[ADXA] directionally challenged

[Jay Bromley]

Hi Joel,
I heard about the Big Hammer years ago from a west coaster!  Around here near Hooterville, you would have to be very careful.  Once a lineman told me to get out of the way because they were going to whack the line!  That line has three splices in them!  While they rarely break, they can.

My two biggest problems were exactly ¼ mile away, one was out to a mile and that one as at the substation.  I love being able now to hear electric fences, that use to drive me crazy!  After many years of super high noise that almost caused me to go off the air, they are now a welcome sound as they are just above my noise floor.  I continually think and look for the noise to come back, but now know how to track it down to the pole level.  Thanks to Mark K5OO.

BTW, I watched K5VR play with a guy wire on a pole once and it played like an Evil guitar.  Loose hardware is not funny and could be very dangerous!  Yes, there was a bad arrestor and old hardware not being used.  This pole was nearby and new.

73 de jay/w5jay..
________________________________
From: adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of w5znjoel at gmail.com <w5znjoel at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, December 5, 2025 7:28 AM
To: 'Dennis Schaefer' <dennisw5rz at gmail.com>; 'ADXA' <ADXA at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [ADXA] directionally challenged


Somewhat funny story, Dennis in that I have never whacked a power pole with a big hammer here, simply because I’m a bit scared to HOWEVER when Entergy was out here late last summer confirming a severe sparking line noise issue that I had already identified, it was intermittent on a lightning arrester ¼ mile away on the highway. The “investigating crew” heard it, thought they had confirmed the exact pole so to confirm the head guy said “Jim get that big ass sledge hammer out of the truck and whack that pole”. When “Jim” did, the sparking went wild!!



So, while it is definitely NOT recommended that we do this, apparently the Entergy folks are quite familiar with, and use, this “specialized technique” !!!!  😊



73 Joel W5ZN / ZF2ZN



From: adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Dennis Schaefer
Sent: Thursday, December 4, 2025 4:26 PM
To: ADXA <ADXA at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [ADXA] directionally challenged



Which way is up?



During the DX contest, I turned the beam SE and worked ZF5T quickly on several bands.  They were booming in, with a big signal.  Saturday morning, I noticed  EU was weaker than I expected and ZF was coming in better from about 60 degrees.  Sticking with BIC guidelines, I couldn’t be bothered to go outside and actually look at the antenna.



I tried unsuccessfully to work 4U1UN, a band counter on 10M.  The signal was best around 300 degrees.  I finally went out and looked,  and discovered the antenna was off course.  EU was much stronger when the indicator showed NW.  This was more than calibration could fix, so I corrected the rotator scale with a dry erase pen and will deal with it soon.  (I did bag 4U1UN once I got this figured out).



Since my dead trees have been removed, I can put the Pennant receive antenna back up.  Last year, my main noise source was to the South so I put the null toward that direction.  The South noise source has disappeared.  I never did figure out where it was coming from.  Now the noise is from the power pole that is to the North.  Putting the null to the North is not ideal for DX but I think I would get the best S/N by doing that.   I need to figure out a new ideal location for the pennant and how to steer the null.  The weather is not cooperating with this.



Maybe I should give the pole a few whacks with the BFH.  Although I have never done that, nope, never, I have heard of it being done.  But again, I’ve never done anything like that, no sir!  Did I mention that I would never do anything like that, and if I did, I would be sure nobody saw me :)



73,

Dennis/RZ
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