Author Topic: Tennessee is contributing  (Read 1531 times)

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Offline 8mark

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Tennessee is contributing
« on: September 14, 2014, 04:57:02 PM »
Just a quick Hi to to forum. Station 1166 is E-Field only from the Mountains of East TN. I should have the H field running soon, but sneaking the entire project past the Commander ;) Please let me know what the signals look like, it's all on autopilot at the moment.  Mark

Offline jmcmurry

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Re: Tennessee is contributing
« Reply #1 on: September 14, 2014, 05:30:22 PM »
Mark,

Welcome to the project and I see that a station from Vermont just popped up too. 

- Jim

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Offline JonathanW

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Re: Tennessee is contributing
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2014, 05:30:58 PM »
I see you contributing already!  Welcome.

I'm hoping we'll have some later-season thunderstorm activity for all the new stations coming online.  There's been a bit of a lull over the last week or so (unless Egon/Tobi are working on the server algorithms?).

Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Tennessee is contributing
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2014, 06:05:42 PM »
Well... dang it!   I just got through updating the region 3 signals page,  http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/   and here's another station to add!
and a dang Rocky Topper near Chickamauga Lake! 
Welcome Mark

Gimmie about a half hour to an hour, and Ill have 1166 up on the page along with new station 1168 in Vermont.... and you can see what your sigs look like.

Mike   in Kentucky....
 


Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Tennessee is contributing
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2014, 06:39:11 PM »
Hey 8Mark

I think your gains are a bit high... it looks like the  E field amps are going into oscillation at times... those amps have a tremendous gain...
http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/sodd1166/index.html
What type probe are you using? How high is it elevated?

Mike
 


Offline 8mark

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Re: Tennessee is contributing
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2014, 07:49:59 PM »
Thanks to all for the kind words and the prompt service. Mike, I would have finished it sooner for you, but I'm left handed and the outstanding build instructions are for right handed folks. I had to solder everything upside down. I just noticed the dupe words in my post, guess I set the bar nice and low for Good ol' Rocky Top! In keeping with our ball team lately. Did you sail the Cutty Sark by here?
I see the occasional sine waves, are self oscillations usually intermittent? Is the automatic gain in a loop? I see the gain drop from 16 to 4 when the noise appears and then jump right back up.
This may help you; The amp and controller are laying beside each other on a table, connected with a 30' roll of shielded Cat 5 (it's for the H amp later). The antenna is a steel wire about 12" long (a flag for marking water lines etc). It's about 15' up on a tower, in true TN fashion I put the preamp in a short section of PVC pipe and duct taped the assembly to an existing antenna bracket until I sort out the details. The preamp to Amp cable is 25' of quality single shield, foil wrapped Belden RG-6. Site ground is clipped onto the controller at the RG-6 jack. Thoughts? I will remote in and lower the gains, I certainly don't want to send that garbage. Mark

Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Tennessee is contributing
« Reply #6 on: September 14, 2014, 08:33:39 PM »
E field Amp next to controller is fine... get yourself a 1' CAT6 shielded jumper for that... the shorter the better for E field.. Not true for H field Amp. You've got the right idea for H.. 30' is cool. I'd suggest for the E field probe, change to 12-15" of 12 AWG solid copper, and flush the magnetic steel.  Try to get the Probe/preamp assemble at least a foot away form any other metal, especially magnetic. Ground your controller at the Ground block to a 'cold water' ground, if you've got it. No other grounds. Certainly not on the E field preamp or anywhere else. The controller ground passes through the shielded CAT and Coax cables.
Heck, until 24 years ago, I sailed that ship on a bottle 'bout everywhere. Some I even remember...
Here's my Efield...



here's H field.. you'll note the ferrites are home spun and are not shielded.


Mike



 


Offline 8mark

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Re: Tennessee is contributing
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2014, 09:42:55 PM »
Mike, I think I saw you coming down the TN river late one night, not sure though. The pictures are of great value, maybe this thread will help some others. See if I'm on track digging through the forums. It's a metal building so obviously the antennas and H amp goes outside. The controller and E amp can go inside near the router/pc. I grabbed the steel wire since I was short on time and wanted to get the thing going while there was lighting on the East Coast, told me I soldered most of the parts in the right place in lieu of going over it all with the glasses. I will fix it up similar to your config soon, with work & honey-do list it may be awhile before I get back to the project. The ground is a central point copper buss bar that sweeps into 4 ground rods at the base of a Rohn 45 tower just outside of the building, it's not an electrical ground, it's for lightning, top of the mountain and lots of aluminum flying. I'll tidy it all up when I have it working smoothly. So question, do you know if anyone has put the H field above a metal building? How far from the steel roofing? My thought is place the ferrites in the middle of the roof so they are completely shielded from the noises inside. On the tower they might "see" through some of the windows below with all sorts of gadgets running in there, I went crazy when they put us lectricity last year. Thank you for the signal tools Sir. Have a great night,
Mark     

Offline W3DRM

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Re: Tennessee is contributing
« Reply #8 on: September 14, 2014, 11:01:31 PM »
Thanks to all for the kind words and the prompt service. Mike, I would have finished it sooner for you, but I'm left handed and the outstanding build instructions are for right handed folks. I had to solder everything upside down.
...snip...

Hey Mark - guess what? I'm the guy who wrote the build instructions AND, I'm left-handed too...  :twisted:

Congrats on the build. I just looked at your E-field signals and they look pretty nice to me. I see no obvious noise spikes giving you any problem either.
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Offline 8mark

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Re: Tennessee is contributing
« Reply #9 on: September 15, 2014, 08:06:37 PM »
Hi Don. I guess your story blows my excuse for not having the station on the air before Mike updated the region signals page! Thank you so much for the build instructions, very nicely done and a life saver on the build time. I hope to have it all working and correctly installed soon. The location should be fairly quiet; underground power and few residences. Have a great night Sir. Mark

Offline W3DRM

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Re: Tennessee is contributing
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2014, 10:50:47 PM »
Hi Mark,

PM sent to you...

There will be some new changes to the build instructions now that Kevin has finalized his RED system images. They are simply amazing and should also help with new builds. Of course, we're all holding our breath waiting for new designs to come out of the Blitzortung factory. When that happens, Kevin will have his hands full of new board layouts. At least he has the process down now so it shouldn't be too difficult.
Don - W3DRM - Emmett, Idaho --- Blitzortung ID: 808 --- FlightRadar24 ID: F-KBOI7
Davis Wireless VP2, WD 10.37s150,
StartWatch, VirtualVP, VPLive, Win10 Pro
--- Logitech HD Pro C920 webcam (off-line)
--- RIPE Atlas Probe - 32849