[Lowfer] EAR in EN90xn

[Michael Sapp]

Garry: I have tried a few times to copy WM overnight over the past month or 
two but no copy at all here.  Yesterday the QRN was so high as to make 
copying EAR difficult in daytime with less than a 10db SNR margin, but today 
signals were fairly good copy at more than 20 dB out of the noise.  The past 
month QRN has been excessive here compared to last summer.

I ran a test with the FT-847 and Xonar U7 USB external sound card and the 20 
dB SNR on EAR was similar although that IF receiver arrangement has lower 
background noise. A bit of an apple vs orange comparison thing.   Late 
summer is a good time to bench test and clean the connections on all the 
antenna transformers and chokes for the EWEs, so I will take some extra time 
to check things like insertion loss, return loss, choke reactances, etc. All 
those small details add up.

 I think the lightning hit a tree about 15 feet from my house and 30 ft from 
my e-probe but am not certain as the felled branch has no scorch marks. I 
replaced the e-probe fet and it has gain at LF and MF, but little or no gain 
at HF, so the toroid is likely zapped. Odd 'cuz it visually looks fine. 
I'll replace it and do a comparison inductor value test with another 
known-good ferrite core....chance there is another issue as it was a "quick 
fix" attempt...

Likely some of the charge was taken by my beacon antenna mast and yagi 
antennas on my chimney. Lots of solid and common grounding  for all the 
metal on the roof here  appears to have made an effective lightning rod... 
I should make an on-the-roof check when the wx temperatures are more 
accommodating...

I'm still a bit amazed that everything that was grounded survived with 
apparently no issues---including several computers, printer, network hub, 
etc.  I notified my ins agent of the event just in case stuff starts 
malfunctioning a few weeks down the road to preserve my claim capability...

Way too much excitement for me.... ~:)

73 Mike tts


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Garry" <k3siw at sbcglobal.net>
To: "lowfer list" <lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2016 7:44 PM
Subject: Re: [Lowfer] EAR in EN90xn


> Mike, sorry to hear about the lightning damage but like you say, it
> could have been much worse. Light copy here today of both EAR and WM.
> Not sure if that's due to nearby lightning racket or just poorer than
> average groundwave propagation. But any copy is better than nothing.
>
> 73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL
>
>


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