Friday, August 9, 2024

Suspicions confirmed!

Originally posted on 'The wet string chronicles' in March 2009.

I need a better antenna. This weekends BARTG (British Amateur Radio Teletype Group) RTTY contest was a major disappointment. As with the RSGB Commonwealth contest last weekend, significantly fewer stations were heard than last year and countries that were easily worked last year on my old antenna are hard work or not possible this year.

Another increasingly apparent flaw in my current antenna setup is the amount of RF in the shack. ‘RF in the shack’ is when radio frequency energy (radio waves) is picked up by equipment in the shack making them ‘hot’. Touching something that is ‘hot’ with RF is something between an electric shock and a burn - not a nice sensation. Not at all what you want when you’re holding bits of the equipment like, for instance, a microphone.

The thinking now turns to how best to install something better given the severe restrictions on just what can be erected. Time to get my thinking head on… 

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