[IRCA] Saturday funny...

[cafe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Was marvelling at the reception last night;
alaskan beacons, TransPolars, oddball latin americans...
and yet this morning... this morning..

This morning it was as if a giant bird landed
and took away my antenna leaving behind a coat hanger..

All there was, was a GIANT signal on 738khz...
easily S9+ and if I listened really hard, I could
just make out some Island language.. Tahiti, no
doubt pushing its transmitter to the limit
with, what, 15% modulation?

Oddly, last night when I powered up the R8
and the Wellbrook, I had a new unexpected annoyance;
noise.. odd ignition noise.. couldn't recognize it..
It went **Gronk-sh!, Gronk-shhh, Gronk-gronk-gronk-ssh, repeat**
I immediately powered up a back-up receiver with an alternate
antenna..... listening...... nothing.. not a whisper of
noise..
and yet in the Drake (as I went into CW-mode on 530 Caicos:
Signal...signal.. NO-SIGNAL GRONK! GRONK-Ssh, gronk...gronk...gronk-ssh!

Damn! Something wrong with the Drake or the Antenna.

I am out in the patio in a flash. Turns out, I have built
a weatherized box to protect the weatherized ALA100 Wellbrook
antenna against the west coast elements.
This bigger Hammurland plastic project box matches the connections
to the Wellbrook exactly; banana connections and BNC for coax cable.
I feel comfortable leaving the ALA100 out overnight. Call me retentive.
The only bug in the set-up is the banana plugs I use to connect
my PVC Loop to - they unscrew themselves (if my magic) every couple of
days and when one wire gets loose, you hear every electrical noise
in a 3km radius it seems.

New Routine:
------------
Tighten banana binding post.
Return to receiver.
Continue to DX
Repeat.

Colin Newell in Victoria B.C. Canada

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