Archive for March 2009
Members of the NM-ARTS group saw a terrific presentation by Mike, K5KM, about how to protect your station from a lightning strike. It’s all about grounding, grounding, grounding. We learned a ton of theory plus some very useful ideas on how to protect your station, both from lightning and from the static discharge that’s often an issue during our March windstorms. Here’s a PDF of Mike’s presenation. Join their Yahoo group and get free access to all the NM-ARTS presentations.
Isaac, W5IDT proved again that DX is within our reach, bagging LY2ZZ the other night. Here’s what propo looks like to Vilnius.
By Scott Westerman – W9WSW
When we gathered to audit the logs from the New Mexico QSO party with the great guys from the Los Alamos Amateur Radio Club, the conversation turned to the challenges of suppressing ignition noise. KJ5KU has a hamstick and a Icom 706 as part of his mobile installation and recommends this link. Not only is Alan a New Mexican (he lives in Roswell), K0BG is an expert on identifying and mitigating ignition noise. A trip to his website will give you solutions along with audio examples with the fingerprints of the various devices that are often the culprits.
Fixing ignition noise can be as simple as turning on your noise blanker, Fred K9GAJ solved his issues that way, or as complex as wrapping the offending item with copper tape.
Need help? Visit K0BG.com. Your answer may well be found there.
By Scott Westerman – W9WSW
As a bunch of us hams gathered at W5FHA’s place to help him erect his new vertical antenna a couple of weeks ago, my mind faded back to my earliest days as an amateur.
We were living in a long two-story town-house building on “Sugarbush Road” in suburban Detroit and despite my great relationship with the complex manager, overt antenna installations were a no-no. I immediately popped the attic door and attached a 2 meter ground plane to a truss. One problem solved.
But hot to get on the low bands? I had built a Heathkit SA-2060 roller inductor tuner for my Ten Tec Omni, but needed something to connect it to. My shack was in the basement and as I pondered my predicament I happened to glance outside the window and saw my solution… The gutter downspout.
Our complex had a long rain gutter system that ran the length of a football field, with periodic downspouts to help drain the inevitable Michigan thunderstorms. That night, I drilled an 8 foot copper ground rod next to the down spout and, after connecting the coaxial shield to the copper, bonded the center conductor to the downspout.
With my 2060 tuner, I found I could get a nice 1:1 SWR on every ham band, including 160 meters. And since we were a the height of the sunspot cycle, the DX came rolling in.
This all came back to me today when I read the latest ARRL DX bulletin and their story about Jeff Lackey, K8CQ of St. Simon’s Island, Georgia and his HF rain gutter stealth antenna. In the March, 2009 issue of CQ, Jeff’s antenna system is diagrammed. He uses an auto-tuner and has, even at the low ebb of our sun cycle, bagged 243 “DX entities” in 38 zones. He’s confirmed 87 countries on 80 meters and… 34 states, 3 provinces and 7 countries on 160!
Since I’ve dragged my YL across the country and back again in my 30 year telecom career, she gets to pick the houses and our current location forbids external antennas. We don’t have rain gutters, but I do have a well hidden long wire that wraps the roof line of our place, terminating into an SMC 320 auto-tuner. It works great, as my recent QSOs with K5D attest.
But every time I tune up, I can’t help thinking of Sugarbush road. Proof once again that in amateur radio, anything is possible!
