2021-12-24, 13:27:18
I stepped into the shack Christmas Eve morning to make some POTA contacts. I got 3 in the log on 40m but I noticed as I was keying I was getting loud key clicks coming out of the speaker. That's a sure sign of the dreaded RF in the shack. I moved up to 20m but I couldn't even tune up properly.
After some checking around I found the problem. My antenna wire terminates inside a shed after dropping vertically a few feet. It passes under the eaves of the shed where it was coming into contact with the snow on the shed roof. The wire is insulated but was making capacitive contact with the snow.
My shed roof was detuning the antenna and re-radiating my signal back into the shack. After moving the wire away from the snow the problem cleared and I was able to go on and make some more POTA contacts.
The old advice that your best antenna is the one you put up in the worst weather was proved once again.
After some checking around I found the problem. My antenna wire terminates inside a shed after dropping vertically a few feet. It passes under the eaves of the shed where it was coming into contact with the snow on the shed roof. The wire is insulated but was making capacitive contact with the snow.
My shed roof was detuning the antenna and re-radiating my signal back into the shack. After moving the wire away from the snow the problem cleared and I was able to go on and make some more POTA contacts.
The old advice that your best antenna is the one you put up in the worst weather was proved once again.
John VA3KOT
Blog: HamRadioOutsideTheBox.ca
Blog: HamRadioOutsideTheBox.ca