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Showing posts with the label Fog

Project TouCans: Donuts over Toroids and Bananas

Project TouCans was having an issue with fog-borne moisture here in San Francisco. The flat top of the Tuna Can provided a place for water to pool—even if only a bit. Consequently, each morning, the radio would need to be lowered—don't forget, it lives in the antenna—disassembled, and dried.  I tried taping the radio shut more completely, I tried tightening the banana connectors—it doesn't help that on top of everything else, tuna cans bottoms have ripples—all to no avail. And then, the solution presented itself. The kid—Diaze—and I had discussed using airliner barf bags as rain shields on our recent trip to New Mexico. I'd successfully used a Donette's bag to the same end when the gang and I were out camping back in June. I couldn't find a barf bag, a coffee bag, or a Donettes bag. (They're all lined in plastic, that's why they work.) But, I did find a plain old wax lined donut shop bag, and voila! The rig has had no water issues since. You probably also n...

More about Tuna Topper Shielding aka Tuna Soup

A bit more about shielding the Tuna Topper amplifier with a can of Progresso soup. I tried a shielding experiment here at the home station today, and had great results. There was in fact no reductcion in output power. It's unclear to me if there's a reduction in general noise yet. There are roofers next door, and their propane heaters are laying down a nice, even, low-level ground floor. Here's a detail picture of the shielding: The soup can is opened on one end, the soup has of course been removed, and the can cleaned. The open end i placed over the exposed Tuna Topper circuit board. I thought there would be issues with the RF in and out wires being sandwiched between the two cans, but there are not, (at least for this installation.) I made a contact with AE7CG with the shielding in place. Here's the QSO map: You can see the signal was reaching out fairly far, but no further than Utah. This is an afternoon thing here in San Francisco that I haven't entirely figure...