I've been doing some research on alternative power lately, such as solar panels and wind turbines, that will acctually allow people to power their home completely "off-grid." One way that this is accomplished is by using an inverter to convert the low voltage DC produced by the solar panels or wind turbine to household AC. However, I have heard that some (most?) of these inverters put so much RFI on the power lines that AM radio reception is knocked out anywhere near the house. My question: Has anyone sucessfully installed a system like this and still been able to use AM on the ham bands, specifically HF? Or if anyone has any insight about this at all, feel free to respond.

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John - KD5RBB
nssys@hotmail.com

Hello,
I would like some clarification of the following section of the FCC rules.
Sec. 97.113  (a) No amateur station shall transmit:
(5) Communications, on a regular basis, which could reasonably be furnished alternatively through other radio services.
 
Does this mean that when two people, who know each other, frequently wish to talk while being mobile they should avoid using their amateur radios in favor of CB or FRS? An example of this would be if I wanted to talk to a friend as they drove home from my apartment several times a week, or when two people frequently talk on the radio who know each other's local phone numbers.

Acctually, it seems to me that MOST communications in the amateur service *could* be resonably furnished by other radio services, such as cell phones, CB, etc...What were they trying to accomplish with this regulation??? Thanks in advance for your help.

John - KD5RBB

Sure enough, I don't know why I didn't find it when I looked. Maybe it's a new product that they carry, or, more likely, I was just being incompetent. Thanks again!

73, John KD5RBB

I finally have permissions to go ahead with my plans to mount an antenna in a flower pot filled with cement and place it on my 3rd floor balcony at the apartments where I live. My only concern is that of lighting damaging my apartment building/occupants.

I have a magnet mount scanner antenna on the square tube railing of my balcony, and a copper J mounted in the flower pot. The scanner antenna has the coax attached at the factory, and is attached at the other end to a Uniden BC780XLT base/mobile scanner. This scanner has a grounded wall outlet AC/DC transformer, and other than that is not grounded. The J antenna will be connected to a Kenwood TH-G71A VHF/UHF handheld.

Most of the plans I've found for the J didn't mention where to attach a ground to it, but I assume I should attach the ground wire to the shield side of the coax connector mounted on it? As for the scanner antenna, should I cut the wire and install an inline connector and then ground the shield of that? Also, should I attach the ground to a random point of the chasis of my scanner, or does this not matter from a lighting point of view? I've read a lot about how all station equipment should be grounded, but I haven't heard much about how to go about grounding when using a handheld connected to an outside antenna. Should I just ground the shield of the coax adapter than I use to connect the antenna to the top of the radio?

Now, here comes the tricky part. The nearest cold water pipe is on the complete other side of my appartment, so it would require a rather long wire run. Alternativly, I could connect it to the cover plate screw of the electric outlet that's mounted right under the balcony window that I will be running my antenna wires through. Will this ground be  reasonably sufficient to ward off lightning, and if not, will running the wire to the water pipe be much better? It seems to me, the shorter the ground wire inside my apartment, the less lightning will be in here in the unfortunate case that my antenna does get hit.

Thanks for any and all replies,
John (KD5RBB)

Does anyone know where I can purchase a Diamond MR77 SMA antenna? I have not been able to find either version of the MR77, but I especially would like to find the MR77 SMA. Thanks for any help.

-John H. KD5RBB