A guy that has helped me out quite a bit with HF pointed me to this site:

http://www.voacap.com/coverage.html

It's a very cool propagation prediction map.

Mike

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is that the TS-830 doesn't have a general coverage receiver.  That may or may not be relevant to you.  If you want to listen to short wave broadcast stations, you won't be able to with the 830.  This was a deal killer for me when I was shopping for my first HF rig.

I ended up buying a TS-450 and have been extremely happy with it. 

It's virtually impossible to answer the question since each example will probably have a different reason for having a high view to post ratio.


I couldn't agree more with this.  It's hugely irritating to see a post with a subject like "Question" or "What's the word on..." or something similarly nondescriptive and useless.  If the poster can't be bothered to use a detailed subject/title, then why should I bother looking at it?   There's certainly other posts I've seen that had a perfectly descriptive subject/title that had lots of views and little posts, and I agree with most of the others have said for possible explanations.

And UML has a very good point about the overt bashing.  I'm active on four different radio oriented forums (and probably 8 - 10 others that have nothing to do with radio) and I have *never* seen the level of bashing that I routinely see on eham.net.  I sure hope those people don't behave on the air like the sarcastic 12 year old jackwagons that they act like here.

The fading would seem to be a dead giveaway that it's not local RFI.  The fact that other locations nationwide can pick it up as well would tend to reinforce this, unless those other hams have neighbors with the same washing machine as Dave's neighbor.   

Have you taken a look at one or more of the sites that have samples of various digital and utility signals?  When you mentioned pulsating signal my first thought was OTHR, but that pulse rate would be really low for that.

Ideally, if you have the ability, get a screenshot of the waterfall display from one of the digital mode software packages showing the signal, and also grab a short recording of it.  If you could post those it would probably help quite a bit.

I thought the arrl.net addresses were simply aliases that pointed to your real email address.  For example, hamcall@arrl.net would simply point to joe.smith@example.com.  If that's correct, then it simply comes down to how much you use the arrl.net address--the more you use it, and the more you submit it to risky websites (ones that sell their customer email databases to spammers), the more spam you're going to get through it.

Unless ARRL publishes the entire list of active arrl.net addresses (which would be incredibly stupid and I can't believe they would do anything like that), then using your arrl.net address is no riskier than using the address it ultimately redirects to.

If those Cuban stations using PSK31 are sending 5 figure groups, they probably won't respond to any calls.   

Take this with a grain of salt, because I don't have a whole lot of experience erecting masts.  However, I'm in much the same position as yourself at the moment and I've decided to get a Rohn H50 mast and top it off with one of the milsurp 4 ft. fiberglass sections (to get the balun away from other metal as much as possible).  The main structure will be about as strong as I can practically make it, and I'll be stabilizing it the same as you--bracketing to the house and guying above the roof level.

I felt that even the milsurp aluminum poles, while great for a temporary installation, probably aren't good enough for a permanent (well, at least long-term) installation.  Of course I tend to overbuild things when possible.

I found this thread a little late, but does it look anything like this:

http://www.tibor.org/slow-sweep.jpg

I can almost always find something like this on the 80m band lately.

Don makes a very good point.  That said, most instructions I've seen call for guys every 10 to 15 feet, with the Rohn mast instructions probably being the most conservative to guy every 10' section.

I think any way you look at it, it's going to be a judgement call--if you're in an area that gets windy you'll want more guy lines, and if you're in an area that gets very little wind you could probably get away with fewer.  Keep in mind that there's nothing wrong with overbuilding.

 

Sounds like I might've been overthinking this at little bit.

Thanks!

I'm planning some antenna changes for when things thaw out up here in Anchorage, and one of them will involve setting up a Rohn H50 mast.  For guy lines I was planning on using 3/16" dacron, and for tensioning them I was thinking about using the little 3-hole guy tension blocks that Penninger Radio sells:

http://www.penningerradio.com/gallery.asp?id=31&cc=

My worry is that they seem to be intended for temporary guying and may loosen over time with wind and vibration.  I really like the simplicity though, which is why I'm leaning towards them instead of turnbuckles.

This will only be supporting an OCF dipole, nothing heavier, but I certainly don't want to have to reset the tension on the guy lines on a monthly basis.

Thanks in advance for your comments and opinions,
Mike

Thanks--I found a separate computer control manual that Kenwood published for the TS-450 and that mentioned the baud rate and stop bits and other stuff.  It's really more of a programmer's guide to serial communication with the rig, but it gave me what I needed.

I'm brand new so go gentle with me, but you really don't want to use something super strong to support a wire antenna, do you?  It seems to me that it's better for a support rope to break in heavy weather than the antenna wire itself.  Sort of like the rope acting as a fuse.

Am I wrong in thinking you want the support rope to be somewhere close to the breaking strength of the antenna wire, but definitely a little less?

Thanks very much for all the info.  In hindsight I should've provided some more detail.  My antenna is a commercial one I bought from Mapleleaf Studios, and I verified it has a 4:1 current balun.  Given that I already have a current balun, would I get any benefit out of something like one of these:

Balun Designs 1113u
MFJ-915 Line Isolator

Both appear to be 1:1 current baluns.  MFJ uses more marketing glitz to promise great benefits, but I'm not sure I trust that.   

I've been reading up on OCF dipoles since that's what I'm using for my first HF antenna, and one thing that seems to jump out at me is that they tend to radiate on the feedline.  I'm thinking I might try to put a choke (like what's described here: http://www.hamuniverse.com/balun.html ) up by the balun on the center support.

The only interference I've experienced in my house has been on my wife's cheap computer speakers, but I'm also hoping that the choke might also drop the background noise level somewhat. Is that something that's reasonable to expect?

Another option that I've read about is making use of that feedline RF and installing the choke about 30' down from the balun, so that 30' of coax acts as a vertical radiator, sort of like the ladder line in a G5RV antenna.  I hesitate on this option because that vertical radiator will be right up against the metal mast, so I'm thinking that will largely negate any benefit it might otherwise provide.

I'd love to hear any opinions you might have regarding the use of a vertical radiator, or the effects of a choke.

Thanks,
Mike