On Tue, 2012-10-16 at 19:49 -0500, Bill & Becky wrote: > Hi Group Has anyone found a way to improve the sensitivity on the 160 > Meter Band?? It seems less lively compared to the other bands even > after alignment. > Thanks in advance > Bill KB9IV
There really very few instances where any increased sensitivity is useful on 160M. If you listen to your radio without the antenna attached and note the audio output and then attach the antenna you will probably hear an increase in the audio output. If you do hear an increase, any additional sensitivity does you no good as the band noise will be amplified along with the signals by an equal amount. An undesirable, associated effect is that the Rx will be more easily overloaded. Figure 1 on the 2nd page of the following .pdf shows some of the factors that go into the type and amount of noise picked up by the average antenna. Note the residual noise level as you move downward thru the amateur bands. Factors such as proximity to your neighbors, the kind of consumer junk they have in use, above or below ground utilities and the like, tend toward more rather than less noise. http://www.support.seasonde.com/Technicians_Information_Page_for_SeaSondes/Site_Selection_files/HF_Noise2.pdf Now if you do not hear an increase, your BOG or 500' Beverage or 2' Rx loop might need some amplification. If you are using your Tx antenna and you are not hearing a noise increase when the antenna is attached, you might want to find out why. Some DeOxit might be in order. Someone with the appropriate test equipment might determine what the band by band sensitivity of their R4-C is to see if your experience is abnormal or par for the course. Some of the Drake equipment like the TR3 and TR4 run out of steam at the bottom of their lowest band due to the size of the tuning capacitor(s). You might verify that when the preselector is set at the bottom and top of the 160M segment you see the same apparent sensitivity. Joe, K9HDE _______________________________________________ Drakelist mailing list Drakelist@zerobeat.net http://mailman.zerobeat.net/mailman/listinfo/drakelist
