I rerouted the feed line for my two Beverage receive antennas. Originally, it ran behind the house, close to some house wiring, which caused some common mode noise problems. By rerouting this section of cable, I was able to remove this common noise problem, and I hear better than before with these two Beverages. I now hear some line noise on the NA antenna – coming from the town off base – something I can not control. That is now my limiting factor in that direction. To the NW, for Japan and Europe, I have no noise whatsoever. The antenna “sees” about a km of jungle, then the ocean. I hear Europe *very* well on the low bands with this antenna, much better than I can be heard by them.
We are coming out of the rainy season here on Guam. In fact, there are two seasons – a rainy and a dry season – since the temperature really does not change by season. The drier conditions mean less growth, and I had no problem walking the Beverages this past week.
The wild pigs and deer have helped wear in my path, making it a bit easier as well. I am still fearful that I will come across and accidentally corner a mom pig with a baby (dangerous situation for me), but I make a lot of noise and carry a machete “just in case.”
The spiders are out in force. these are the same garden spiders you would see in Florida. Very large but completely harmless. Most of the time, I use the machete to clear these webs from my path.
Because of the fence around the housing area, it is not easy to get to the Beverages themselves. I have to load all my tools into a backpack, and ride my bike out the main gate and around to the feed point location, about a 1.5 mile ride. I try to make sure I don’t forget anything!