Of course you get some RF on 10 meters from the second floor.  Think about it.  1/4 wave is 4 meters = 12 feet.  Your ground wire is probably at least a wavelength long.  

You would do better to disconnect it.  This gets into the much discussed topic of an RF ground vs. an electrical ground for lightning safety.  

You would be better off to disconnect the wire in your present location.   If you move to the basement, my concerns Would be on electrical safety due to dampness, and would consider driving a ground thru the basement floor, thereby keeping the wire very short from an RF perspective so you don't get RF in the shack.

This is a topic that comes up every other week here, so there are lots of posts that explain better than I.

73, Bill

The answer is: Yes!

heh heh.

Depends on what kind of antenna, how it's oriented, what the roof is made of and whether it represents a continuous electrical surface.

One of the regulars here has suggested a better term something like "ground image" that is more appropriate and descriptive.  

A antenna with two balancing components like a dipole does not need a ground image and would work fine over a non-conductive roof of wood or asphalt.  In this case the real ground would provide your ground image.  One the other hand being only 5 feet above a metal roof would greatly affect the take off angle, perhaps your VSWR.  In this case the metal roof would act as the ground image.

Thats a quick partial explanation. Others can correct me and expand on the topic.

73, Bill

The first thing to show damage from microwave exposure is the eye, with cataracts.   Gee-fun.

Bill

Yes this is formally the "Elmers" forum, but by default it is the regular active board for discussion of most matters.

As great as eHam is, the moderators take a hands off approach to operations.  They don't post to the boards and I have never received a reply to my messages to them, though I have seen action taken tacitly.  *shrug*  

I think it's reasonable to post a comment on board problems here, as well as attempting to contact the mods.

Bill

If you had tiles with iron bearing clay and lead glaze you might end up with the ultimate "roofing filter".  HI

Bill

I think the term walkie talkie comes from the low power handheld HF radios introduced to the army in WWII.

When I got into hamming in the late 70's they were referred to only as Handie Talkies.  That distinguished them from the more common hand portable channelized 2M rigs with a collapsible whip antenna that were bigger than todays mobile car rigs.  

Seems like in the late 80's or early 90's I noticed people calling them HT's.  Just the natural inclination to shorten and abbreviate, I suppose.

Nobody's wrong, everybody's right.  Joe Public knows it as a walkie talkie and yes you are correct to tell him it operates on different frequencies you are licensed to operate on.  

73, Bill

steve you are almost there.

All you have to do is run line from radio audio to your computer "Mic In" to recieve the SSTV.  To transmit, run a line from your computer "Line Out or Speaker" to the radio Mic Audio input.  

The only thing left to do is control xmit manually, or build an interface cable device from the serial port to the radio PTT line.

73, Bill

Don't trust your eyeball to check fuses.  Use an ohmmeter!  

Good luck.

Bill

True fiberglass poles won't be a problem.  If they are made with carbon fiber, then they aren't suitable.

Take a look at a base section.   Carbon fiber is black, while fiberglass is usually light colored.  Of course the fibers are embedded in the resin, whatever color that is.  You may need to do a little scraping.

Good luck.

p.s. Don't expect poles this long to carry much weight.  Your best bet may be to use them to support a vertical wire with radials laying on the ground.

I've used 90lb clear monofilament for hanging antennas.  It does break down in the sun and as I recall it is probably good for maybe a year.

Bill

http://n5xu.ece.utexas.edu/rfsafety/

This calculator from the Univ. of Texas Amateur Radio Club outputs mw/cm^2  

This is for human exposure safety calculations.  Not the same units you asked for, though.

73,  Bill

I've never heard of an antioxide paste for bare steel.  I'm curious what your application is.

My best suggestions is just some electrical paste from the hardware store like GB Oxi-Guard.   It's basically petrolatum (vaseline) with zinc dust.  If you don't need enhanced conductivity, then plain Bearing Grease is probably cheaper.

Bill

The two Mars orbiters act as the go-betweens, and also store and forward data earthward.  I saw a mention earlier this week, when they lost communications briefly that the link between the orbiters and the lander is UHF.

Bill

I think that the most common application in electronics is when working with complex (or imaginary) numbers representing phase angle and amplitude, such as with current, voltage, real power and apparent power.

The quantity is expressed on a two dimensional graph, with a figure such as: 23,15j   The figure 'j' is not operational, but merely denotes the numeral is complex/imaginary.

I haven't heard of a rotating j-factor.

These calculations are normally found in any introductory course in AC fundamentals and circuits.

Bill

Antenna wax!