> Can you point us to a link describing your untuned ferrite? Or send a > short description?
Yup. http://www.am-dx.com/ferrite_antenna.htm Not much to it. A big hunk of ferrite in a plastic pipe, just as it was shipped from Stormwise. Wrapped a half dozen turns of #14 wire around the middle and ran that to an SO-239 jack, with the leads twisted and run twice through a big ferrite bead to isolate it. Stuck the thing on a camera tripod and viola! I brought to to the south coast of RI today to do a test run before I head to Maine. All daytime reception, but it worked very well. It nulls quite nicely. Tuned down to LW and heard the usual local beacons. Went as far up as 10MHz WWV, but it does start to get deaf above the 80m ham band. I was able to null nearby WLKW-1450 to get the ESPN station in Atlantic City just fine. Same with 1340. Could null WNBH-1340 to get the Ocean City station. Philadelphia on 1210 was strong. Couldn't get KYW, though. Had an unid'ed station on 900, but probably New Hampshire. Got a SAH on 530, some of which was probably the beach TIS station just east of Fall River, MA. 1620 had what was likely the pirate from Brockton, MA. Not strong enough to pick out more than a bit of music. Sounded island-type, but likely way too early for WDHP. Bottom line was that the sensitivity seemed adequate with the single RPA-1. I did try wrapping around 36 turns of wire connected to a variable capacitor to see if tuning it would help. Unfortunately, close-wound turns have too much capacitance and loss. Didn't work. I may try a section of premade coil of around 3" diameter and try to tune that. To be honest, the only reason I'd tune it is to raise the output and try to eliminate the need for the RPA-1 preamp. Ran the setup for three hours today, preamp and all off the 12v battery. Worked fine, no sign of low voltage. A three hour session is fine for me. Even if it weren't, the batteries are only about $25. Add in a bit of wire and a three dollar connector, and it's still cheap. I think it will work fine next week. If not, then I guess I'll just have to enjoy the vacation.. (sigh) Craig Healy Providence, RI _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
