[HBR] THE BEST receiver

[Bob AH7I]

On Fri, 29 Jul 2005, David J Windisch wrote:

> Okay, Rob:
>
> For openers, avoid shortcuts.
>
> You need to find out whether the signals you want to hear, get to your
> canyon-bottom.  You know, like in fishing, or hunting, or sniping.  What
> ever.
>

Yep. Rob, there you go. You need signals before a receiver is going to
help.  Our place in Honolulu is up a valley. 40m sucks. 40CW is my
favorite band.  What to do? I take the rig to the beach, set up the
vertical, and I can hear the world. Your valley may be a problem in
hearing and getting a signal out as too. If it's not there, no RX in the
world will help and if they don't get in, they ain't gonna get out.

You really don't need much RX on 40CW unless you're trying to dig out a
really weak station through noise from equiatorial thunderstorms or there
is a hugw xontest in progress and you're still trying for the weak guys.
Most of the time anything I can hear on my best CW RX I can also hear on
the old 1930's National SW-3 regenerative RX. I'm talking about 40m here.

What are you using for an antenna? You won't hear much DX with it, but you
should hear a lot more signals with an antenna that favors signals from
high angles. Something set for best low angle, a DX antenna, may well be
pretty deaf there in your valley.

My Atlanta place is much better for 40DX than the valley in Hawaii. In
Atlanta I am on a ridge. Some of the highest land around. I have a
vertical plane loop antenna and can work guys in Japan that I can't even
hear from the Hawaii valley. Have worked China, Afghanistan, Australia,
India, South Africa, all over the world from the Atlanta place on 40CW
with 50W out and the loop. The only better DX locations I've lived have
been in the South Pacific and on the beach. Heck, I worked Africa on 160
CW from the middle of the South Pacific with less than 30W to a full size
vertical in the middle of a salt marsh on a small atoll.

Dave's right. Find some signals and then worry about a better RX...

73,
-Bob