To Scott continued from "newbie any tips" post

It took days of scratching my head, im glad i didnt burry my lines before i got all my things streightened out.. saved me tons of work..

I have to say if i did it agiang i would just start with the ground loop isolator in there from the get go its a great cheap trouble saver.

My hum was very apparent.. It may or may not have been a ground loop but the loop isolator device from radio shak killed it, whatever it was..

My hum was ther with a ac or battery powered device or with no device at all connected to the line.. so that goes to show you that even if ther is nothing connected you may stilll pick up hum...

Im goingt to mess around with my placement of the isolator, its now in the studio, i will try placing it in the TX case and see if that makes any diffrence..

Jaosn

Did you construct you own coil for your antenna? IF so how much work was it... woul you be willing to help me make one or even make one for me if i pay you for yout time and parts.. I tried finding th proper parts here and could not find the wire i need and if your getting good results with is i would bw willing to pay you for making a coil for me

I have a feeling that coil id the key part to making it work well..

Jason

Hi Jason:

I constructed my coil myself. It didn't seem like too much work to me. It was, perhaps, one or two hours at the kitchen table working slowly and carefully. I bought the wire online for about $18 delivered as recommended in the SSTRAN instructions. The shortest length of 3" PVC I could find was 5' for about $6. The two PVC caps were about $2 each. I didn't have any PVC cleaner or cement, so that cost about $4. I'd say I spent $32 to make my coil, and I probably have enough wire and PVC to make a couple more.

(I'm tracking every penny -- I plan to post my expenses spreadsheet online when I'm done to give would-be Part 15 broadcasters an idea of what to expect).

I had thought about making a couple to sell to help offset the cost of my radio and antenna, but wasn't sure, since there's already someone doing it at http://antenna18431.tripod.com/antenna.htm. They are about $90 there, and that seems a little high to me, especially considering the materials cost can go down considerably if you buy the wire and PVC in larger quantities and have a supply of cement on hand rather than buy it for the job like I did.

Regards,

Scott

Greetings all:

My pole-mounted SSTRAN AMT3000 is still going strong, after a week of continuous use mounted on a pole next to my house.

We've had 50-60 MPH winds, some rain, and now when I look at the outdoor box and antenna, I can see ice and snow on it. Yet all still seems to be going well. I may yet add a brace to the 13 foot long 1 1/2 inch wide rigid metal conduit just in case, but with the wicked Nebraska winds so far, the pole moves only an inch or so at the top.

Now I just need to work on the Linux automation some more and I will have some real progress to report.

I've got a preliminary website up at http://robinvalley.org/ I hope to add MP3 streaming soon, but want to get a schedule worked out beforehand.

Thanks to all for your support.

Regards,

Scott

Hi Scott,.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Neil

I have made a coil but without taps.. how did you form the taps.. this is where i think its harder to make...

I ordered my wire alos and have recieved it i hope to get my new coil made next weekend.. any tips on wiring the coil and making the taps on the coul will be greatly appreciated...

My current system has been TXing for weeks with no problems , my hum is gone and im ready to make the perfect antenna... so i can cover all of town with a nice strong signal instead of only half of town...

I talked with some residents that live close and there all for the local station.. 🙂 I told them what station i was on and that they could tune in but the signal may be low untill i make the antenna change..

SO any tips on forming those taps would be great.

Jason

Hi Jason,

I have made a few coils, with and without taps. For the SSTRAN, I think there are some tips on the web site regarding Antenna Guy Carl's Coil.

From my experience, the hardest thing with winding coils on a PVC pipe is handling and turning the pipe as you form the coil. This is really hard to do without a jig of some sort. I have a bench lathe, so I chucked the pipe and turned it with one hand while guiding and tensioning the wire with the other using my thumb to guide the wire and keep tension. The last coil I did has 16 taps and it took me about 20 minutes to wind it. Really got nice looking coils doing this. Drill holes in the PVC where you want the coil to start and end before winding so you have somewhere to fasten the wire.

The last one I did was similar to the SSTRAN coil with taps. I used #14THHN insulated wire (this was for another purpose and I am not recommending using this wire for Carl's coil). As the SSTRAN site says, I marked two lines on the pipe and placed a tap every two turns, staggering each tap alternating guide lines. When ready to form a tap, I taped the wire to the pipe, and used a long nosed plier to form a U shaped loop. The wire is stiff enough to hold the U shape as you continue winding. When finished, I stripped the insulatiion from the U loops and tinned them.

I use this particular coil in an experimental application where the taps rough tune and a parallel capacitor fine tunes. It has such a sharp resonance point that it is difficult to peak. Just having my hand near the coil detunes it. Point is it has high Q.

By the way, if you coat the PVC with spar varnish as recommended, I found that it took three days to dry before I could handle the coil without leaving dirt and fingerprints. This was when the temp was in the 70's. Right now it is 23 here and it would probably never dry. Be patient.

Take your time with this and practice first.

Neil