more bloodwork

At Lakeside Family Physicians to get yet another round of blood tests to see if they can find what the hell is wrong with me. Except for another kidney stone I had a good couple of days, but crash around 6pm each night.

There are a few things in this Universe that I do not understand. The Meaning of Life, Antenna Theory, greed and why I'be been so sick for 2 1/2 years. This round of blood tests is a grasping at straws to find an answer. After this I am just tapped out if ideas. Results should be in within the week.

So my new radio will be here on Monday and the new antenna tuner on Tuesday. The there will be some basic testing for in house interference and then deciding where to install the antenna wires outside. I'm thinking two to start. Long wire antennas work better at picking up signals from the sides and worse at the ends. The longer line will be about 84 feet oriented northeast and southwest Europe and Africa). The length is a factor of the 1/4 wavelength for multiple frequency bands (120, 09, 06, 45, 30) but also that avoid the 1/2 wavelength and harmonics associated. Happily my internet research has found someone who has worked out the calculations already. A second independent line will run 41 feet and be oriented northwest and southeast for the South Pacific and South America. This second antenna would also catch the signals coming across the north polar region. The goal will be to get the antennas as high as possible and away from the house, but also a good distance from the power lines that run both in along the roads in front and behind the house.

I bet you are wondering how radio signals can travel 1/2 way around the globe as radio waves cannot bend. They bounce into the ionosphere (F1 and F2 layers).  The these waves return to Earth and bounce again into the ionosphere and back to earth again. These are called hops. A signal can hop many times but as the do they lost power and pick up interference. So Radio New Zealand broadcasting at only 7.5megawatts will be very hard to receive. The ionosphere is charged by particles from the sun caught in the upper layers of the atmosphere. Not enough charged particles and the F2 layer will not bounce the signal and it will drift off into space. Too many charged particles create too much interference. There is an 11 year cycle of sunspot activity will causes the conditions that make radio wave propagation possible. We appear to be on the beginning of the upswing of solar activity. We should see improving conditions for the next 4-5 yeas. At the low point the cycle the bands will be fairly quiet and near the high point, a beehive of activity.

Who uses short wave? In many parts of the world short wave is the medium for radio, as AM (medium wave) and FM are used. Also, marine, utilities, and ham radio use these frequencies. Aircraft use ultrahigh frequencies for their communication. DXers, people to scan the short wave bands for interesting programming from around the world, music and news. Also the challenge of digging out a regional station from the interference and noise of the radio bands makes for an interesting hobby.

I'll be deciding where to hang the antennas and figure out how to run the leads into the house and ground the antennas. I have several trees that will work. The hard part will be getting high enough to attach the wires. So off to find the necessary hardware, 150' of coated single solid core wire, connections to attach the signal wire to coax, coaxial to get the signal to the tuner. Sr-236 connectors, ground wire and clamp.