All it takes is ONE user who believes himself to be above
any technical standards in his quest to maximize profit.

These are the same clowns that strip a site of any and all
hardware that isn't nailed down or currently connected to
something.

Or throw together a "repeater" out of junk bought at the
swap meet and nailed to a piece of plywood.

Jeff-1.0
wa6fwi

--
"Everything from Crackers to Coffins"

On Sat, 10 Sep 2011 08:12:23 -0500, Jeffrey Angus
wrote:

All it takes is ONE user who believes himself to be above
any technical standards in his quest to maximize profit.

Yep. However, sometime they actually have a clue. One of my friends
recently orchestrated a site cleanup and purge, emphasizing coax
cables and isolators. After the complaining, yelling, and screaming
stopped, so did the intermod. On the other foot, the county decided
to do the same things on a crowded tower that we were sharing. All
the LRM-400 came down, and was replaced by Heliax. Much of the
intermod went away, but the mixes generated in the receiver front ends
remained.

These are the same clowns that strip a site of any and all
hardware that isn't nailed down or currently connected to
something.

They're probably the same clowns that steal my scope probes that I
leave plugged into the scopes at various sites.

I had a weird problem related to unused equipment. There was an
unused "smog alert" receiver at one site, connected to an external
ground plane antenna half way up the tower. It was turned off as the
system was obsolete. Someone noticed that if they unplugged the
antenna connector, some of the intermod would magically disappear. The
outside antenna was picking up RF from the tower, delivering into the
building, and the badly shielded receiver front end was re-radiating
it all over the rack. The building manager immediately instituted a
reign of terror, demanding that all unused equipment and antennas be
removed, resulting in most of the junk exiting the building and tower.
There was a slight but noticeable decrease in intermod. Oh well.

Or throw together a "repeater" out of junk bought at the
swap meet and nailed to a piece of plywood.

Ahem... You must have been looking at my photos. Please don't do
that. Here's our unfinished plywood APRS weather station, built on a
plywood (with ash veneer) bookshelf:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/WR6AOK-WX-Station/
The 2m bottle is not in the picture. I use screws, not nails. There
was a good (political) reason to use plywood. Also, the rack in my
living room has plywood shelves, as are the radios in my Subaru.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
...


I had a weird problem related to unused equipment. There was an
unused "smog alert" receiver at one site, connected to an external
ground plane antenna half way up the tower. It was turned off as the
system was obsolete. Someone noticed that if they unplugged the
antenna connector, some of the intermod would magically disappear.

Such is the case on USN ships of my acquaintance. If the ship buys a
commercial transceiver and throws the antenna any old place, the front
end becomes a mixer. There's a reason why (most) military gear is
pricey. It's been engineered not to do that.

Aside:
It's not always an active device that causes problems. I had one ship
that was getting massive interference on UHF comm circuits between
about 325 MHz to 399 MHz. from a radar operating around 430 MHz.
Normally not a problem. The cause was a tangled hunk of wire I
found in the field of the radar. It had been used to secure scaffolding
during the ship's previous inport period.

Every time the radar lit up that bailing wire, the resulting arcing
and sparkling generated broadband RF pulses at the radar's rep rate.

I was climbing around on the mast, looking for just something of the
sort. When I saw that wire, I actually spoke out loud to it.

I said, "Well, hello there!" True story.

It's one of several reasons we preached "Topside Housekeeping"
to our Sailors during ship visits. Leave nothing on the mast that
doesn't have to be there.

"Sal"