSB 59
>> 59 TR FN31 Good Buddy Ron.
>> 02/01/2023 00;16 WA3EOQ 222.130 CW 429 529
>> TR FM09 502 MILES! Thanks Howard!
>> 02/01/2023 00:26 WA1RKS 222.130 CW 559
>> 589 TR FN32IN Great tropo peak to S7! (then
>> down to about 449!)
>> 02/01/2023 00:27 WA3NUF 222.130 CW 559
>> 599 TR FN20KE 310 MILES
>> 02/01/2023 00:38 WA1MBA 222.115 SSB 59
>> 59 TR FN51AS Tom great signal 50 watts
>> 02/01/2023 00:38 N1SV 222.115 SSB 59
>> 59 TR FN42 Les
>> 02/01/2023 00:47 K1TR 222.115 SSB 59
>> 59 TR FN40IU Ed (we talked about 160 meters.)
>> 02/01/2023 00:57 KA1SUN 222.115 SSB 55 55
>> TR FN32LN FT736 120 watts 13 el yagi
>> 02/01/2023 01:02 W1AIM 222.110 SSB 59
>> 59 TR FN34 Chip in Cabot, Cheese land!
>> 02/01/2023 01:15 KE1LI 222.110 SSB 59
>> 59 TR FN41AU
>> 02/01/2023 01:25 KO4YC 222.129 SSB 42
>> 42 TR FM17GV 520 MILES
>> 02/01/2023 01:31 VE3DS 222.131 CW 559
>> 559 TR FN03FQ 433 MILES
>>
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Number of QSO listed: 18
>>
>>
>> My try with Howard, WA3EOQ was rather difficult. There was fairly rapid
>> QSB where he disappeared into the noise. I only copied him on peaks. It
>> took about 5 minutes to complete. Howard mentioned that I was pretty
>> solid there, but I had a 12 dB power advantage. Howard runs 100 watts
>> output. The only way I worked Howard was due to the low noise efforts on
>> my system here. My first try with no tower mtd preamp was not good
>> enough for EME. Yes, I made contacts, but I could tell that the other
>> station always heard me better than I heard them. Upgrade #2 was a tower
>> mtd preamp, but I was always plagued by RFI from a CH 11 digital TV
>> station at a 219 degree heading. Other directions well away from 219
>> degrees worked fine, but 219 degrees is the main heading for all the VHF
>> activity. What made the situation difficult was that the overload
>> artifacts from CH 11 did not sound like RFI. The only evidence was a
>> slight increase of the noise floor. It sounded like natural random
>> noise. Many attempts at high dynamic range preamps could not eliminate
>> the problem. I tried a LNA Technology cavity preamp and it did not fix
>> the degradation. When confronted by this, Who ya gonna call? Not the
>> Ghostbusters, but WD5AGO!!! He made up a silver plated cavity thatuses
>> a TX FET as the active device with the silver plated cavity to reject
>> the CH11 signal. After fitting that preamp in a larger box up on the
>> tower, I was finally getting down to the nitty gritty and that made it
>> possible to contact Howard and others down that way. I mention all of
>> this to relay the fact that such RFI is everywhere and it may be harming
>> your frontend. Remember that the TV signal will have peaks that are 10
>> dB above what you will see on a spectrum analyzer. TV frontend overload
>> is everywhere. On 432, I was getting hammered by a CH14 TV station in
>> Portland Maine off the back of my 432 antenna. The tower is about 45
>> miles away. I had to install a large copper HB cavity up on the tower to
>> get rid of that problem.
>>
>> KO4YC was a difficult contact as well. Cornell was using SSB and was
>> very weak. I was calling on CW in a narrow passband and heard what
>> sounded like weak SSB so I kept going between CW and SSB trying to
>> figure out what was happening. Finally we connected up with the right
>> passband and completed. Signals were very weak. I tried with K8TQK with
>> little success. A few meteor pings were heard each way. That is a long
>> haul over 700 miles.
>>
>> The shack was not as cold as I figured. It was 30F when I started and
>> soon it was rather comfortable. Still, I had the long trek back home on
>> snow shoes, so I quit early at about 8:30 so I could make it back home
>> at a reasonable time. It took about a half hour to get back home. I was
>> very [leased that I could participate in the 222 MHz Activity period and
>> would like to thank all who made an effort to get on and make noise.
>> AJ6T had an iced up antenna and apologized for not being able to
>> transmit! NiGC, AA9MY, K8TQK, W5EME, and K9MRI were all in there making
>> contacts. In the NE, semi newcomers like WA1MBA, KA3FQS, N1FSY, WA1RKS,
>> and K1FSY are adding to activity and it shows. It bodes well for an
>> upward climb in 222 MHz activity coming in the future. Thanks to all.
>>
>> Dave K1WHS
>>
>>
>> Dave's Small Engine Collection:
>>
>> Husqvarna Snow Thrower
>> Toro Snow Thrower
>> Honda Lawnmower
>> John Deere Lawnmower (his and hers lawnmowers!
>> Husqvarna Chainsaw
>> Homelite Chainsaw
>> DR Brushmower (The lawnmower of death)
>> Stihl brush cutter
>> Honda Brush cutter
>>
>> That is nine small engines that have to be maintained. Note the
>> redundancy. When you need these things you need these things!! I sold my
>> Troy-Bilt rototiller. I used to have ten engines!
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
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