Venom ground plane radials.

Hi all on this Sunday morning, another silly question maybe but here goes. Those little plastic end caps for the radials that are included, how important are they ? The are certainly not a snug fit and will pop off in any good wind, thinking of just sticking a bit of gaffer tape over the ends to stop weather. Advise anyone gratefully accepted. Cheers 

Just a further question sort of related, what is the best sound filter to get, lots of interference on the Cobra so want to block as much as possible. I think its an electrical source.

Hi Michael, quoting David Casler again "everything affects everything". Not putting on the plastic end caps and putting on tape instead probably will affect it, but I shouldn't imagine by a noticeable amount. I guess they are mainly for cosmetics and weather protection.

For the noise, finding the source and eliminating it if possible would be the best course of action if you can IMO. You should find lots of advice on this forum and the net in general of things to try to work out the source. That said, there are loads of gadgets out there, some work well for some people, some don't. I worked for months moving and rebuilding my main antenna system until the noise was as low as I could get it, then topped it off with a BHI NES10-2 MK4 speaker. My receive is awesome now and I have been able to work places I never thought I would because I can hear them. The speaker is not cheap though, and... it only works well with my G90. Connected to my 6900 or my SW receiver it just doesn't pair well and I get fake whooshing / gushing water noises etc when connected to those ones. So, I wouldn't rush at buying gadgets until you have no choice to try.

Hi Michael,

As Neal states, pretty much for protection as well as cosmetic and it does keep the old spiders and water out of radials made from hollow tubing. I'd run a drop of glue around the radial before popping the caps back on.

As for local QRM or man made interference you can chase the proverbial dogs tail with it all. Sometimes it worth noting that the bands/frequencies can suffer from QRN or natural noise sources, (busy propagation, atmospheric noises, lightning etc.)

You often hear and see stories of how people 'cleverly' hunt down interference with gadgets, (whether home made or otherwise), and rejoice in glee at finding that faulty/Chinese battery charger at a neighbours property three miles down the road. The reality is often different.....

Worth checking closer to home initially as I've experienced first hand a cheap phone charger the wife bought online that spewed RF like nobodies business! I unplugged it, the noise went away and a couple of days later the noise came back....because the missus left it plugged in again! (Went in the bin after that. ) I won't mention the washing machine wiping out my low HF reception when it's on spin and wouldn't get away with chucking that in the bin.


It's also worth noting that you have an end fed vertical antenna and they can be notorious for noise. Worth chucking a few turns of coax around a piece of pipe to make a common mode choke, five turns or so around a piece of 100-110mm pipe will do the job. (Nice cheap short length from a local DIY will do you nicely.) Do that at the antenna end where it will be most effective.

See the graph in the link below for confirmation of details given :-

http://karinya.net/g3txq/chokes/


We didn't have to do this sort of stuff years ago but then there wasn't the proliferation of electronic gadgets we have nowadays often with the chargers still plugged in and powered up!

Worth turning down the RF gain on your radio a bit as part of your operations too, you'd be surprised at how much of a difference that can make even counterintuitively with 'weaker' signals.

There are as Neal suggests noise cancelling speakers as well as 'QRM eliminators' but they don't work with everything and can often cost good money. A bit of pipe for a common mode choke and turning the RF gain down a bit is infinitely cheaper.


I hope you get sorted and have fun with your radio operations.


All the best,
Victor

Really appreciate the advise given fellas, I will look into the choke option, it will be difficult to track a source down as there seems to be various possibilities with things like the Garda barracks just along the road, and the Civil Defence HQ just behind it, both use all sorts of stuff.

Quick easy test if you have a car battery or bike 12v.
Knock the house mains off and run the radio from the battery for a minute.
If the noise goes then you know it is in your house and you can start the search.
Don't forget to put the mains back on.

Thats the next job to try before I spend any money on the issue, will let you know the result. Thanks.

Well, thanks to the advice of these guys I have worked through the house electrics and narrowed it down to the sky fibre box, Q box or tv all in the next room to my radio setup room. I have some ferrite chokes coming tomorrow so will put those on and see what improvement there is.

Uh oh, Sky Q......

Have a look at the following links despite what Sky actually states :-

Sky EMC Statement

https://www.ban-plt.org.uk/

https://www.ukqrm.org.uk/


If Sky are definitely committed to their EMC statement then they should be able to fix the problem for you without charge. Probably 'fat chance' as I know when I located my RFI problems with Virgin they couldn't give a toss!

I landed up changing the 'cheap' router cable they put in with some decent stuff and the problem went away.


Best of luck with it all Michael.

Qrm is a big problem for anybody including myself I went and bought a wimo qrm eliminator Great bit of kit better then that Chinese rubbish they sell on eBay which I did buy in the beginning and returned it as it was shite full refund included .
Good luck to anybody if they can get rid of noise without the expense of buying a eliminator.
Oh just to say if your thinking of buying 1 of those wimo units then check to see if there ok to use on your radio . 
73s