Well, now that my SSB is up and running, I have one more minor problem ( I
think). Whenever I key up the mike to talk, some of the electronics go nuts,
like the Link 20 (near the grounding foil), the VHF goes blank and one of
those "touch" 110 lamps goes on and off. The radio tech that got me up and
running said these were symptoms of reflected power. I'm using a 23' digital
antenna, and seem to be transmitting well. Is there anything I can do about
this, or should I even be worried about it?

Yes. I'd start by putting a few clamp-around ferrites on the coax at both
the antenna and radio and on the power line where it enters the radio. If
that don't work ....
Good luck.

"Keith" wrote
..... Is there anything I can do about this, or should I even be worried
about it?

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 06:00:09 -0600, Keith wrote:

Well, now that my SSB is up and running, I have one more minor problem ( I
think). Whenever I key up the mike to talk, some of the electronics go nuts,
like the Link 20 (near the grounding foil), the VHF goes blank and one of
those "touch" 110 lamps goes on and off. The radio tech that got me up and
running said these were symptoms of reflected power. I'm using a 23' digital
antenna, and seem to be transmitting well. Is there anything I can do about
this, or should I even be worried about it?

That's typically caused by reflected power. You can check with an SWR
meter. If it's high, you'll need an antenna tuner connected to the output
of your transceiver.
--

Larry
email is rapp at lmr dot com

In article ,
"Keith" wrote:

The radio tech that got me up and
running said these were symptoms of reflected power. I'm using a 23' digital
antenna, and seem to be transmitting well. Is there anything I can do about
this, or should I even be worried about it?

And you let this "tech" walk off the boat before he fixed the radio
installation, why????

What is a 23' "Digital" antenna?????

What you have is a very high impedance "Ground System" and maybe
a nonresonant antenna. First off, 23 feet of antenna is marginal for any
frequency below 12 Mhz. Does you HF installation include an Antenna
Tuner? If so, is it tuning the antenna, and how do you know this?
Again, why did you let the guy leave before he fixed the antenna
problems? How much power is the transmitter puting out? Does the
Mic burn your hand when your transmitting?

Gives us more information, and maybe we can help you out.

Bruce in alaska
--
add a 2 before @

As I was told by a local radio pro, "Welcome to the world of HF".

I installed ferrites and line isolators and still all kinds of weird ****
happens when I broadcast. Unless you want to get into Faraday Cages etc, it
is just something you learn to live with.

--
Dennis Gibbons
dkgibbons at optonline dot net
"Keith" wrote in message
...
Well, now that my SSB is up and running, I have one more minor problem ( I
think). Whenever I key up the mike to talk, some of the electronics go
nuts,
like the Link 20 (near the grounding foil), the VHF goes blank and one of
those "touch" 110 lamps goes on and off. The radio tech that got me up and
running said these were symptoms of reflected power. I'm using a 23'
digital
antenna, and seem to be transmitting well. Is there anything I can do
about
this, or should I even be worried about it?

What is a 23' "Digital" antenna?????

www.digitalantenna.com

The VHF digitals got great reviews in PC a few years ago. I suspect
the SSB antennas are high quality as well.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 18:40:46 -0500, "Doug Dotson"
wrote:

What is a 23' "Digital" antenna?????

www.digitalantenna.com

The VHF digitals got great reviews in PC a few years ago. I suspect
the SSB antennas are high quality as well.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista



Everybody tries to cash in on the word "digital" like it is some kind
of magic. Kind of deceptive if you ask me. Even if it is only their
name.

I see on their web site that they have discovered some new laws of
physics!
A 24 foot HF antenna that has an swr of less than 2:1 over the entire
2-30 mhz range when used with a tuner. Isn't that amazing!

Likewise with their VHF antenna they have discovered a new ground
system that lowers the radiation angle of their 6 db antenna to make
it more efficient than others. Just amazing!

I wonder if it is digitally encoded to perform those miracles.

Regards
Gary

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 06:00:09 -0600, "Keith"
wrote:

Well, now that my SSB is up and running, I have one more minor problem ( I
think). Whenever I key up the mike to talk, some of the electronics go nuts,
like the Link 20 (near the grounding foil), the VHF goes blank and one of
those "touch" 110 lamps goes on and off. The radio tech that got me up and
running said these were symptoms of reflected power. I'm using a 23' digital
antenna, and seem to be transmitting well. Is there anything I can do about
this, or should I even be worried about it?


Kieth,

It sounds more like symptoms of installer tech bull**** than anything
else. I have to agree with Bruce, it sounds like you have a poor
ground system. SWR does not cause RF to be all over the place. RF on
the outside of your coax will cause some of your symptoms. RF on the
outside of your coax is not caused by swr but is caused by a poor
ground system.

If you have an automatic antenna tuner and it is working properly
there shouldn't be any high swr on the coax line to the radio. Did he
check?

Where is the tuner mounted and how long is the ground foil from the
tuner to ground?

Regards
Gary

I dunno. Suggest that you consult the actual results of independent
tests. I don't remember anything about the SSB antenna, but I do
seem to recall that their VHF performed very well.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

"Gary Schafer" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 18:40:46 -0500, "Doug Dotson"
wrote:

What is a 23' "Digital" antenna?????

www.digitalantenna.com

The VHF digitals got great reviews in PC a few years ago. I suspect
the SSB antennas are high quality as well.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista



Everybody tries to cash in on the word "digital" like it is some kind
of magic. Kind of deceptive if you ask me. Even if it is only their
name.

I see on their web site that they have discovered some new laws of
physics!
A 24 foot HF antenna that has an swr of less than 2:1 over the entire
2-30 mhz range when used with a tuner. Isn't that amazing!

Likewise with their VHF antenna they have discovered a new ground
system that lowers the radiation angle of their 6 db antenna to make
it more efficient than others. Just amazing!

I wonder if it is digitally encoded to perform those miracles.

Regards
Gary

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 06:00:09 -0600, "Keith"
wrote:

Well, now that my SSB is up and running, I have one more minor problem ( I
think). Whenever I key up the mike to talk, some of the electronics go nuts,
like the Link 20 (near the grounding foil), the VHF goes blank and one of
those "touch" 110 lamps goes on and off. The radio tech that got me up and
running said these were symptoms of reflected power.

You need a new radio tech who WASN'T a CBer. These are symptoms of
RADIATING RF ENERGY out a tuned antenna.....in an RF transparent,
unshielded, plastic boat! The RF energy from the backstay or whatever
you're tuning for an antenna, passes THROUGH everything on the boat
and will wreak havoc with everything that is A) solid state
electronics and B) unshielded, like marine electronics crap with bare
wires marked NMEA + to ground in an unshielded plastic box,
themselves. Damned digital circuitry goes CRAZY...BERSERK when a
good, strong RF field just overruns the data stream, gets rectified by
a zillion tiny transistor junctions into DC bias that screws
everything. My ham station (1500W PEP) nearly blew the neighbor's big
stereo speakers clean out of the cabinet when my RF induced serious
signals into his speaker wires and fed it into the 800 watt power
amplifiers.

Hams know better than to buy touch lamps......

The VHF makes me think its antenna coaxial cable may have a broken
shield connection or, worse yet, has a resonant ground connection to
it. 1/4 of a wavelength back from your ground plate, and every odd
multiple of 1/4 wavelength back from your ground plate is a HIGH
VOLTAGE RF lobe caused by the ground wire acting like an antenna. If
you're so lucky as to have just the right length, 1/4 wavelength from
the groundplate where the RADIO is attached, the RF on the "ground" of
the VHF radio will drive it nuts. RF is blasting away on the OUTSIDE
of the VHF coax cable, every time the HF keys up. If the radio is
near just the right 1/4 wave point from its ground plate (or the DC
power wiring is near 1/4 wavelength to the HF frequency, the whole
thing will be RF "hot" and may do anything. Try disconnecting any
grounds (except battery - of course) you may have attached to it and
see how it does. Pull on those PL-259 coax connectors to see if the
shield braid is firmly attached to them, too.

The link is easy to fix. Run FOIL SHIELDED, multiconductor cable
between the Link and its big shunt and battery connections to keep the
unshielded wires you probably have now from acting like a big HF
antenna to receive the SSB transmitter and feed it to the Link's
damned computer chips. EVERYTHING on the boat needs foil shielded
signal/data wiring. Connect the foil shield to the ground or battery
negative post on the Link. Leave the other end foil and drain wire,
where it comes up to the battery connections, UNCONNECTED. This makes
a Faraday Shield, named after Michael Faraday (discoverer of
capacitance). This unconnected shield encasing the control wiring
keeps the RF OUTSIDE the cable from coupling to the wires INSIDE the
shield feeding the computer circuits.

I'm using a 23' digital
antenna, and seem to be transmitting well. Is there anything I can do about
this, or should I even be worried about it?


Digital antenna? It transmits DATA instead of RF??!....????????

What does this antenna look like and how far is it located from the
scrambled electronics. Lionheart's AT-140 antenna tuner sits on top
of the aft cabin right behind the cockpit-mounted mizzen mast. The
insulated backstay's tension screwjack bolts to the fiberglass next to
it and the tuner has a 8" stainless steel wire connecting to a
hoseclamp around the jack. The whole cockpit is RF hot because it's a
couple of feet from the main antenna.....(sigh).


Larry W4CSC

Is it just me or did the US and UK just capture 1/3
of the world's sweetest oil supply? What idiot wants to
GIVE IT BACK?!!
Let's do what Europeans have been doing for centuries.
DIVIDE UP THE SPOILS OF OUR CONQUEST! Gas will be
$US0.50/US gallon again, STUPIDS!