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This one Weird Trick Reduces 2 S Units of Noise

 Washi tape to the rescue again!

Tuesday morning, with Project TouCans working better that it had in days, I noticed that the ends of our stranded wire antenna had begun to fray out. I grabbed a roll of washi tape from my pocket, (who doesn't take washi tape on a radio outing?), and a few minutes later, voila


The end of our antenna was no longer frayed, and nosie was down significantly! Here's a view of our activation site from the opposite angle looking out over the Great Basin of Great Basin National Park US-0032.



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  1. AnonymousJune 9, 2024 at 9:15 PM

    What do you suppose is the explanation of noise reduction when tidying up the frayed ends with tape? de W6CSN

    ReplyDelete
  2. antigrav_kids KD0FNRJune 10, 2024 at 7:14 AM

    The strands of wire were picking up static electricity from the dry, dusty air. The smaller and more exposed the point on the wire, the higher the electric field, and the more noise in the receiver. I remembered this from a fairly spiffy source about pyroelectric crystals being used with a tiny tungsten point to make neutrons! Check out
    https://pubs.aip.org/aip/jap/article/135/20/200701/3294619/Pyroelectric-crystals-for-generation-of-neutrons-A

    It's not my favorite article on this, but it's open-access.

    ReplyDelete

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