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write your own review of the DX Engineering NCC-1 receive phase controller.
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vk4vgk
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 5, 2009 01:56
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Magnificient
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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NB. POSTED UNDER MY OLD VK2VGK EHAM PROFILE - MY CURRENT CALLSIGN IS VK4VGK
Living off the grid can be fun if...
My RFI situation was dire... specifically because my shack is located inside a shed that houses an incredibly RF noisy 7kw 48vdc to 220vac inverter that powers my home which runs on solar / wind which is entirely off-the-grid. I tried a few alternative inverters, but the problem appears systemic.
The inverter generates extreme RFI that splattered and destroyed every HF band making even local contacts miserable and usually downright impossible - if I could have turned the inverter off while operating the radio I would have, but the house (located 100 meters away) and my family demands 24/7 juice and running off batteries made absolutely no difference... the RFI wasn't so much down the wires as in the air, so all the "mains" supply filtering in the world was not gonna help and my hearby HF antennas were also soaking it up big time.
After several helpful emails with DXE customer support (Rod Ehrhart - WN8R) explaining my situation, I ordered the NCC-1 RTR-1 combo on the basis that my extreme nearfield RFI problem was a bit of a new egg to the classic NCC-1 noise cancelling target and it may or may not help - but worth a try for someone for whom the alternative was simply to shut down the station, sell off most of my gear and go mobile.
Rod explained a method off deploying the NCC-1 without the RTR-1 using my radio's RX antenna facility, but I decided to add the RTR-1 as a failsafe approach to hook-up anyway.
The NCC-1 and RTR-1 was despatched rapidly from DXE and arrived safely in Oz in a wonderfully packed carton a few days later. I followed the excellent accompanying manual/s and valuable setup diagrams (download the manuals from the DXE website and check out the brilliant bunch of well illustrated hook-up examples and possibilities) and within 30 minutes I was on the air with NO LOCALLY GENERATED RFI WHATESOEVER!!!
The great news is that, based on the RTR manual's diagram eight (One Monoband or Multi-band Vertical Antenna phased with a (passive rx antenna substituted) using DXE-NCC-1 Receive Antenna Variable Phasing Controller) I have achieved complete nulling of the S9+ interference generated by my off-grid 7kw solar inverter located just 4 meters from my radio in the shack.
In the past I have owned the old JPS ANC-4 (now owned by Timewave) and thought it did a reasonable job of reducing nearby powerline noise, but this solution and its awesome results belong to an entirely different realm.
My favourite 40 meters and every other HF band I turn to has been restored to absolute perfection - with zero trace of the extreme RFI that made my amateur radio shack entirely unworkable and the occasional prospect of relaxing SWL DX simply out of the question.
In lieu of an external active antenna, I placed the passive RX antenna (non resonant wip) right next to the inverter and thanks to the great range of control and dual antenna relative attenuation capabilities of the NCC-1 the local noise was completely and easily phased out.
My Bushcomm BBA-100C wideband HF antenna has also really come to life. Even my Palstar AT2K antenna tuner seems to be behaving more effectively across all the bands which is great news for DXSWL.
I am using a Yaesu FT-2000 with the RF Space SDR-IQ / IF-2000 pan display on a monitor that provides incredible visual testimony to the truth of what the NCC-1 is doing. You can literally see the RFI spikes dissapear off the 190Khz wide scope with zero impact on the desirable backgound RF noise floor - all of the sensitivity remains on each band, but the nuisance intermods just slip away... leaving the skies open for the first time!!!
I can not overstate the change this DXE gear has made to my Ham life... Amazing!!!
Thanks to WN8R and the brilliant engineer/s at DXE for giving me back the joy of HF ops - thoroughly recommended - best ham investment ever!!!
Greg K
VK4VGK (formerly VK2VGK)
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KF5VM
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 19, 2008 20:05
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My Best Ham Equipment Investment in Years
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I wanted to hear the weak low band DX in my noisy location. So, after a very helpful discussion with the folks at DX Engineering, I decided to try their NCC-1 and two phased DXE-ARAV2-1P active verticals as a solution to my high urban noise levels. I have limited room for antennas so the 2 small verticals (107 inches) fit very neatly in my 60’ by 60’ back yard along with a transmitting vertical (ground mounted Butternut, 40 radials) and occasional inverted vee. To prevent damage to the receive antenna pre-amps from my nearby transmit antennas, I followed DX Engineering’s advice and use their TVSU-1 sequencer unit which kills power to the preamps before transmitting. I assembled the system in one afternoon, including burying the 75 ohm coax to the phased verticals. The NCC-1 is impressive to look at, inside and out, with large, smooth controls, and is almost the same size as my Icom 756 Pro III. The instructions were well written and emphasize that sequencing transmit timing and configuring the active antenna power (injected on the coax) is critical. The first look at the active antennas led me to wonder how anything so small could compete with a full size receive antenna (i.e. Beverage). I have listened to comparisons of low noise antennas to resonant dipoles before, so I knew that although signal levels would be down, a better signal to noise ratio should allow reception otherwise impossible under noisy conditions. Performance of any receive antenna system is affected by antenna spacing (mine is at 60’), location of other antennas, ground quality, your local noise situation, etc. (your mileage may vary!). In the past I have had only partial success using a Timewave ANC-4 to null noise on the ham bands. After trying a few settings of the NCC-1, I was very, very impressed! A very smooth rotation of the phase control nulled my S-9 plus 10 noise level to S zero and signals I never would have heard were now Q5 audible on 160, 80 and 40 meters. The noise stayed nulled with one phase setting over almost the entire band and anywhere on almost half of the NCC-1 Phase dial scale the noise remained nulled, almost set and forget for one whole band. This is a night and day difference from my Timewave ANC-4. Very weak stations required one Icom Pro III pre-amp to be turned on, but what a joy to do so now with a resultant noise level of only S-3 on 80 meters (with one Icom preamp). I went from band to band, finding similar results on every ham band. On all bands, even 10 meters, I found I could null stations in some directions and peak others. In Texas it’s nice to null out QRM from California or Florida. Receive signal strength seems quite adequate with no weird artifacts or AM broadcast stations (several are nearby) breaking through. That was not always the case with the Timewave. On 17 meters and above, all received signals are stronger on the DX Engineering system than on my resonant dipoles or vertical. On 30 and 20 meters they are equal to the resonant antennas, and on 80 and 40, signals are always lower than on my resonant vertical, but are now copyable as the local noise is cancelled out. I had no antenna for 160 meters until now with this system. I now hear signals on 160 I never dreamed existed. I tried some MW broadcast DXing and found I could null some strong local nighttime stations and peak others below them. I will have to experiment more with that aspect. I was also surprised to find that I could now hear beacons below 500 khz never before audible at my QTH. As earlier mentioned, some issues one must consider are proper antenna siting, spacing, and grounding. There is a learning curve with this system and I used it for several weeks before I felt comfortable writing a review (I am still learning more ways to use it). In some cases, close spacing to a transmit antenna may require you to use time sequencing steps that don’t permit transceiver internal VOX or keyer to be used, in order to protect the preamps from transmitted RF. I use an external keyer for CW (QSK) and a footswitch on SSB. You could encounter some noise sources that when nulled also collaterally reduce desired signal strength. However, even in those worst case situations, I was able to copy the desired signal with a little fiddling within a huge range of setting combinations between phase and input balance. Although this system is by no means cheap, this has been my best ham radio investment in years. I hope to try it in a very quiet location someday, but until I can move out into a rural area, this will keep me on the air.
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