Sunday, July 24, 2016, 6:55 p.m. — Happy to report one of my antenna issues is repaired and will be back in the air tomorrow; the other one is still a work in progress.
RINGO? RINGO! No, not the song by Lorne Green (though it did scare the bejeezus out of me every time I heard it as a kid), but that aging aluminum “thang” laying across my old Dodge truck bed. I mistakenly identified the wrong place the coax separated on the Ringo Ranger II. The coax pulled out of the top connector at the base of the Ringo — of course, leaving the crimp-on connector in place. I saw a warning on an eHam review about Cushcraft’s use of crimped connectors, but in this case I won’t complain — it probably saved doing more damage to the antenna or mast. I purchased a PL-259 at our local Radio Shack and promptly found two when I arrived home (go figure!). I replaced the connector and my son and I will place the antenna back in its proper place tomorrow.
WIRING WONDERS. The other antenna issue isn’t resolved, though — my long wire(s). I put up a second, shorter long wire that doesn’t go over the top of the barn, and as I mentioned, there was no difference between the two. Both fairly deaf. Yesterday I scrounged up an Icom IC-706 from under the shack bench (operating under the theory that perhaps the IC-746 was somehow deaf or malfunctioning), and hooked it up at my library listening post.
No real difference.
So now I’m wondering about the antenna tuner … N6EV dropped me a note reminding me that on these MFJ tuners, if you are using a balanced feedline you must run a jumper between one of the balanced feedline terminals and the “Wire” terminal. No, I’m running the wire straight to the tuner (not anticipating a lot of QSOs lol). But his note made me wonder if I was missing something, so I doublechecked the connections and then opened the tuner and checked wiring and solder connections; everything looked solid as far as I could tell without disassembling the tuner down to its components.
OTHER THEORIES. I didn’t think about it until today, but I’m thinking this problem may not be a lack of RF on the antenna, but an overabundance of RF noise being generated locally. I’m using a MegaWatt 30 Amp switching power supply, and though they generally have been given good eHam reviews, any switching supply is suspect in my book. My other receivers I used in the library were both operated on AC — the Hallicrafters SX-130 and the BC-348Q. Neither of those rigs were hearing well on my old long wire — and my memory is that in the past they both worked fairly well. The difference may simply be the arrival of that switching supply and any RF hash it generates. Hmmm. I may need to simply move the power supply to the shack and listen for RF.
KUDOS TO N6EV! Well, now I know who has been snapping up the eBay bargains when I can’t get back to the computer in time — N6EV! Actually, he’s scored some great deals on keys, and his site includes the results of some excellent research he has done on some of his keys. I particularly have an interest in his Glowbugs content; I just need to get my rear in gear and build something that glows. Anyway, its well worth at trip to visit www.N6EV.com.
INSUFFICIENT FUNDS. My summertime spending spree on keys and radio stuff in general is likely coming to an end for a while. My son received his associates degree in science in May and will be attending the University of Louisville as a junior majoring in physics next month. Our goal is to try to pay as much tuition in cash over the next two years as we possibly can, so that may curtail my eBay spending (until I sell some more stuff and create some available radio money).
I’m a big fan of financial talk show host Dave Ramsey, and while I appreciate the student loans my wife and I had years ago, they became like members of the family (who ate a whole lot) who overstayed their welcome. If we — with financial skin-in-the-game from our son, who is working full time this summer — can pay cash for tuition, I feel like we can avoid saddling him with student loan debt. We’ll see how that goes.
73 es CUL de KY4Z SK … GN … dit dit …