[Elecraft] Noise Problems...still

[Tom Hammond]

Hi Terry:

>Well, the noise level has been lowered a lot, but I'm still getting
>higher noise levels than I think I should.  On 40-meters, I am getting an 
>average of S2-4 peaking at S5 around the time thunderstorms begin to form.

Can I have your weather, please? Out here in the midwest (MO), it's not at 
all unusual for me to have S9+ noise during the summer months when 
thunderstoams are still quite some disstance away.

I'd KILL for ONLY S2-S4 atmospheric noise on 40M!!!

>I've put up a vertical which helped.  Putting down 12 tuned radials, 2 for 
>each band, helped even more.

Unfortunately, as soon as you 'put them down' on the ground, they're no 
longer 'tuned', but they will still work WELL! SO don't sweat it one bit.

>Moving the power supply a few feet away may have also made a difference 
>but I can't tell by ear.

Probably only if it had a sizeable electro-magnetic field which might have 
been 'modulating' the K2's PLL... which is generally doubtful, bot not 
totally out of the question.

>I am using the standard red/black zip type supply line from the power 
>supply to the radio.  I am wondering if going to coax to supply power to 
>the radio may not drop the noise level even more? I would think that the 
>R/C tank in the radios power circuit would take any ripple or noise out 
>but maybe I'm wrong.

Going to coax INSIDE THE HOUSE, will probably not be worth the added 
effort. 90%-95% chance whatever noise you're hearing is NOT being generated 
IN the house... and whatever might be, probably won't be filtered out by 
using COAX.

>I also have a ground that is a 20' long piece of 10GA bare copper wire
>running to a single lightning rod from a second story window.  I'm now 
>wondering if this wire isn't acting like part of the antenna or maybe 
>injecting my transmitted signal back into the receiver via the power 
>supply.  Since I'm only running 5-10 watts output, should I use coax for 
>the ground as well and decouple it with ferrite beads just in case?

Actually, the ground you have is probably NOT being very helpful with 
regard to acting as an RF ground. But it might be helping a bit as an AC 
ground. It's probably long enough that it has more than ample reactance at 
HF to make it appear as a high impedance (e.g. not an RF ground). If you 
feel you need it for RF purposes (counterpoise or RF ground), you might 
want to consider 'tuning' it with something like the MFJ-931 'Artificial 
Ground':

http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?prodid=MFJ-931

This is one of the few MFJ products which I feel works as advertised, and 
decently well, too. But, it is a 'specialty' device, and I'd recommend it 
ONLY if you need it for providing an RF ground from the 2nd floor. It will 
probably NOT help get rid of any noise you might be receiving.

Such a device can be built for wuite a bit less than the $90 they're asking 
for it... takes a small tuning capacitor, an inductor, a meter, and a SMALL 
handful of additional parts... might not look as pretty but it'd be 
functional. Making it 'purty' comes AFTER you make it work.

>For a beginner, this is all pretty confusing!  I read so much, trying to 
>come up to speed quickly. The problem is that I begin confusing which 
>solution goes to what problem I remember reading about last month in some 
>periodical can't remember.

You're a General Class amateur, try using 20 meters during the day and 
early evening, rather than 40M. 20M (actually any band higher in frequency 
than 40M) will be lower in atmospheric noise, and my produce better 
listening conditions.

During the summer, 40M and 80M generally are pretty noisy, due to more or 
less local storms... being in CO doesn't help your case much, as I've seen 
how readily those storms can kick up out there (here too!). There's 
NOTHING(!!!!) you can do about this, other than go to a higher frequency 
band and hope it's open to somewhere. As you get closer to Fall, the 
atmospheric conditions will moderate and 40/80M will again become much more 
productive... and quiet... but right now, you can't fight Mother Nature... 
so go with the flow, take your lumps and find a quieter band, if you can.

73,

Tom Hammond    N0SS