The antenna is up, tuned, and working!

(Video attached, analysis and pictures in first reply)

@freemo

Saw those. That was the pic that let me see they were traps and not junctions.

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@kilroy_was_here coil based traps yea :) All on the roof on my philly home, so very small footprint.

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@freemo

Nice seeing somebody else from PA showing ham radio stuff on the net, most of the time it seems like it's just folks out west who are doing that. lol

@kilroy_was_here haha yea they have more space there.

But check out a APRS map sometime, you might be surprised how active the east coast is :)

@freemo @kilroy_was_here Any RFI effects in the house? I have a similar rooftop in SF with an EFHW and working on some suspected common mode issues.

@rombat

None that I specifically noticed. I get s2.5 to s4 noise floor though and im sure at least some of that is from the house.

Keep in mind the roof top radials act as a sort of shielding from RFI for the active vertical, so they are particularly good for rooftops.

The first time i installed this a decade ago though when id transmit my neighboors backyard light would turn on... which kinda sucked considering iw as running an APRS beacon 10 minutes apart :)

@kilroy_was_here

@freemo @kilroy_was_here I was thinking the radials might have that effect. Might give a vertical a try one of these days up there. I’ve found 40m CW or FT8 to be particularly triggering. Last night it rang my doorbell system. 😬

@rombat

Its not usually the mode but the frequency + power.. i am willing to bet if you switched to FM on the same freq and transmitted youd get your doorbell going off too.

@kilroy_was_here

@rombat

Yea its just cause they put more power into the band.. SSB if you arent talking but are pushig the PTT nothing will come out the antenna... it only puts as much power in aws the volume it hears... If you make a very loud whistle into SSB it would be almost the same as CW (except not quite as clean a tone obviously)

@kilroy_was_here

@freemo @rombat

This is one of the reasons my elmer always told me to tune up in CW or AM mode (FM wasn't common on radios back in his day). The more power going through the antenna path the better you can dip your SWR meter.

@kilroy_was_here

yea tuning up in CW is still the norm unless you have an auto tune... in a pinch you can whistle into the mic too but its not as clean.

@rombat

@freemo @rombat

Yea if he ever wanted to check his tune or retune after moving slightly up or down he'd whistle in the mike.

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