This morning the neighborhood is quiet… The kids and most of the parents get to sleep in… Later today however the neighborhood will be filled with the sounds of kids playing on a very sunny but chilly day…
After putting the pets (Toby and Saber) outside this morning in the back yard I could not help but notice how nice and sunny it was. Now that the first couple of coffees have sunk in and I am now awake the plan is to do the neighborhood walk thing and then plan for the rest of the day…
But first a couple of updates….
For now the “Balun in the Can” project has been scrapped in favour of the “Balun wrapped in Tin Foil” project. The can idea was great and showed me the principal worked… Now using tin foil (aluminim foil) I can (no pun intended) fine tune the amount of filtering needed to remove the regular high noise level and keep the regular atmospheric noise.
I found that if I lowered all the noise too much then I was also affecting signals… Doing some non scientific tests… (trial and error style work) I found that if I eliminate the steady noise level the filtering in the radio can handle for the most part the atmospheric noises that come and go…
Last night I was able to successfully hear the various stations on the 3730 group (actually were on 3725 last night) after the tin foil had been applied. I found I had added too much the first time and so I removed about 3 layers and then I could hear the stations above the static level. Before the tin foil all I could hear was static and before I removed some layers all I heard was the very strong local stations… A very primitive way of fine tuning but it did work…
As I mentioned earlier after my morning walk I am thinking of a light lunch then a ride on my bike the 7kms from my QTH to Jerry VE3QSO’s area so I can check out his portable station.
Last year Jerry with the assistance of Steve VE3SBC now VE1SBC constructed a cart that carried the batteries and an operating console that allowed Jerry to play portable with a great deal of comfort. Pull the wagon to the park and power, radios along with tuners etc are all set up. Just install the antenna of the day and its good to go… I have heard lots about this station but so far have not been in the right place at the right time to see it…. hopefully today is the day…
More on how the day goes later….
73bob
