[Elecraft] 160m loop experiment a big failure

[Tony Estep]

On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 8:06 AM, Steve Walter WA3A <wa3a at arrl.net> wrote:

> ....IMO, an outside ground thats brought to the 2nd floor is
> not needed and in fact will cause problems....

=========
Don, I think that Steve's comment above may be on the right track. First
things first: cobble up a good star-system for tying everything together
with short fat wire or strapping to get all the chassis at the same RF
potential. Then kill off the common mode currents that run on the outside of
your coax; I've had great luck with RF isolators from
http://www.radioworks.com/ct-4.html  I have one between K3 and amp, and
another between my tuner and the balun that goes to my antenna system. I
have a simple counterpoise system from the second-floor window to the garage
roof, and that connects to the cold side of the balun. It is also where the
outside grounding system connects. If there are still some strays, you can
use snap-on ferrites, but I have found in a couple of different
installations that once the common-mode currents on the coax are dealt with,
there aren't any further RF problems. Steve also mentions that his shack is
in the middle of a rhombic antenna, which suggests that your loop
arrangement may work fine once you get the shack setup tamed.

73 and good luck,
Tony KT0NY


-- 
http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352