Hi all,
I am having a ball with my new K2, (S/N 4275). I finally busted through
the 15 WPM barrier and am on my way to 20 WPM. Now to my problem...
My antenna is a 100' length of wire fed by 50' of RG8X Mini. The feed point
is at 10' off the ground through a balun. The wire arches up to about 25' in
the tallest tree on our lot and the wire points roughly south. The backside
is a 60' length of 12 GA insulated wire thrown over the roof, (my property line
is less than 10' behind the feed point). There is a power line at the same
height as the balun just over the property line, (about 12' away). The noise
blanker has no appreciable effect on noise, so I doubt if power line noise is
having much effect. My K2 also has the KAT2 which matches up at 1.3:1 on
40-meters. My power supply is an Anstron SS30 which is about 4' away from the
radio. The power supply has no effect on a computer about the same distance
away.
The noise seems to be white in nature and not the 60-cycle hum.
Periodically, the noise will fluctuate about 2 s-units which I attribute to
scatter
effect.
Several people have indicated that I have busted through pileups with
10-watts out. Others have indicated that I had the strongest signal out there
at
times...Usually in Utah and Texas. I live in Boulder, CO.
My problem is that I cannot hear the incoming signals very well through the
5-7 S-units of noise between 1830-2100 when I can get on the radio. I just
completed realigning my receiver with the Spectrogram software.
I have not been able to work anything outside of the US since I finished my
K2 and got my General license about 4-weeks ago. I also cannot work anything
or anybody between 0500-1830. Sometimes I can find a weak signal but I can
never get back to them on 5-10 Watts. Is this the norm for this cycle?
I'm seriously thinking about buying as 5-band Hustler to ground mount behind
my shack. I've been told that my signal to noise ratio would improve
considerably by a salesman at a local store. He suggested either the Cushman
or the
Hustler and indicated that for the $350 difference, the Hustler receives almost
as good as the Cushman. Any thoughts? I'm getting pretty desperate. I can
use all the Morse Code programs in the world but it all gets boring after
about 5-minutes, otherwise, I can talk for hours to real people! For a
newcomer,
its kind of like fishing...you never know what you've got till you bring it
in. One of the most fun aspects is looking them up in the ARRL database to get
an address to send a QSL card to. At 54, I thought I'd done it all...LIFE IS
GOOD!
Thanks all
73 de Terry - KC0QZX
_______________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
