[IRCA] Grounds, coax, leakage

[Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx>]

A couple of notes here.

Long ago when I first started DX'ing, I discovered that I could get a
much stronger signal by holding a handheld transistor radio up to the
phone line or a water pipe. Both of these are normally well gounded
systems. I quickly discovered that the local strong signals were
stronger, but that did nothing for DX.

Point being that when you're dealing with local strong signals, you
could probably connect the receiver directly to ground and get a steady
and strong signal. Therefore, by grounding the coax for these tests,
you're not accomplishing much. 

Using well-shielded coax helps to a point, but you still have to ground
the shield/braid at the receiver end to direct whatever has been picked
up there to ground. For that reason, you also want a separate ground
for the receiver, otherwise you might as well run the shield directly
to the radio.

Also, I sense some confusion or intermingling in the discussions
between loss as measured by the resistance in the cable and the
introduction of stray signal components. These are two separate things.

Stray vertical pickup does the most damage with any kind of a loop,
which is an inductive antenna. The vertical signal distorts the
directionality and shape of the pattern. I've never read of nor
experienced any significant similar effect with BOG's or Beverages - it
could exist, but I'm not aware of it.



Russ Edmunds
Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL )
[15 mi NNW of Philadelphia]
40:08:45N; 75:16:04W, Grid FN20id
<wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx>
FM: Yamaha T-80 & Onkyo T-450RDS w/ APS9B @15'
AM: Hammarlund HQ-150 & 4' FET air core loop


       
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