985 Workbench: 2025-03-03

My Week in Radio

  • launched the newly-tuned slim-jim antenna
    • tuned the antenna, soldered in a bit more wire at the top
    • hung right below my quarter-wave
    • compared both antennas simultaneously with the 2 quansheng HTs with dBm measurements
    • lower antenna is for the Btech radio running APRS
    • upper antenna for general scanning and local
  • learned about 900MHz radio at the SPARC meeting
  • learned about satellite work at 21 lunch in Harrisburg
  • had the thru-window cable flake out during check-in

Questions

  • W3JAM, Jeff:
    • Has anyone used delving or divining rods for finding water or power lines?
    • KC3WWC, John:
      • Tried it as a kid with copper wire rods to find water and wires around the house.
      • Seemed much like the Ouija board with wires. Probably just recognized it.
    • KC3OOK, Bill: Had some well drillers do it, but seemed like part of the show.
    • WA3VEE, Ron:
      • Can’t see how it would work, especially a wooden stick.
      • Would need quite the field to cause movements in the wire
      • Probably easier to attribute it to minute recognitions of the douser.
    • KC3SQI, Wayne:
      • Has known dousers for water to use Green Willow Stick.
    • N3OGF, John:
      • His Dad doused for water lots of times.
    • W1RC, Mike:
      • There’s a Dousers Convention in Vermont.
    • KC3OOK, Bill:
      • His well is 300 ft down.
      • Water doesn’t really “flow” underground.
    • NA3CW, Chuck:
      • Knew a custom home builder who was a douser.
      • If you drilled somewhere else, would there still have been water?
      • Stick would rotate up and back toward him near the water line.
      • Sister tried it and felt it, even though she may have tried to fight the movement.
    • W3JAM, Jeff:
      • Read an article, and he’s trying to find a conductor.
      • Doesn’t think it’ll work.
  • KC3MAI, Joe:
    • QRM, HF Noise on low bands.
      • S5 noise on 40m
      • S3 on 80M and 160M
    • Is a certain amount of noise to be expected? Can it be remediated?
    • WA3VEE, Ron:
      • QRM vs QRN: man-made vs natural
      • Static from lightning
      • Static from wind
      • Solar panel noise
      • Man-made noise can be fixed if it’s in your house
        • Try running off battery
        • Eliminate electrical things to see if anything fixes it
        • Cut the whole breaker
        • A dead short across the antenna may still see noise: thermal noise
          • noise floor
      • Neighborhood noise might be hard to remediate.
    • NA3CW, Chuck:
      • Has nearby PECO, appliances, Amtrak
      • Searched and found bad wall wart power supplies
      • Neighborhood plasma TV that growls on 75M
      • Has tracked down bad power line hardware
    • KC3MAI, Joe:
      • Has several Rokus that might have unclean power supplies.
    • KC3KFT, John:
      • Pole insulators on power lines can arc depending on weather, humidity, contamination.
      • 6M AM is a good band/mode for searching for noise also 2M AM.
      • Hit the pole with a sledge hammer to see if the noise changes
    • WA3VEE, Ron:
      • Crackling on hot humid nights near high voltage lines.
      • Wide-band spark
      • Every wire is an antenna, so could be an emitter.
      • CFL or LED lights
    • KD3ZIM, Bob:
      • Had a noise problem several years ago.
      • Called PECO, suspecting power line noise.
      • PECO traced the noise and fixed it.
        • cool receivers and spectrum analyzers
        • checked his scope in his shack and got started.
        • found the line 100-150yds from the house
        • heard the buzzing like welding.
        • cracked insulator on the pole
    • NA3CW, Chuck:
      • AM transistor radio is a good sensor for the noise
      • W3GMS, Joe, has some experience working with PECO
    • KB3ZIM, Bob:
      • Call PECO or Bob or Joe to get Dennis from PECO to do the search.
      • Power lines can carry the “transmission” miles
    • KC3WWC, John:
      • I’ve seen videos on Youtube of people searching
      • Electric company is responsible for cleaning up those emissions
      • You can build a tape-measure yagi for searching
      • POTA can be low noise area
      • Hear and see the crackles of very distant lightning.
      • Check the radio power supply

See also