[1000mp] FTV-1000 problems.

[Graeme Jackson]

Hi Tom, W6EIJ.
Wonder if you have tried obvious things like disconnecting 50mhz ant, or
rotating 50 mhz ant and see if noise level changes ?
Many years ago i puchased a 2 mtr transverter, its noise level was very
high, i traced it down to a zener diode in the unit, strange things can
happen,

73  Graeme  G4CKH.
-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Beltran <tbeltran@earthlink.net>
To: 1000mp@mailman.qth.net <1000mp@mailman.qth.net>
Date: 12 August 2003 14:03
Subject: Re: [1000mp] FTV-1000 problems.


>Mark said:
>> As for sensitivity, there has been an on again off again discussion on
>> this for quite some time. Apparently some units tend to be deaf'er than
>> others. I can tell you that there is a ham closeby to me that is a "big
>> gun" on 6 and I hear what he hears. Now with a large antenna array and
>> he's higher than me, he hears better, but with my 5 el CCraft at 30 ft,
>> I still work the world and also enjoy "the magic band conditions" when
>> they present themselves. Keep in mind that 6m can be frustrating too.
>> There are times when I hear stuff that my friends don't and vise versa.
>> Location location location.......
>
>Well here I go for round two - sorry to those who do not have the FTV-1000,
>or perhaps have no interest in 6 meters.
>
>I've played around with the radio, and compared notes with other local
>hams - we were all on 50.125.  On Sunday afternoon, there was a South
Dakota
>station on - I could just barely hear him above the noise - everyone else
>heard him.  What I realized, was that my noise level is S-9 - I hadn't
>really thought about it before.  Everyone else heard him at S-8 - S-9 (of
>course there is no absolute figure for an S unit).  But everyone reported
>low noise on the order of S-1 or S-2.
>
>So....it appears that the sensitivity might be okay, but the high noise
>keeps signals at or below the noise level.  I did the usual stuff - turned
>off the power to everything in the house except that room and turned off
>everything in the room except the radio - still no significant change
>(turning off the computer off did lower the noise by 1/2 S unit).  I rode
>around the neigborhood with a AM receiver - nothing unusual.  I used my
>Kenwood handheld tuned to 920 (in between radio stations)  The static was
>constant - about 2 S units.  But I went near a transformer box and there
was
>a slight plusing - but it is several hundred feet from my house, and the
>plusing was very low.  In short, I just did not find anything that would
>explain the high noise.
>
>When I got home, I went into the Mark V menu and on 9-1, turned down the IF
>gain, from "12" to "9".  On six meters, there seems to be more gain - this
>lowered the S meter noise reading substantially, down to S-5 to 7, and
>listening to a beacon - did not seem to hurt the sensitivity.  However, the
>sound of the noise did not seem to change much - it certainly did not sound
>2 to 5 S units less.
>
>My question is whether anyone had had a problem which caused excessive
>noise?  This is a "white noise" - no static sound or noise like car
ignition
>or electric motor brushes just a hiss.  In fact, what is quite odd, is that
>when I turned the IF gain down to about 3, the noise I heard in the speaker
>sounded about the same - but the S-meter went from S-9 to between 0 and
S-1.
>I understand about the Inrad front-end mod, but as I understand it, it
>improves the noise on the order of a few db - the noise here is way out of
>the range of just a few db.  One last thought, the only thing I did to
>actually lower the noise that I heard, was to turn off my computer - could
a
>processor inside the Mark V be causing the noise?  Anyone with any
>experiences?  Tom W6EIJ
>
>
>
>
>
>
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