Minds out of the gutter, please; it's the antenna, not the grass eater. I just had some amazing DX witha '59 coupled to a ewe.
It is 2227 UTC, ten minutes before local sundown. Yesterday afternoon I restrung the 130 degree firing ewe (18'x40'x18' #26 black vinyl jacketed copperweld) in the front yard over the entrance sidewalk to our home, much to the delight of my xyl if only she saw it. She obviously hasn't as I would have heard by now to the accompaniement of rolled eyeballs. At 2200, WDHP 1620 US VI was rolling in very well (s9) on the ewe hooked to my R8B. The 15' noise reducing vertical was not living up to its name as all I heard was a jumble of noise and signal mix. I had been hearing what sounded like RFI on and off for the past few weeks. I took my SRF59 outside to see if it was a nearby faulty streetlight photo cell. Didn't hear any strange noise. I then walked over to the firing side of the ewe and held my '59, ferrite rod side next to the firing vertical element of the ewe with the '59 tuned to 1620. WDHP 1620 Fredricksted VI, 1450 miles away, boomed in, as strong as it had been on the Drake, more than 30 minutes before SS. The ferrite rod was centered on the wire. I circled the vertical element with the RX and signal strength remained the same. It made no difference if the RX was held parallel to the ground or parallel to the element as long as the RX was within 2" to contact with the wire. To say that I was amazed is an understatement. I walked 40' to the other vertical element, the one terminated to a resistor network, and I heard a roar of mixed signals coming in from all directions. Away from either element, I could not hear WDHP, but only background hiss and faint signals. Bear in mind, there was not a coupling coil from EWE to RX. I see no reason why the same would not happen with a BOG, beverage or Kaz. It's now 2300 UTC and sun has been down for 24 minutes. I turned on the SRF59 to 780 and all I could hear was WBBM Chicago--not bad. I went outside to the ewe and with the rx tuned to 780, held it close to the ewe--in came ZBVI, Tortola, BVI, loud and clear. I pulled the rx away from the vertical element, swamped by WBBM Chicago. Nulled out Chicago, but no ZBVI, basically run the same heading. Back to the wire, Virgin Concrete ad on ZBVI. Pretty amazing. 73, Gil SE Georgia SRF59 and 18x40x18 ewe, firing 130 degrees. _______________________________________________ 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]
