11-25-2015, 09:44 PM
I changed the counterpoise a bit today and that helped matters. The counterpoise was nearly on the ground so I guess it acted more like a single radial rather than a counterpoise. Lifting the counterpoise to about 10 feet did change the characteristics of the antenna (had to re-tune the the TX) and now I can TX to about 75W without causing interference while on 80M, but now my 160M band is wacky now for interference. I guess that is a characteristic of end-fed antennas. I spoke with KZ5R (BalunDesigns) and said a 1:1 balun near the shack (not the feed point of the antenna) will do the trick. That's my next step.
What's really 'cool' about this rf issue is that I tie the shack ground (now improved with three 14 gauge wires fed to the house electrical ground) to the keyer and fire up the rig and transmit on 80 or 160m, that will cause the keyer to go bonkers. Just ground, no other connection (the keyer is battery operated). At least with no ground I can operate 80m provided I keep the power low.
What's really 'cool' about this rf issue is that I tie the shack ground (now improved with three 14 gauge wires fed to the house electrical ground) to the keyer and fire up the rig and transmit on 80 or 160m, that will cause the keyer to go bonkers. Just ground, no other connection (the keyer is battery operated). At least with no ground I can operate 80m provided I keep the power low.
(11-25-2015, 03:16 PM)KC1ACN Wrote: I have an idea. I have some adhesive copper tape for shielding. You can use this to tape down the inside covers of your keyer and then ground to a single point to reduce external noise/radiation.
I suspect your antenna has a strong lobe in the direction of your keyer position. Shielding may alleviate this.
LMK if you want to try this.
Either that or try changing the decoupling capacitors C3 & C5 on the paddle inputs.
They are .01uF. You could try scoping these points while transmitting phone on 80M to see if it's being induced in the paddles.
73, Steve - KC1SA