So here's the procedure for small signal work here.
Send the garage to cold iron as it contains two PWM controllers and a LOM server that is WOL but still has switching supply noise.
Four breakers go down. These control the heat plant , the leg that has all the Comcrap/Xfinity garbage on it , 220 to the kitchen, and the laundry room.
Bench supply and oscilloscopes off
Freq counter off
AVTVM, HVVTVM, LVVTVM, off
Local computer to stby/WOL (minimal drain and imperceptible addition to the noise floor)
MN2700B Pi-L tuner used much like a preselector .(working on a 2MHz BPF for 40m)
Low loss plenum coax, regularly dry nitrogen purged.
80m OCFD http://www.w8ji.com/windom_off_center_fed.htm @ 80' AGL E-W
Kenwood TS830S that can't get much closer to it's intended alignment.
I narrow up the VBT to 2k, slide the IF low (LSB), and compensate with tone.
I listen through old skool Koss medium impedance headphones (approx 32 ohms)
Only then do I reach for the attenuator and turn it off and ride the RF gain.
It's about all I can do, for now. Other than the 40m BPF I'm working on a second 80m OCFD with an adjustable phase coupler to parallel the existing OCFD.
A random wire tuned vertical. (I have tall trees)
A horizontal loop. (Yes, I know , mostly NVIS but we all know they have their unexplained moments.)
Adjustable feed point vertical delta loop
And
Microwave link to a mountain 22 miles away that has a significantly lower noise floor.
I can be heard by numerous stations that I can not hear so the only way I can hear them is to plant an SDR on the hill and pipe it down here. It may seem extreme but I live in random radio frequency noise hell. Kill the grid in the neighborhood and my noise floor drops to atmospheric . Turn the grid back on and it's 4-5S minimum, 6S nominal and 8S not uncommon. So no wonder my attenuator is usually in .
There is one of those stations that sit right on the cusp of legibility in Central Kalifornia . A good test of my operating skills. There is another in Detroit as well as family in Texas that I am trying to close the gap with. I'm just going to have to science the hell out of this. Isn't that what it's all about ?
Send the garage to cold iron as it contains two PWM controllers and a LOM server that is WOL but still has switching supply noise.
Four breakers go down. These control the heat plant , the leg that has all the Comcrap/Xfinity garbage on it , 220 to the kitchen, and the laundry room.
Bench supply and oscilloscopes off
Freq counter off
AVTVM, HVVTVM, LVVTVM, off
Local computer to stby/WOL (minimal drain and imperceptible addition to the noise floor)
MN2700B Pi-L tuner used much like a preselector .(working on a 2MHz BPF for 40m)
Low loss plenum coax, regularly dry nitrogen purged.
80m OCFD http://www.w8ji.com/windom_off_center_fed.htm @ 80' AGL E-W
Kenwood TS830S that can't get much closer to it's intended alignment.
I narrow up the VBT to 2k, slide the IF low (LSB), and compensate with tone.
I listen through old skool Koss medium impedance headphones (approx 32 ohms)
Only then do I reach for the attenuator and turn it off and ride the RF gain.
It's about all I can do, for now. Other than the 40m BPF I'm working on a second 80m OCFD with an adjustable phase coupler to parallel the existing OCFD.
A random wire tuned vertical. (I have tall trees)
A horizontal loop. (Yes, I know , mostly NVIS but we all know they have their unexplained moments.)
Adjustable feed point vertical delta loop
And
Microwave link to a mountain 22 miles away that has a significantly lower noise floor.
I can be heard by numerous stations that I can not hear so the only way I can hear them is to plant an SDR on the hill and pipe it down here. It may seem extreme but I live in random radio frequency noise hell. Kill the grid in the neighborhood and my noise floor drops to atmospheric . Turn the grid back on and it's 4-5S minimum, 6S nominal and 8S not uncommon. So no wonder my attenuator is usually in .
There is one of those stations that sit right on the cusp of legibility in Central Kalifornia . A good test of my operating skills. There is another in Detroit as well as family in Texas that I am trying to close the gap with. I'm just going to have to science the hell out of this. Isn't that what it's all about ?
