Message-ID: <4BAC4CDF.3060906@telus.net>
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:57:51 +0000
From: Scott Tilley <sthed475@telus.net>
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To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
Subject: LF: Electrostatic Loop Antenna Query...
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Gentlemen (and Mal)

I've been busy renovating my home and my LF RX antenna farm.  During the 
work,  I recently  discovered the source of a very annoying noise source 
after months of detective work(ie. cursing every time I needed to adjust 
my phasing canceler).  The noise seems to be coming down my power line 
that feeds my house.  After some poking around the power grid there is 
only one other house connected to the transformer we get power from and 
my DF work seems to indicated the the noise 'orientates' form the pole 
with the xfmr near the neighbours house hidden in the woods.  My theory 
is that my neighbour has some sort of electrical gismo that runs 24/7 
that creates this noise and it has a pipeline to my house via the 
neutral supported cable. 

During my renos I went mobile with my 1m diameter electrostatic loop as 
it needed to come down to make way for things that make the XYL happy.  
I found after considerable walking there was a magic distance away from 
the evil pole that the noise simple stopped no matter what direction I 
pointed the loop.  Unfortunately, this is not the case for other types 
of antennas such a my mini-whip, unshielded multi turn loop, and large 
single turn loop.  My theory is that the induction field of the noise 
finally gets weak enough that the electrostatic loop wins out...   I'm 
sure someone will set me straight on why soon...

Anyway, the discovery of the electrostatic loops immunity to this noise 
at the magic distance  where the real estate it is planted on is still 
mine has me wondering this:

If I increase the diameter of the loop from say 1m to 2.5m will I see an 
increase in SNR?

My gut feeling has me saying that this may seem like commonsense that it 
would be true but something about the theory of how the electrostatic 
loop works has me thinking otherwise...

Concurrently, I'm planning a diplomatic mission to the neigbour's with a 
box of ferrite, 1m loop and a bottle of Scotch...

73 es tu
Scott
VE7TIL

PS- I'm still seeing DCF39 daily on the 1m loop!  I hope to have the 
grabber and DCF39 logger back on the net by April 1st.