Topband: My beverage only hears static?

[terry burge]

Hi Mike and the group,


Oh, the reason the antenna is going to the north is that it's the most convinenant direction to run my first beverage. I also tried some RG-11 (also scrap from some CATV company I think) as a BOG. It's about 170 feet (that's what I had) and I used it to just check and see if I could hear better with the BOG using the shield as the antenna. Same results. 


I just tried Tree's suggestion and went to the AM band and with the BOG the noise floor goes up on my P3 panadapter. At 1650 KHz I'm copying the local state weather condition and road condition channel. On AM mode it reads 59+5/10 and when I go to RX antenna I get an S-9 static with the carrier visable . Can't hear the audio The AM broadcast station just below at 1640 KHz can be copied. Tried LSB and that noise floor going up is the most noticeable thing going up. Readings about the same.


I even disconnected the antennas getting S1/2. Found when I connect ground on either XFRM input I go from S1/2  up to S-4/5.


Terry

KI7M


> On January 12, 2018 at 1:12 PM Mike Waters wrote:
> 
> 
>     Hi Terry,
> 
>     Is there a reason why you're pointing north? That's the wrong direction for
>     Aruba, especially with the very narrow beamwidth it has on 20m! :-)
> 
>     On my Beverage antenna page at
>     www.w0btu.com/Beverage_antennas.html near the bottom, is an explanation of
>     where we should point our Beverages. I now use DX Atlas, which is perfect
>     for showing what direction the other station is.
> 
>     Some tips:
> 
>     Pour a hot, concentrated solution of Epsom Salts around any
>     freshly-driven-in ground rod (see the above web site). Later, add some
>     short radials (also see the website).
> 
>     Generally, north is seldom a good direction, especially because from Oregon
>     you're pointing over the area where the least bit of Auroral activity can
>     ruin your reception.
> 
>     If you terminate it, the signals and noise off the back of your Beverage
>     will drop by about 20 dB.
> 
>     There's lots of folks here that can help you, that know more than I do
>     about Beverages.
> 
>     73, Mike
>     www.w0btu.com
> 
>     On Fri, Jan 12, 2018 at 2:44 PM, terry burge wrote:
> 
>         > > I put up my first beverage recently. It's about 550-600 feet of 17 gauge
> >         electric fence wire running to the north about 6-7 feet high. Not
> >         terminated right now but using a beverage transformer I purchased on
> >         qth.com and have not put on the termination yet. Using a 5' galvanized
> >         ground rod at the transformer and 75 ohm RG-6 surplus I got about 35 feet
> >         to my K-3 Elecraft thru an Array Solutions frontend protector to the RX
> >         antenna connection.
> > 
> >         All I get is S-5 static on the beverage. Even the strong stations barely
> >         make a ripple of noise. Is this right?
> > 
> >         I added some clamp on ferrites to see if the Common Mode Noise would be
> >         cut down but after putting 5 on the RG-6 coax there is no difference. Just
> >         that S-5 static level on any band 80/40/20/etc. Right now I'm listening to
> >         P49MR on 14.250.0 Mhz and his 57 signal does not even come thru on the
> >         beverage when I switch to RX antenna?
> > 
> >     > _________________
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>