[Amps] My 813GG amp works

[Colin Lamb]

Hi  Scott:

I had a similar event when I fired up my amplifier on 75 meters.  I was out in the shack early in the morning, working Europe over the South Pole when my wife yelled out the window (our communication system when I am out in the shack) that the skylights were opening and closing.  She was awakened by the skylight over our bed opening and closing.

She was not a happy camper, and explaining to her that it was the fault of the skylight controller did not help, because I had installed the entire system.

The wiring was not shielded.  The controller was in a utility room near the roof.  I installed ferrite beads on each lead entering the controller as well as bypass capacitors.  Helped - but still the occasional interference.  Finally, I enclosed the entire plastic case in aluminum foil and connected to the bypass capacitors.  It is a real mickey mouse arrangement.  But, it has worked ever since.  

It also helps to move the antenna away from the controller.  The leads are the antenna, and the controller is the receiver.  

73,  Colin  K7FM


-----Original Message-----
>From: "Bowen, Scott M. (JSC-CC)[LM]" <scott.m.bowen at nasa.gov>
>Sent: Apr 30, 2007 10:22 AM
>To: Amps at contesting.com
>Subject: [Amps] My 813GG amp works
>
> Hello all,
>
>Taking some advice about putting that homebrew 813 GG, that I bought, on
>the air for a while before I try to modify it for other bands. I to try
>it on Saturday night/Sunday morning around 1230 AM for the first time.
>The wife was snoozing in bed, I thought... why not give it a go...
>
>So I tuned it up into the dummy load on 3810 kHz, driving it with 65
>watts out of my transmitter through my antenna tuner to match the
>transmitter and the amplifier, I flipped the switch the watt meter
>indicated 650 -700 watts out of the amplifier and into my antenna,  got
>a "sounds mighty fine" signal report... and then our house alarm went
>off... And it wasn't even "armed"
>
>Needless to say, the wife got out of bed... she said, well I guess it
>works, but can you not use it again until you figure out how to keep
>that from happening again...
>
>I guess the alarm system didn't like that amount of RF, but the amp
>works!
>
>Now I need to solve that alarm problem...
>
>Scott
>W5EFR
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