"Jeff" wrote in
. com:

I would like to see what mods are made to the 221 to do that and also
what kind of antenna system. I have a 221 I am using with a gasfet
preamp in the shack that should be less than 1 db of noise fugure
and about 20 db of gain. The antenna is a klm 22c and 75 feet of
9913 type of coax. I can just see some sun noise with the antenna
aimed at the sun. It sure does not deflect the smeter several
sunits. The antenna is on an azel mount. I am sure the system is
working as I compaired it to an Icom 706 and another antenna that is
mounted on a tower and I am getting about the differance in signal
levels I would expect at the horizon.

The 75 feet of coax is your problem!!! What is the point of a 1dB NF
preamp with all that loss ahead of it? To see the benefit of the low
noise figure the amp must be before all that cable loss!!

Yep...when I moved, I put in hardline and lowered the antenna a bunch.

That's when I started to hear other things besides the sun. And I could
plot it. When the galactic plane was in front of the antenna, the noise
floor would be up an S-unit from base.


--
Dave Oldridge+
ICQ 1800667