Johnson Ranger questions

[K2DN]

I have zero experience with these old boat anchors and I have a couple of questions:

1) I do not have a boat anchor receiver so I have been trying to use my Yaesu FT-920 as a receiver. I have an antenna relay that works well, but even with the antenna to the Yaesu switched off, I can still hear myself in the Yaesu when transmitting with the Ranger. I can even hear myself when I switch to antenna B on the Yeasu and there is no antenna hooked up to the B port. I don't want to screw up the Yaesu, so what I have been doing lately is switching the Yaesu to the B VFO which is tuned to a different band when transmitting with the Ranger and then quickly switching back to the A VFO so I can hear the other station. Is there anything else I can do that would not require flipping so many switches?

2) My daughter says she can hear me talking in her computer speakers when I transmit with the Ranger. I do not have this problem with the Yaesu in any mode using the exact same antenna. Is this something I need to worry about, or is she just going to have to get used to me talking in her speakers

Thanks,
Todd
K2DN

[kg8lb]

 Not certain what muting provisions the Yaesu has but there will be someone to help there. Killing the antenna alone is not enough even with boat anchor receivers. It does help to disconnect the antenna and ground the ant input on the RX but secondary measures are also in order.

  With your daughters computer speakers , the usual ingress route is the lovely antenna and rectifier system provided by the wall wart transformer. There are plenty of RF proofing measures employing chokes and caps, sometimes clamp on ferrites  etc. The ARRL has quite a bit on this in their publications . You may want to research there ... or I'm betting there will be plenty popping up here very soon.

[W3GMS]

Hi Todd,

Well its great that your getting into AM with the old rigs.  You will have lots of fun and you have come to the right place to ask your questions.  Welcome to AMfone!

Sometimes I use my Ten Tec Jupiter as my receiver when operating on AM and it works very well.  The Jupiter does not a mute function, so what I do while operating my Ranger is to put the Jupiter into the transmit mode but with the transmitter in the off mode.  It has a menu to kill the transmitter.  So when I key the PTT on the Ranger it also keys the PTT on the Jupiter which then switches the Jupiter to the transmit mode but the transmitter is disable by the menu function.  Your SSB transceiver might have a similar feature.  If it does, that will take care of hearing yourself out of the Yaesu.  On some rigs you can turn the output power down to zero and that would work as well.  I am not sure what antenna relay your using with the Ranger, but if it is the Dowkey type, some versions have a set of contacts just for muting purposes.  You could use that to enable PTT on your Yaesu.  If your antenna relay does not have an extra set of contacts then just get another relay with the same coil voltage and do your muting that way. 

As far as the computer speakers are concerned your getting some audio rectification which when happens allows you to hear your AM signal quite well.  It normally comes from the antenna radiation back into the speakers but in this case since you don't have it on your other rig it kind of indicates that you have more RF floating around from the Ranger itself.  In all but the most stubborn cases it can be filtered out with Toroids  around the leads going into the amplified speakers. 

Joe, W3GMS   

[n1ps]

try using a low pass filter

[K5UJ]

2) My daughter says she can hear me talking in her computer speakers when I transmit with the Ranger. I do not have this problem with the Yaesu in any mode using the exact same antenna. Is this something I need to worry about, or is she just going to have to get used to me talking in her speakers

She's probably going to have to get used to it.  Most PC speakers have crappy little solid state audio amps built into one of the speaker cabinets.  None of this stuff is shielded and is more vulnerable to RFI than just about anything else.   Plastic cabinets, unshielded leads, solid state audio amp, nothing with any kind of protection like bypass caps and ferrite beads...it's a great recipe for big RFI.  The problem is diode rectification of the AM signal usually.   I have tried all kinds of things but the only solution that worked was to turn off the speakers when I operate.   

Re hearing yourself on transmit, why do you want to eliminate that?  It's a way to monitor your signal for problems like hum, distortion due to over modulation, a check to see if your audio level is correct...if you are not operating with an oscilloscope or some kind of SB610 type monitor, hearing your tx signal would be even more important. 

rob

 

[WD5JKO]

 I have tried all kinds of things but the only solution that worked was to turn off the speakers when I operate.   

  I had a neighbor at my last QTH that said my audio came through his PC speakers. He said that one night when I was on 75M late night AM, he disconnected the speakers, and wrapped the wires around the speaker. I was still coming through! To get sleep he eventually put the speaker in the closet and covered with pillows.

No easy solution...The speakers where part of a high end audio system ($2000), and the guy would not let me see the stuff. I compromised by operating prime time instead of late at night. Neighbor was pissed.

Jim
WD5JKO

[K2DN]

I don't really have a problem hearing myself in the receiver, but I thought I might be overloading it. I do not want to mess up my Yaesu.
I just bought a National NC-300 that should be here next week, so the problem is going to fix itself anyway.

Thanks for the replies,
Todd
K2DN

[K5UJ]

Yeah Jim, the diode rectification can actually power the speaker, albeit at a low level, with the audio amp turned off.  My neighbor a few years ago told me he thought he heard me on his stereo even when it was turned off, and thought he was going nuts.  He had long excess speaker wire runs and I told him to wrap them up in a wad and I gave him some ferrite split beads and told him to wrap the speaker wire around them right where they plug into the amp.  I never heard anything from him after that. 

A couple years later, another neighbor complained about hearing me in his PC speakers.  He wound up becoming a ham and fortunately moved away.  Having an HF operating ham next door is almost as bad as a complaining non-ham neighbor. 

Rob 

[KB2WIG]

My AT&T  LG cellar telefone gets into my bedside radio when the fone is 10+ feet away. Gets into the wife's computer speakers too......

klc


kinda sounds like "The Boston Buzzie"

[kg8lb]

 I was getting into the family computer up front in the main building (My shack is out behind the house) . Plugged the wall wart into a Corcom line filter (Chokes and caps ladder style) Shortend up the output lead from the wall wart to a minimum length and the problem disappeared like magic.  Since then the same trick has worked in other areas where ferrites had failed miserably.

[K5UJ]

I was getting into the family computer up front in the main building (My shack is out behind the house) . Plugged the wall wart into a Corcom line filter (Chokes and caps ladder style) Shortend up the output lead from the wall wart to a minimum length and the problem disappeared like magic.  Since then the same trick has worked in other areas where ferrites had failed miserably.

What is the model number of your corcom filter?  I looked at their website but having a model number would help.

Thanks.

Rob