POTA: QSO video, antenna update, 20-meter noise
Yesterday, I operated from the Silver Lake Day Use Area of US-3322, Pinckney State Recreation Area. This is a great park, and in many respects, I like it a lot more than US-3315, Island Lake Recreation Area. Itβs just a little further from my house than Island Lake, and I think Iβll be spending more time at US-3322, now that Iβve hit 1,000 QSOs at US-3315.
One of the 40 contacts I made was with Jim, N4JAW. Heβs not only a very active POTA operator, but also very active on Mastodon. Yesterday, after I returned home, I was pleasantly surprised to find this video posted to Mastodon. Iβm re-posting it here with Jimβs permission.
Not so twisted anymore
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Iβve been contemplating ditching the twisted-pair feedline I have been using on my POTA doublet antenna, after having such good success with my friend Paulβs Cobra antenna. That antenna uses 450 Ξ© ladder line. I happened to have a 100-ft. roll of high-quality, 300 Ξ© twinlead, so I thought Iβd give that a go. Iβve used this antenna twice now, and while itβs hard to prove conclusively that the antenna works better with with the 300 Ξ© feedline, it βfeelsβ as if itβs working better.
Of course, it could just be that band conditions have been better during my last two activations. Thatβs why Iβd like to actually make some measurements. Itβs not that easy, though. There are a couple of articles online that explain how to use an antenna analyzer to do this (1, 2), and Iβll give these a go once Iβve read and digested this material.
The downside to using 300 Ξ© twinlead is that itβs bulkier and less flexible than twisted-pair wire. It also seems more sensitive to environmental factors, such as touching the ground. But, taking a Β little care when setting up the antenna takes care of those issues.
QRN?? At the park?
It wasnβt all good news yesterday, though. Thereβs something at the park generating a hellacious noise on 20 meters. The noise is so bad that the band is practically unusable. This noise is somewhat noticeable on the other bands, but just barely, and certainly not enough to make the bands unusable.
That being the case, every one of the 40 contacts I made yesterday were on bands other than 20 meters. I started out on 40 meters, then jumped to 17 meters, which fortunately was open and active. I tried 15 meters, too, and made a few contacts there, but it wasnβt very active, so I moved back to 17 meters.
This noise is new. Last Thursday was the first time Iβd noticed it.Β I would have made a recording of it, but I didnβt have an audio recorder handy on my phone. I will do next time I get to that part of the Pinckney Recreation Area.
On Mastodon, someone suggested that the noise was coming from a solar inverter. I hadnβt thought about that at the park, so I wasnβt really looking for solar panels, but Iβm guessing that this is correct. Next time Iβm there, Iβm going to have to walk around and see if I see any. Β I might bring a small radio, too, to see if I can pinpoint the noise source.
Even if I do find the noise source, Iβm not sure what I can do about it. I suppose that I can point this out to the park officials, but Iβm not sure what, if anything, theyβll be motivated to do about it. Stay tuned for more on this. If you have any ideas of what I should look for, please let me know.