[TowerTalk] antennas and line filtering

[Pete Smith]

At 08:11 PM 2/5/03 -0600, Wes Attaway \(N5WA\) wrote:
>3. Disconnect your antenna from the back of the radio and replace
>it with a short (6") wire.  You should hear little or no noise
>(of the type you have described) if the noise is coming from
>someplace beyond your immediate vacinity. If the noise is still
>very loud then you have to suspect something right in your shack,
>or house.  If the noise is very subdued, or gone, with the 6"
>wire in place, then you need to refer to texts re tracking down
>an external noise source.


You can also attach a short piece of coax with a 1-2 turn loop on the end 
to your antenna terminals and use it to sniff out specific sources of 
radiated noise.  After being told about this, I made up such a "sniffer" 
and was amazed to be able to distinguish between my monitor and a noisy 
power supply virtually right next to it.  This technique can also spot 
leaky cables.

BTW, there is an RFI reflector (rfi at contesting.com), and its archive is a 
good source of information on noise finding techniques.

73, Pete N4ZR
The World HF Contest Station Database was updated 1 Feb 03.
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