Hi All,
Just chiming in on the T2FD antenna John Conover: Terminated Tilted Folded Dipole Shortwave Antenna combined with an R71A.
Put this combination together in my high noise / RF level monitoring post. I have not (successfully) monitored the Ute stations since the last sunspot cycle peak. Even then it was just an attic long wire / Dipole on a 2010. QRN killed the fun.
Last year I invested in a 64' T2FD, mostly built, Got a tree climber to go up about 40' and attach a pully system to a perfectly straight and clear of branches tree, Placed a wood pole in a 5gal bucket of cement for the lower end. This gives me between 25 and 35 deg of tilt towards the NE. Grounded at the base of the tree. Easy up and down if the windlooks to get nasty.
It runs parallel to the overground power lines about 10' away.
Onto 2012, Found an old R71A ($200) on CL with a full compliment of filters, sent it off for a re-tune and it's a beautiful thing for less than $400 investment.
Almost noise free monitoring of UTE stations from a deep metro area just south of Philadelphia PA in Wilmington DE.
MWARA from SA, Africa, Polar route, Some USSR Volmets, North / Central PAC. USCG from Kodiac, Camspac, Camslant. Navy on both coasts, CANFORCE etc. Much less Mil voice traffic than I remember.
Even the Sony 2010 I own and used prior to the R71 did really well. Goes to show it's all about the antenna.
Future: Looking towards SDR based monitoring and data decoding as the next challenges.
Now if I just had more time....
Urban Monitors, There is hope.
Dave
Just chiming in on the T2FD antenna John Conover: Terminated Tilted Folded Dipole Shortwave Antenna combined with an R71A.
Put this combination together in my high noise / RF level monitoring post. I have not (successfully) monitored the Ute stations since the last sunspot cycle peak. Even then it was just an attic long wire / Dipole on a 2010. QRN killed the fun.
Last year I invested in a 64' T2FD, mostly built, Got a tree climber to go up about 40' and attach a pully system to a perfectly straight and clear of branches tree, Placed a wood pole in a 5gal bucket of cement for the lower end. This gives me between 25 and 35 deg of tilt towards the NE. Grounded at the base of the tree. Easy up and down if the windlooks to get nasty.
It runs parallel to the overground power lines about 10' away.
Onto 2012, Found an old R71A ($200) on CL with a full compliment of filters, sent it off for a re-tune and it's a beautiful thing for less than $400 investment.
Almost noise free monitoring of UTE stations from a deep metro area just south of Philadelphia PA in Wilmington DE.
MWARA from SA, Africa, Polar route, Some USSR Volmets, North / Central PAC. USCG from Kodiac, Camspac, Camslant. Navy on both coasts, CANFORCE etc. Much less Mil voice traffic than I remember.
Even the Sony 2010 I own and used prior to the R71 did really well. Goes to show it's all about the antenna.
Future: Looking towards SDR based monitoring and data decoding as the next challenges.
Now if I just had more time....
Urban Monitors, There is hope.
Dave
