Tony: I am sure that you can find evidence of the effect of weather on rf (see below).
One of the things I notice is that cw signals sound weaker while it is raining. I always thought that that was because the rain was washing some of the rf out of the air, leaving a smaller amount of radio waves to induce emf in my antenna wire. Since it is also possible that the rain may be washing voltage off the antenna wire itself, I've been thinking of bring the antenna inside the garage, so that the metal roof could shield it from the rain. The other thing I notice is that all the ham bands seem to get weak towards the middle of the day and in the early afternoon. I always thought that had to do with the effects of the heat of the sun. You know how hot and tired you get at 2pm in the afternoon if you are out in the sun. All you want to do is to relax in the shade with a long cold drink. Why not the same situation for radio waves? After all, they are as much a part of nature as you and I. What you say? How come the waves are also weak if it is raining and overcast in the middle of the day? I thought I answered that in the preceding paragraph. What I don't seem to follow, and there doesn't seem to be an explanation for it, is what happens to the feedline when rf is frozen on the antenna, and cw coming from the transmitter at 27wpm leaves the antenna at 18wpm. There has to be some build-up of cw characters somewhere. My guess is the feedline. That is perhaps why old coax always seems to be fatter than new coax: lots of unsent cw characters have distended it. My question is: what happens if there are more characters building up than the feedline can hold? Isn't this the real explanation for swr? Isn't swr higher in winter than in summer? Cheers, and Merry Christmas Alan 8P9BM -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom Mc Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 13:48 To: Thom R. Lacosta; David A. Belsley Cc: Elecraft Reflector Subject: Re: [Elecraft] RF build up It's my understanding (from reading another list which is addressing this problem) that some of the RF will, in fact radiate, but that it slows down the speed of the signal. For example, one guy reports sending 27 WPM from his K2 but by the time it gets through the frozen RF build-up on his antenna, it was only 18 WPM. With this in mind, it might be a good time for me to go for the ARRL high speed endorsements on my code copying certificate. Just a thought... Happy Holidays Tom, WB2QDG K2 #1103 -----Original Message----- From: Thom R. Lacosta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: David A. Belsley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: Elecraft Reflector <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> Date: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 10:28 AM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] RF build up On Tue, 21 Dec 2004, David A. Belsley wrote: > Does anyone know of a good way to remove frozen RF from an antenna? Considering the season, you might want to find some eggnog and see if it helps the RF escape. Even if it doesn't, if you drink enough, you may no longer be aware of/plagued by the frozen RF. 73,Thom-k3hrn www.zerobeat.net Home of QRP Web Ring, Drakelist home page, Free Classified Ads for amateur radio, QRP IRC channel Elecraft Owners Database www.tlchost.net/ Web Hosting as low as 3.49/month _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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
