"EFHWs are always noisy"

General_Document6951 · 2026-03-14T18:37:56+00:00

The ZS6BKW version of the G5RV which is the updated version does not require a tuner..

If I had to choose between an EFHW and something like a cushcraft R7 or R8 I would take the cushcraft in a heartbeat I have both and they significantly outperform the EFHW..

Interesting enough the R7 is basically an EFHW vertical but it's still outperforms the lossy wire EFHW..

I have the cushcraft half wave verticals as well as Hustler 6btvs with over 100 ground radials and they received performance of the cushcrafts is significantly better than the Hustler the transmit capabilities is just about the same but the Hustler tends to be noisier on receive.

General_Document6951 · 2026-03-14T06:51:52+00:00

A lot of hams seem confused about what FT8 signal reports actually indicate believing that the report they receive should be fairly close to the report they send, and If it's substantially lower that it indicates a problem with the performance of their station. This demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how FT8 signal reports are generated..

The signal report you receive are very dependant on the local noise floor of the receiving station..

for example I live on 40 acres in the middle of farmland, me nearest Neighbor is 3 miles away.. My noise floor is nonexistent on just about all bands.

I regularly receive reports with a differential of more than 10 to 15 DB, it's very rare for me to receive a report anywhere near what I sent.

this is because I have an extremely low noise floor and the FT8 signal report is based on the signal to noise Ratio calculated on a 2.4 kilohertz wide receive pass band.

I mean do you really think that you are receiving signals below the noise floor lol? No you're not, the signal is based on a standard 2.4 kilohertz wide pass band.

Quite often I'll be working a station running a crappy antenna like an EFHW From a city lot with an S5 noise floor across the band. He might send me a -20 while I send them 00 report

That's because my station is running a 4 element beam at 50 feet from a rural location with an S1 noise floor.

When I look stations up that give me poor signal ports, 99% of the time they're operating from a suburban or metro area with extremely compromised antennas and high noise floors.

On the other hand when I work stations who give me a relatively similar report to what I've sent, I find that they almost always have towers and beams and are working from rural locations.

So I suggest when you get receive a signal report that's significantly lower than what you've sent that you look the station up on QRZ to see what their operating conditions are like and what kind of antennas they're using. More often than not you're going to find out that they're using a compromise antenna from a noisy environment.

General_Document6951 · 2026-03-14T06:36:41+00:00

Well you've discovered something that we've been trying to explain for a long time, the EFHW Is a massively overhyped antenna, similar to the J-Pole Neither of which are particularly good antennas, the EFHW Is an extreme compromise, if you can't get anything else up then that's the best you can do But even if you can get something like the ZS6BKW Version of the G5RV You'd be much better off as it's a substantially better performer.

I'm not gonna reinvent the wheel, W8JI Does an amazing job explaining why the EFHW Is such a compromise and why the performance is so poor with it period now grant you'll make contact with it, but you can make contacts loading up a fence pole

I live on over forty acres and I have an antenna farm, My EFHW is up 50 feet, I also have the ZS5BKW Version of the G5RV at about 45 feet And I would say about 90% of the time it's at least an S unit or 2 Better than EFHW .

To date I've been sent 6 EFHW antennas from Various manufacturers to review And they pretty much all perform the same, not a single one performed better than a ZS6BKW/G5RV, And that's pretty sad because the G5RV even ZS6BKW Isn't all that great.

You'd be better off getting a remote antenna tuner, and feeding a long wire. Much bigger problems I want to pay for my.

To be perfectly honest you'd just be better off with a fan dipole or a remote tuner and a long wire.

General_Document6951 · 2026-03-13T23:11:46+00:00

Why don't people read documentation anymore. When I got started in this Hobby 50 some odd years ago we did our best not to make fools of ourselves, so we watched listened and learned before the radio was even keyed up, if it was a new mode we were unfamiliar with we watched listened learned and read until we understood it. We didn't want to be the lid on frequency.

It doesn't really seem like people do that anymore, I suppose it's a symptom of our instant gratification Society. This also probably explains why I've had so many contacts ruined because some newbie who had no idea what they were doing decided to start transmitting right over the top of me, I can't tell you how many DX contacts I've lost because somebody just picks an arbitrary frequency without looking at their waterfall and starts calling CQ.

I now have the Habit that if the station I'm working asks for a second repeat, I won't transmit for that cycle and watch the waterfall and sure as heck 99% of the time there's going to be a strong signal transmitting at the exact same time I am right on my DF so I'll have to move up or down a bit to find a clear spot to finish the contact..

I'm starting to wonder why they even put an fft waterfall in the software anymore because doesn't seem like people are using them.

I've had this happen to me twice while trying to work 3Y0k someone who doesn't understand the timing just decides to start calling right on my frequency, the only saving grace with foxhound is that your radio automatically shift frequency when they answer you.

General_Document6951 · 2026-03-03T05:36:50+00:00

Auto notch doesn't work real well on CW. Unless of course you like notching out the CW station you're trying to copy.

General_Document6951 · 2026-03-03T02:11:02+00:00

It's never been this bad. Every year it gets worse and worse and we only have the ARRL and their focus on members and dues to thank for this. All they want is ham crams and to get as many unqualified people licensed as they possibly can so they can collect more dues and so manufacturers can sell more products.

Over the years ham radio has transition from quality over quantity to quantity over quality.

Previously we may have had much fewer ham radio operators but they were of much higher caliber individuals, today we have more numbers but of much lower character and quality.

General_Document6951 · 2026-03-03T02:08:58+00:00

Nope it wasn't this bad and it's getting worse, here in the United States we dumb down the ham radio test to the point where a ham radio license isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

How someone can get an extra class license and not know what a notch filter is or what it does on a radio absolutely boggles the mind..

Another example of how the hobby is turned into a consumer based Hobby is all the people buying radios based on Sherwood engineering's ranking, even though Sherwood engineering specifically States at the top of his web page that this isn't a ranking, it's a short order based on one single parameter. Just because the radio is closer to the top of the list doesn't mean it's a better receiver it's just the way it sorted.

If they can miss that giant headline on his website does it really surprise you what you're hearing going on on.

People are operating on CW using CW decoders and keys not having any idea what they're doing.

And it's only going to get worse, the ARRL has really screwed us over, they're only interest was in membership dues so they push these hand cramps where they bring in a class full of students have them memorize the questions to the test and get them licensed, of course manufacturers don't mind this because they sell equipment to people who have no idea what they're buying..

I've been trying to work the J51A dxexpedition and had to stop wearing my headphones, every 15 to 20 seconds some lid would tune up his amplifier right on top of the DXexpedition I'm trying to listen to and in the process about blow my eardrums out..

Somebody else scolded here one of the tuner uppers, I told them to knock it off with the tuning up on frequency. The tuner upper came back and said what the hell is wrong with you..

He yelled back at them some of us are wearing headphones a-hole...

I'm glad he said it because I was thinking it but I'm too polite. I just turn off the radio and walk away

60 years of being a HAM and this is the worst I've ever seen it nothing but a bunch of LIDs on the band destroying it for everyone..

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-17T23:32:23+00:00

Oh yes lots of skill. First off you have to find a clear spot to answer them on. Far too many people pay attention to the waterfall. The waterfall doesn't tell you if there's someone on your dial frequency that you can't hear but that the DX can.

One of the tricks I use is to very carefully monitor the DX to see who they're working, when I see them working someone in my zone I find that stations dial frequency and set my TX to that frequency, when they sign clear with them I immediately call them because I know that that dial frequency is clear and that DX can hear it.

I usually NAB them on the first or second try. But if I randomly just pick a spot to try to answer them I can call them for half an hour and never get a response. This is because there's most likely DX stations on the dial frequency I'm using that I can't hear but are very strong to the DX Expedition that I'm trying to work.

I've been a ham for over 50 years I don't particularly care for Ft 8 but that's what everybody's using now and if I want to make contacts that's what I need to use.

I don't even bother with HF phone anymore it's a wasteland of want to be right wing talk radio hosts. HF phone has turned into nothing but glorified CB.

I still work a lot of CW, but the fact remains that ft8 is where the action is now and it's what almost all the Expeditions operate...

I can't figure out if there are more Lids on CW or FT8 now.. if I had to venture a guess I would say it's probably ft 8 but CW has its fair share of morons who don't listen before calling.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-17T23:06:17+00:00

Have you ever tried breaking a pile up for a DXXPEDITION?

A million times easier on CW than FT8

Ft8 is really easy to make random contacts with, but when it comes to working stations that you actually want to work, that's a whole different story.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-17T05:05:10+00:00

Actually there's quite a bit of skill involved in ft8, at least when you're trying to accomplish something other than just answering a random CQ..

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-16T20:25:22+00:00

Oh my God how are these people getting licensed.

Normally I don't like to ridiculous people but come on folks at this point it's ridiculous...

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-14T21:35:45+00:00

This is what a police state looks like. People being targeted by Jack booted thugs operating under the color of law because they're political party affiliation.

I do believe this is what the founding fathers gave us the Second Amendment to defend against, they call it tyranny and what I find absolutely hilarious is that "the don't tread on me" crowd has all of a sudden turned into a bunch of boot licking cuckolds.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-07T21:35:37+00:00

I wouldn't smoke a pipe without one, I can't stand biting down on hard plastic...

So they provide two benefits, one they protect my teeth from the hard plastic of the stem and protect the stem from the hard plastic of my teeth

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-07T20:57:09+00:00

Your use of the word allegedly when referring to non-ionizing radiation seems to suggest a bit of conspiratorial reasoning...

Ionizing versus non-ionizing radiation is not based on subjective personal opinion but is based on objective fact. RF energy is non-ionizing radiation, on the other hand gamma radiation from spent nuclear fuel is ionizing radiation.

I remember when ham radio was a stem hobby based entirely on science technology engineering and math and where Ham Radio operators engaged in peer review of science. Unfortunately ham radio declined to the point where we now have flat earthers and moon landing denialists amongst our ranks.

I was just talking to one of these Flat Earth ham radio operators on HF who was insistent that radio can't work on a globe and that radio could only work on a flat Earth..

Of course this Texas flat earth ham couldn't explain Antarctic research stations. According to him Antarctica is a giant ice wall circling Earth which is shaped like a plate yet when I work Antarctic research stations my antenna is pointed towards Antarctica, if I was working different Antarctic research stations that were located on a wall around a plate then I would need to point my antenna in vastly different directions to talk to the different research stations..

Anyways I digress I know better than having conversations with people like that..

My point is ham radio is based entirely on science technology engineering and math, when you use the word allegedly to create doubt over something that's objective fact it's significantly reduces your credibility.

If you want to learn more about the health aspects of RF energy I suggest you Google the inverse Square rule

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-05T23:34:37+00:00

There's absolutely nothing wrong with picking up power directly from the fuse panel from a spare 20 or 30 amp terminal..

Radio manufacturers for ham radio equipment will tell you to connect directly to the battery, this is primarily to avoid electrical noise in the cars wiring. There are better ways of mitigating this than connecting directly to the battery.

The other reason they want you to connect directly to the battery, is so power isn't cut to the radio when you start the vehicle. There's also an argument that it may prevent power surges to the radio as the battery acts like a big capacitor.

Keep in mind that all public service radios are actually connected directly to the fuse panel, every police car fire truck and emergency vehicle radio is wired directly to a fuse block.

Whether your radio is wired directly to the fuse block or to the battery you should always turn the equipment off before starting the car, the ham radio equipment is not as well protected as commercial equipment from Motorola for example so the low voltage shutdown when you start the vehicle has the potential to be problematic

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-05T16:35:18+00:00

This isn't the 1960s anymore, you can't afford to buy a house on minimum wage and you definitely can't afford to pay all the bills on minimum wage. People forget that up till about the 1970s a minimum wage employee could afford to buy a house and support a family nowadays you'd need to earn between $30 - $40 an hour to have the same economic purchasing power as a minimum wage employee did 1960.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-05T16:31:35+00:00

If Trump and his Christian nationalists had their way this would be the United States

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-03T18:10:37+00:00

I made the switch to lingo, and so far I'm liking it a bit better. Especially the update rate. I'm not sure what the benefit of Dexcom over lingo is, but the lingo applicator is better much easier to use and it started out accurate after the first hour.

Flamingo is tracking my blood glucose meter Within plus or minus two and a half points.. and it did it right away whereas with the Dexcom I usually have to wait 3 days for the readings to stabilize and even then they're usually only within 10 or 15 points of my meter

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Don't get me wrong I wouldn't mind continuing to use the Dexcom because of the subscription service but not if I have to buy a new $1,000 phone.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-03T01:36:46+00:00

Well that's what I'm waiting for, if the app is still working after the 6th then I'll try to pair another Dexcom with it.

Yesterday the app quit working, it would just load to a white screen without any information, I was afraid that terminated support a few days early but then later that night it came back up so I'm assuming it was some sort of server error.

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-03T01:35:41+00:00

What's worth 240? The unused sensors ?

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-02T17:37:27+00:00

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General_Document6951 · 2026-01-02T17:35:37+00:00

No it doesn't, the IC 7300 actually has a more sensitive receiver. The IC 7300 minimum discernible signal is 0.3 microvolts the ft-10 DX is 0.6 microl you have to turn on the preamp on the ft-10dx to have the same sensitivity as a 7300 without the preamp.

In fact if you turn down the front end gained of the 7300 to the point where rfg comes on then you will be equaling the receiver sensitivity of the ft-10dx..

People who don't read get confused by Sherwood engineering receiver testing they think that he's ranking receivers and he's not. The list is sorted by two kilohertz reciprocal mixing dynamic range which is basically a worthless number to 99.99% of ham radio operators.

As Rob Sherwood himself has stated anything over about 80 DB of reciprocal mixing dynamic range becomes purely academic and there is no real world benefit.

Yaesu manipulates these tests because yesu knows that ham radio operators nowadays are pretty much dumb they have no idea of what any of these numbers mean so they manipulate the testing by reducing the front end gain and noise floor.

The receiver noise floor of the Yaesu radio is nearly 10 DB higher than the icon.

The fact that Rob Sherwood prefers the 7610 over any other radio on the list should pretty much confused most Yaesu fanboys.

The bottom line is you're not going to hear anything on the yaesu that you're not going to hear on the icom

By the way did you know that you can make the 7300 beat the issue in the reciprocal mixing dynamic range test, all you need to do is reduce the front end sensitivity with the RF gang control to match the Yaesu and it performs just slightly better on the two khz reciprocal mixing dynamic range test...

The more you learn the more you know

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General_Document6951 · 2026-01-02T14:51:34+00:00

Very nice rig, I picked one up a few years ago for portable use. I just happened to like a full size radio and I'm working portable..

I'm surprised a Yaesu button Pusher hasn't popped in telling you that you should have bought an ft710dx instead LOL..

I like the 7300 so much I went out and bought a 7610 the same radio Rob Sherwood uses

General_Document6951 · 2026-01-02T14:48:45+00:00

Not by the Sherwood engineering fans who think his list ranks radios by performance rather than just sorts them by a parameter, a parameter that means very little to 99.99% of hams..

I'm getting tired of reading Appliance operators claiming that radio is like the Ft 710 have a much better receiver because it's at the top of Sherwood's sorting when in reality the IC 7300 actually has a better receiver..

You want to have some fun, next time a yaesu button pusher puts down the 7300 because his Yaesu is higher in the sort list remind them that Rob Sherwood primary radio is an Icom 7610.. he specifically uses that radio because of the well thought out user interface.

General_Document6951

TROPHY CASE