Chuck:
On 160 a Beverage muist be at least 100 ft (strict minimum) from a bigg
transmit antenna. Otherwisethe RF from the TX antenna couples into the
Beverage. You can of course tune it out by usingh a Noise canaceling device
such as the MFJ 1026. In that case you use the TX antenna as noise source
and the beverage (of course) as RX antenna.
73
John, ON4UN
At 14:42 3/3/98 -0600, you wrote:
>First, let me give my most humble apologies to the THOUSAND or so people
>who called me and I could not hear you. Explanation follows:
>
>As I am writing this, I am scratching the poison ivey I picked up from
>the two weekends I spent putting out a beverage toward Europe and
>building the full size 160 meter ground plane with the vertical element
>supported by a helium balloon. I bought a couple of the mylar balloons
>from Fair Radio Sales and mounted the base of the antenna at about 85
>feet. I stretched out the radials and put the helium in the balloon
>from a rented helium cylinder from a party store.
>
>The Fair Radio Sales surplus helium balloons are really neat They are
>shaped something like a manta ray with wings that give lift to keep the
>balloon from blowing over as far. A 80 cu ft cyllinder of helium was
>plenty to inflate the balloon and to refill it on the second evening. I
>used a little over 1/2 of the helium in the tank. The balloons have a
>ring to attach the antenna line to.
>
>I used some weedeater line and a nylon line to tie to the 1/4 wave
>vertical element. I launched the thing right before the contest. The
>SWR was perfect! The noise level on the vertical was 30 over 9! The
>noise level on the dipole at 65 feet and on the beverage was 5 over 9!
>
>I struggled through the contest with everyone I could hear telling me
>there were several people calling. When I took down the balloon at the
>end of the contest the noise level on the beverage went from 5 over 9 to
>S-1 to 2!
>The best I can figure is the plastic balloon was static charging in the
>wind and the antenna was transmitting the noise to the other antennas!
>
>Boy will I be glad to do a single band 10 in ARRL instead of 160! What
>an experience!
>
>
>--
>FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/3830faq.html
>Submissions: 3830@contesting.com
>Administrative requests: 3830-REQUEST@contesting.com
>Problems: owner-3830@contesting.com
>
>
***************************************************************
* John Devoldere, ON4UN, AA4OI, OT8T *
* e-mail: john.devoldere@innet.be *
* address: Poelstraat 215 *
* B9820 Merelbele *
* Belgium *
* mailing addres: P.O.Box 41 *
* B9000 Gent, *
* Belgium *
***************************************************************
* *
* PLEASE CALL US IN THE CONTESTS (ON4UN OR OT8T). THANK YOU! *
* *
***************************************************************
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