You could try setting up counterpoises for the ham-stick. If it's for the 20m band, then ra few adial wires about 5m long should help. Connect to the earth side at the base of the ham-stick. They're 1/4 wavelength so if tuned correctly will act as a low impedance to the RF energy at the base of the antenna providing what some call a "virtual earth". They effectively form the bottom half of the dipole antenna.
You'd want to protect your equipment. Another part of this equation would be to stop RF going back down the outside of the coax to the radio. If you don't have a choke ferrite to work with make a coil with the coax. Inductance increases with diameter and amount of turns. Also lower power. If you do the above then your antenna will be working more efficiently anyway and you may find that you're doing well on 10W or less as well as being safer. I got UK to USA on 10W on 20m this weekend using Morse Code. Antenna was bigger which helps, though it was a dipole who's main radiation pattern would have been more North/South (just the way our garden is oreinted) not East/West. - Richard On Tue, 21 Apr 2020 at 10:14, Richard Corfield <richard.corfi...@gmail.com> wrote: > It really sounds from the posts as if the radio and everything connected > to it was acting as counterpoise to the ham-stick. This is dangerous > because it means your radio is acting as part of the antenna. You don't > want to touch antennas while they are transmitting, especially at higher > power. > > The RF choke on the USB cable was doing its job to try to protect the > computer from stray RF. If the radio is acting as part of the antenna then > a lot of power is going to be heading down that USB cable (a > USB-Cable-Counterpoise) and the choke will be absorbing it (or some of it) > before it hits the computer. The choke has become hot because it's > absorbing that RF energy. Current is flowing through it for it to get warm, > so some energy will still be reaching the computer. > > It implies that a fair amount of your 50W may not be getting into the air > at all but getting into equipment and anything touching or connected to it. > > - Richard > > > On Mon, 20 Apr 2020 at 20:59, Rick Bates, NK7I <rick.n...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Jerry, >> >> Ignoring how you've set up your station for the moment (every station >> has compromises but some push that to an extreme); the shutdown of the >> connection is likely that RF got into the USB cable (as demonstrated by >> the hot ferrite) which caused the USB port hardware to lock up. >> >> USB hardware can 'stick' so it won't work properly, a complete power >> cycle empties it of any charge, 'unsticking' the hardware. (Yah a gross >> simplification, but you get the point.) >> >> The only SURE way to restore it to function (assuming it's not blown) is >> a complete power down (unplugged from all power, let the power supply >> drain, disconnect the laptop battery, count another ten seconds) and >> restart. That is why it worked after you 'cooled it off'. >> >> If you can shift to a real serial port (not a serial dongle), that will >> help. USB is RF intolerant compared to serial. It's simplest to avoid >> USB as much as feasible near any RF. >> >> If you can't avoid USB, you'll need to add a lot more ferrite or better >> yet, improve the antenna situation dramatically. >> >> In the cases I MUST run a USB connection, I distance the antenna from >> the computer as much as possible and I run <100 watts (QRP to me), but >> generally that's when I run a portable station. Jim, K9YC will tell you >> it's related to 'Pin 1' and the short version is that is has to do with >> bonding all things to a common ground; USB devices often ignore this. >> >> In a few cases, improved bonding between the computer and radio /may/ >> help, but I'd have low hopes if the antenna is mere feet away. Take the >> hot ferrite as a warning sign, it's not a healthy environment. >> >> 73, >> Rick NK7I >> >> >> On 4/18/2020 5:46 PM, ae...@carolinaheli.com wrote: >> > Today I was working a digital mode (FT8) and lost connection to the >> radio. I >> > cycled power with no success. On reseating the USB connection at the >> > computer I felt the ferrite core was HOT. The cable didn't feel hot at >> all. >> > I'm using a 20m hamstick in the office as my antenna. I shut everything >> down >> > to cool off. Afterwards everything seems to be working correctly. >> > >> > Any ideas? >> > >> > Tnx and 73 >> > >> > Jerry D. Moore >> > >> > AE4PB >> > >> > ______________________________________________________________ >> > Elecraft mailing list >> > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >> > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm >> > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net >> > >> > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >> > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html >> > Message delivered to rick.n...@gmail.com >> ______________________________________________________________ >> Elecraft mailing list >> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm >> Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net >> >> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html >> Message delivered to richard.corfi...@gmail.com > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
