VHF Performance improvements

Well, the first sign of improvement on the new VHF setup came tonight.  I can now hear and exchange Digital signals on 146.500 with both Tom and Dave.   I have had success in the past doing digital simplex with Dave, but before tonight, I have not been able to send or hear Tom.   Success came tonight.  Could send and receive pretty well.

With Dave I could hear his signal as low as 10 watts.  He is 10.1 miles according to QRZ.  This is not bad in my opinion.

Voice with Tom is still a challenge. He is 9.9 miles according to QRZ.  I could hear him.  Not strong, but very clear.  He could not hear me.  Funny thing is I was putting out 50 watts and he was sending 5.   So the antenna at least is pretty sensitive.  Will have to check everything again to make sure I am not missing something on the transmit.

 It not do well with Richard who is across town from me (13.9 miles).  I could barely hear him above the static floor and he could not hear me at all.   Will have to continue to look into this.

Overall, some good improvement.

VHF Permanent Installation

The JT1B antenna found its permanent home.  A 4x4 3 feet in the ground with 100lbs of concrete around the base.  Rises 7 feet in the air.  Attached to this base is 2 - 10 foot top rail fence segments getting the bottom of the antenna up to 20 feet.  So the bottom is at 20' and the top is at 36'.  Hopefully this will get it high enough for good simplex communications and out of the RF shadow being caused by the house.

It connects back to the house with 100' of LMR-400 cable.  Tests indicate the SWR at < 1.1:1  .

LED Light Noise confirmed

I replaced the suspect LED light in my earlier posting that I thought was causing all of the RFI in the 2m band.  Replaced it and when the light switch was turned on, no noise.  Confirmed. Noisy LED light.   Here is a picture of the offender:

A Home Depot Ecosmart lightbulb. The earlier posting http://kk4sih.blogspot.com/2013/12/led-light-noise.html  has the details.   Now the question is it just this individual light, or is it a design issue.   I probably won't bother trying to figure it out.  I installed another Phillips brand LED light and it was quiet on 2m.

Using a signalink

I got my Christmas present early.   I have been using custom cables and direct connections between my Macintosh and my Kenwood V71 VHF transceiver.    It has been working pretty well with no complaints.  Only issue I have had is several people have asked me to help with their Signalink and I really have not had access to one.  So for Christmas, I decided to buy one.

So how did I set it up?

As far as connections I used the DIN-6 Connector on the back.
Wired it per the instructions but used the 9600 baud option

Setting up FLDIGI I set the following:
   Use "USB Audio CODEC" under Audio Devices menu
   Rig Control - Hardware PTT
         check "PTT tone on right Audio Channel"

Turned off SYSOP mode on the Radio.
          Interesting I had to have this on with the custom cables.  I will have to re-look at this using
          the cable method.

And it worked.

This is about the same I have been doing when I have been working with others trying to get theirs set up.

The real question is does it work better or not.  I have not been having any problems with the other setup so this will be hard to tell, but we will see over time.

Boafeng UV5R Digital Mode Cable

My friend Tom (AK4HN) has created a how to build a Baofeng UV5R Digital Mode Cable assembly guide.  A great How To on building a cable to interface your computer sound card to your Boafeng HT. I am attaching it to help those that want to set this up.  It works real well.

The link to the file is:
                     Baofeng UV5R digital mode cable.pdf

moved the antenna again

I moved the VHF antenna again.   Why do you ask.   I had problems last week on the digital net hearing everyone.  Even those I have heard before.  My thought was that I have the antenna in the RF shadow of the house from the west. AKA - the house is blocking signets to/from the west.

So what I did was to move the antenna slightly north and maybe 30 feet away from the house.   It helped tremendously at least to the folks I was trying to talk to.

So long term,  I think I am going to permanently mount it where it is now as opposed to the ladder mount I am currently using.   Will probably try and raise it form 10' to 20' as well.  I am concerned about it then being even with the tree canopy but we will see how well that goes.   Will probably take another couple of weeks.

New VHF Antenna

I installed a new VHF antenna this weekend.  Still up in a temporary stand,  but I am now using it.

My major problem is that I feel deaf.  People say they can hear me fine, but I just can't hear them.  So though was to try a larger antenna.  Mounted it on a 10' long piece of chain link fence top rail.  So the bottom of the antenna is at 10' and the top at 26'.

This is a Jetstream JTB1B.   It is a collinear antenna   3x5/8 on 2m and 8x5/8 on 70cm.  It is about 16 feet long.   Gain is claimed to be 8.3db on 2m an 11.7db on 70cm.   Testing it with a SWR meter, it is showing 1.2:1 or better at 50watts on 146.520mhz .  Can't beat that.

So how does it compare to the TRAM 1480 8 foot long antenna I have been using.

My current method is watching the built in meter on the radio on the NWS stations in the area.  Not quite 2m, but the only thing close to a beacon I can think of.
So  the results are using same cables, tests within 15min of each other:

Station   Freq     Tram   Jetstream
1         162.550     2         4-6
2         162.500     9+        9+
3         162.475     4          9
4         162.425     4          6-8
5         162.450     0          2
6         162.500     4-6       6-8
7         162.525     6-8       6-8


So what does it look like:

So compared to the Tram 1480 the antenna is twice as long.  Mounted at 10' as opposed to 16'  and is pulling in way more signal.  This seems to be an improvement.   Will run this setup for a week and if it continues to work well, will mount it permanently.

Still more VHF trial and error

I am still trying to get the most out of my VHF antenna.

I am trying to see what I can hear to get the best position for the antenna.  The problem is that the lot is heavily wooded.   I think I am hearing things pretty well, but I am still trying to improve.  I have noticed there is an optimal height.   I thought it was higher is better, but with the trees around and above my antenna site, Too high starts loosing signal as much as too low.  I figure it is problems with the vegetation absorbing the signal.

So how am I testing this.  Listing in to the NOAA weather stations nd making a judgement, better or worse.   So with the placement tonight.  Pole is raised about 16 feet.  Pulled as far from the house to the east as I can.  

Signal strengths:

162.550  -  9+ and clear

162.400  -  9+ and clear

162.475  - 9 and clear

162.425 - 5 and small scratch

162.450 - 9 and small scratch

162.500 - 9+ and clear

162.525 - 9 and clear

LED Light noise

I have been having problems hearing weak stations on VHF.  From my earlier posts, you can see I have been trying different antenna locations and setups but am still having problems.  Someone asked me if I had a lot of local noise.  I did not think so, but I figured I would look tonight.

First I tried to find a faint station to tune in to on the VHF radio.  I found a NOAA station that was pretty weak and noisy and started to eliminate sources.   The antenna was close to some lights on the outside of the house and I turned them off and on without making any difference.  Then I tried turning off and on the front porch light.  It was too far away I thought, but the switch was there so why not.  Turned it off and the station came in strong and clear.  turned it on and it died out again.

I found it (or at least one it).

Funny thing is that this lightbulb is 50 feet from the antenna.  20 feet from the radio.  DId not think that the interference would go that far.    I was able to listen in to the Wewahitchka repeater, 81 miles away (not sure of the height).  Much better than than it had been.

OK for the bulb.  It was an EcoSmart bulb from Home Depot.  I went heavily into LED lights a year or so ago replacing many of the most used lights with Phillips brand lights.  I purchased several other brands when trying to figure out which ones to use before I settled on Phillips.

The Home Depot EcoSmart bulb that is causing me problems was one of those test bulbs that had a bad color in the house so I put it outside where it would not matter too much.  I guess is is time to re-evaluate.

So to shorten this up some:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-60W-Equivalent-Bright-White-3000K-A19-LED-Light-Bulb-420240/203248902#.Up_dWaWSPDM  = GOOD  - works fine with no perceived noise.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart-40W-Equivalent-Daylight-5000K-A19-LED-Light-Bulb-4-Pack-ECS-A19-CW-V1-120/204627114#.Up_d_aWSPDM   =BAD - Noisy on 2m radio