From Guam, there are two primary directions for radio: NW for Europe and NE for North America. I have two long (~1000ft) single wire Beverage receive antennas, one toward each population area. My European (NW) Beverage hears incredibly well, as there are no noise sources for 1500 miles in that direction, only jungle and ocean. Unfortunately, I suffer some noise in the North American direction on 160m, usually hovering about S2. This noise only affects Top Band for some reason, and the source is line noise from civilization about 1 mile distant in that direction. At times, the noise has made it difficult to copy the next layer down of NA stations calling on 160. I’ve decided to try to mitigate the noise by laying out a new Beverage for NA.
The existing wire is just over 1000ft long and is pointed at 046 degrees – the center of the continental United States. It has served me well, allowing me to complete 160m WAS, but it is still noisier than I would like. This antenna is already version 2.0 of my NA receive wire, located further west (deeper in the jungle) from the original version 1.0 which was even noisier but closer to the road and power lines.
The new route is significantly further west and deeper in the jungle. The feed point is about 1300 feet from my house, and will be fed by quad-shielded RG-6. Over the past week, I have taken time to mark out the route, clearing a path along the way.
I brought my new Nexus 7 tablet which comes with a GPS receiver and was able to plot my track with Google Earth.
The new route is just under 1000ft in length, and pointed just about 030. I did this on purpose, as this direction is oblique to the noise source which is centered more in a 060 heading. I hope this helps null the QRN significantly. This is also the direct heading for W1/2/3, the most difficult region of NA to work from here.
When working in the jungle, I keep covered up from head to toe. This is to keep the spiders, spider webs, mosquitoes, and sharp leaves off my skin. Bug repellent barely works, and after 5 minutes, sweat has washed it off and the mosquitoes are clouding around me again. An old T-shirt covering my head keeps them at bay.
I wear a white, heavy duty long sleeve shirt with gloves. The white is for visibility because I know a couple people who do hunt in an area adjacent to where my antennas are located. I wear an old pair of USCG ODU pants which protect me from stickers and other things that scratch. The head-to-toe covering helps protect me from wasps as well.
The smaller “boonie wasps” are very aggressive and painful, but at least for me, their sting wears off after about an hour. The larger hornets, on the other hand, are less aggressive but pack a powerful punch. A sting from one of these is like getting hit by a line drive baseball, and it hurts for well over a week. They also have a habit of building nests in ferns, about 1-2ft above the ground where they are impossible to see until it is too late. Today I ran into one of those nests, but fortunately did not get stung. I beat the brush ahead of me with a 6ft piece of aluminum tubing to try to give myself some advance warning instead of stepping right into them.
