[Hammarlund] Hammarlund Restoration & Noise Level

[Frank Barnes]

I had posted earlier about restoring a HQ-129-X and how much I liked it.
 But the QRN noise level was intolerable at my location, wiping out almost
every station.

Antenna in use was a ~400 foot low elevation random wire snaked in a rough
"J" shape through the woods behind my house.

I just added another 100 feet of wire to it and converted it to a
roughly-shaped LOOP antenna, fed with 450 ohm twinlead.   Bingo!   The
noise disappeared almost completely and I now have dozens of stations to
choose from.

Horizontal loops are known to be less responsive to radiated interference
from various devices, and noise in general, but I did not realize how much
difference one would make.

I can tune in CHU on 7.85mhz in the morning and the receiver will sit on it
all day without drifting, after warm-up.   CHU is in Ottawa.   Oddly, I can
almost not hear WWV from Fort Collins, CO,  on 10mhz...very weak and
sometimes not at all.  I can't imagine that the "loop" is directional.

I think that even a 100 foot loop would perform well.   Receiving - only,
of course, not for transmitting.   I'm happy with the HQ now.
Frank
W4NPN

-- 
Frank Barnes
W4NPN
Chapel Hill, NC
Grid Square FM05
Cell 919.260.7955