- Joined
- Aug 19, 2014
- Messages
- 107
got my general about a month ago... put a 4010 EFHW on the peak of my slate roof running out into a tree in the back yard... about 10ft of the antenna is above the slate roof that kept me from using antennas in my attic or a metal overhang... the rest of the wire is over the yard sloping upwards from about 15' up at roof peak to 20' up in the tree. i did not add any kind of counterpoise at the balun.
abr coax into the house where it meets an MFJ RF filter, then into my MFJ939i tuner, then into the IC7100. all this is in the attic... then a shielded cat6 cable runs across the attic and down a hole into the wall and on to my desk where the control head is. everything has some kind of ground.
so far, 800+ QSO's, 620+ confirmations in 108 countries - all FT8 or FT4.
not proficient with CW, and not ready for phone yet, though i like to get on DXSummit and chase the conversations.
BUT - here's the real issue:
if i use 20m or 10m everything is fine.
if i use anything else from 80m, 40m, 30m, 17m, 15m, or 12m the house starts to hum... more on 40m and 17m, but always some hum, sometimes lights will flicker, and on 40m (sometimes 80m and 30m) i will knock the house off the internet briefly... just long enough to knock people out of their video games.
and boy do i hear about it.
the internet is from the cable company, but the tv's don't get distorted... but the hum from the computer speakers or other speakers makes me feel like i'm frying myself, or at the very least i'm doing something wrong.
i would think the 1:1 current balun rf isolator would keep things from causing interference in the house... and i would think the roof i couldn't get good reception through would keep the EFHW from causing RFI inside... and generally i'm not pushing power (as i'm typing this i have the radio set for 40w).
for weeks i assumed this was just the nature of the beast, but then today i watched a video of K8MRD replacing his coax and noticed that he has a dipole running the length of his house, right down the middle, just feet off from the peak... like he just reached up to the feed point and changed out the coax... and so many other videos where guys have antennas all over their roofs... are they all getting a hum throughout their house on everything but 20m and 10m?? are they all losing their internet connection when they talk on 40m?
or... is this a problem with my tuner... or would it be resolved if i had a counterpoise... or do i need to add ferrite cores to every wire in my house... or....
suggestions anyone?
thanks,
Richard
N0TZC
abr coax into the house where it meets an MFJ RF filter, then into my MFJ939i tuner, then into the IC7100. all this is in the attic... then a shielded cat6 cable runs across the attic and down a hole into the wall and on to my desk where the control head is. everything has some kind of ground.
so far, 800+ QSO's, 620+ confirmations in 108 countries - all FT8 or FT4.
not proficient with CW, and not ready for phone yet, though i like to get on DXSummit and chase the conversations.
BUT - here's the real issue:
if i use 20m or 10m everything is fine.
if i use anything else from 80m, 40m, 30m, 17m, 15m, or 12m the house starts to hum... more on 40m and 17m, but always some hum, sometimes lights will flicker, and on 40m (sometimes 80m and 30m) i will knock the house off the internet briefly... just long enough to knock people out of their video games.
and boy do i hear about it.
the internet is from the cable company, but the tv's don't get distorted... but the hum from the computer speakers or other speakers makes me feel like i'm frying myself, or at the very least i'm doing something wrong.
i would think the 1:1 current balun rf isolator would keep things from causing interference in the house... and i would think the roof i couldn't get good reception through would keep the EFHW from causing RFI inside... and generally i'm not pushing power (as i'm typing this i have the radio set for 40w).
for weeks i assumed this was just the nature of the beast, but then today i watched a video of K8MRD replacing his coax and noticed that he has a dipole running the length of his house, right down the middle, just feet off from the peak... like he just reached up to the feed point and changed out the coax... and so many other videos where guys have antennas all over their roofs... are they all getting a hum throughout their house on everything but 20m and 10m?? are they all losing their internet connection when they talk on 40m?
or... is this a problem with my tuner... or would it be resolved if i had a counterpoise... or do i need to add ferrite cores to every wire in my house... or....
suggestions anyone?
thanks,
Richard
N0TZC