Packet Radio, Part 2a (antenna repositioning)

Parts order is on the way, from Jameco, but I wanted to do something, so I got a longer antenna feed cable (50' of RG8X coax), fixed a loose board on the base of my homebrew 2m dipole, and ran the new cable from my hamshack/gameroom/office, over to the antenna located in my bedroom (at least, until wife comes upstairs and asks what the heck is this thing doing in her bedroom :p).

Pretty minor stuff, but I learned a little something.  In the past, when I've tried to transmit from a radio in the hamshack, the speakers on my game computer hum, and hum loudly.  Sure, it might not be a serious problem, but it's a sign of RFI, right?  My first attempt to transmit today, with the new setup, also caused RF hum, and even though the antenna was an extra 15-20' away, it was as loud as ever.

But I was running 50' of feed line across 25' of space, which meant spare cable, coiled on the floor of the hamshack.  I moved that coiled feedline from the hamshack to the bedroom, and voila, transmitting causes no hum in game computer speakers.  Problem solved (or at least moved elsewhere).

The other, more significant problem that I was trying to solve was actually being able to communicate with the club repeater.  I've tried a few setups: 

• dipole in hamshack (fail)
• dipole in bedroom (success)
• Baofeng in bedroom/living room/etc. (fail)
• magmount on Jeep in driveway (success)

Only the dipole in bedroom, and magmount on Jeep, give any success.  So this new arrangement, with radio in hamshack but dipole where it's worked in the past, is an additional success, and a better arrangement for indoor operating.

The last thing I want to try is to move the dipole up into the attic, and run the feedline up through the ceiling of the hamshack closet, but that'll be an experiment for another day.