[RFI] Control cable

[donovanf at starpower.net]

Hi Gary, 


I use outdoor direct burial Cat 5 flooded cable for many of my 
control lines. Many of the inexpensive outdoor Cat 5 cables use 
copper plated aluminum wires which are very fragile. Suggest 
you use only Cat 5 cable with solid copper wires. 


73 
Frank 
W3LPL 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Gary Smith" <Gary at ka1j.com> 
To: rfi at contesting.com 
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2016 3:43:50 PM 
Subject: [RFI] Control cable 

I have a 360' run to my antennas. The coax is 7/8" 50 ohm hardline. 
There is an Ameritron RCS-8V remote coax switch at the end which lets 
me select which antenna wire to use. I'm using flat/ribbon CAT6 wire 
on the ground to control this. 

I also have a HI-Z Triangular array 100' feet from the house. It uses 
75 ohm flooded coax and the controller uses the same flat ribbon CAT6 
wire as the Ameritron switch. Both runs of ribbon are covered by 3-4 
years worth of leaves. There are ferrites on both ends of the two 
ribbon wires. 

I would like to find a better replacement than flat ribbon wire. 
Considering the long distance to the Tx antenna, I might could find a 
decent deal on fleabay. I'm sure twisted pairs would be a better 
option than ribbon. Is there a specific cable known to be good I 
ought to keep on the lookout for? 

There is a tribander on the roof with Texcom R82 cable with 8 strand 
wire connected to the rotor. I'd bought this from "The Wireman" I 
think, and it was sold as proper for rotor control. I assume it is 
considered adequate. 


I'm not having any control issues requiring a wire change, the 
problem is I'm trying to do everything I can to eliminate any source 
of RFI from my equipment and shack. When I listen with the Tx 
antennas, I hear much less RFI than I do with the closer HI-Z and I 
hear the most with the Tribander which is for all practical purposes, 
useless because of the RFI. The RFI is most notable from 40 meters & 
up and is a constant, homogeneous hash, present 24/7 and it's easy to 
see its presence with the P3. I have walked the house with an AM 
radio and haven't found anything, still need to find a radio that 
hears higher on the band to walk the neighborhood. 

That said, I do think better control wires are needed and I can 
convert the existing CAT6 wires into 4 more radials for 160. 

Suggestions? 

Thanks & 73, 

Gary 
KA1J 
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