[AMRadio] Hash on 3710

[Rob Atkinson]

I like VE1UJ's call sign.  : )   Sure wish I had caught you guys last
night.  I'm looking forward to hearing a 750 on the air.

But, sadly, with the return of cold dry wx, it is once again hash and buzzy
season.  Seemingly all over town, hardware on dry wood poles has shrunk just
a hair's breadth, but that's enough for a spark gap and I'm swimming in
constant 10 to 20 dB over 9 noise now.

I can null it out pretty well but it is time to get serious about
pinpointing the sources so the city electrical dept. can send crews out to
tighten up the nuts and bolts.

The car radio is a waste of time.  It picks up too much noise.  I drive
around with it on 1710 KHz but it is hard to tell the difference between a
source and a standing wave.   I need a rig in the car on 75 m.  I also have
a VHF AM rx for use in getting close to the noise but I am thinking about
getting one of those ultrasonic parabolic kits that I saw in QST.  Only
problem with them is they are expensive but if they could make locating the
source fast and easy the cost might be worth it.

In the mean time, I just had a eureka moment--I have an old radio shack 10
m. transceiver at home collecting dust. It is one of those HTX-10s--25 w.
ssb, 7 watts AM.   Hooray, an AM rx on 28 MHz!  That should be a great way
to drive around and get close to the actual poles where the noise is coming
from.  Anyone used a 10 m. AM rx for this purpose?  mag mount antenna on the
car roof?

73

Rob
K5UJ




On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 9:49 AM, Todd, KA1KAQ <ka1kaq at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 11:35 PM, Rob Atkinson <ranchorobbo at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Kelly that is excellent and maybe later in the year all of us back east
> will
> > hear you all at night on 3880.
>
> We hear 7 Land and 6 Land nicely back here once the static settles
> down for the winter. I've worked out there a number of times with
> excellent results. That 75m portion of the band is probably a lot more
> civilized and enjoyable to use out west that it is most nights back
> east.
>
> Rob, really enjoyed the chat with you, Ralph W3GL, and Dave WB4IUY
> Saturday night into Sunday morning. Excellent band conditions and
> signals stayed level the entire 3-4 hours. You stayed right around +30
> on the guesS meter. Looking forward to more of the same.
>
> Had a great chat on 3717 with KB3AHE and Johnny Novice W3JN yesterday
> evening. Johnny had his GPT-750 strapping away, sounded like he was in
> the garage with me. As we were signing off I heard a familiar call
> come in from Dave, VE1UJ in Nova Scotia. Hadn't talked to him since a
> few weeks before the move. He was coming in at times 10-20 over S9,
> made more amazing by the fact that he was running a Viking II, no amp
> or other help beyond a good aerial. That made my night!
>
> ~ Todd, KA1KAQ/4
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