So I spent the day rigging a G5RV JR antenna in my attic. 52 feet of wire antenna, stretching from one side of the house to the other. I ran the coax feeder inside the wall to my radio shack, and hooked it all up. I turned the transmitter down to the minimum output (5 watts) and tested the system. It worked fine. I was getting SWR of about 1.1:1 without a tuner on all bands from 40 meters up to 10 meters.
So I started cruising the bands. I found someone broadcasting from Europe, turned my power up to 100 watts, and pushed the transmit key.
Every light in the house went out. The breaker for the general lighting was tripped. I guess I am getting RF feedback into the power lines.
My girlfriend was pretty annoyed. Have to go up and move the antenna tomorrow.
Not much to suggest other than antenna runs parallel to long runs of Romex powerlines are more likely to cause problems than if they cross at right angles. Separation good. More separation is more better.
ReplyDelete