We’re trying to get my friends station setup complete. We got his radio installed, and an End Fed Half Wave (EFHW) 40-20-15-10M antenna installed. The problem is that electrical noise is fairly bad on it, and he can hardly hear some signals. One solution to this is to make an RF Choke out of extra coaxial cable. Unfortunately, we don’t have any extra coax cable, and so we have to add some. We are also taking the opportunity to add a 100Kohm resistor across the feed line to dissipate static electricity. How? I’m glad you asked!

First, we needed to add another 20 feet of coaxial cable. Thankfully Amazon has some good deals, as there are very few purveyors of RG8X with PL-259 connectors within a hundred miles of where I live.

Next we need to get that resistor in and couple the already existing cable with the new one. So for that an SO239 Tee connector comes into play. We’ll install the resistor across the open Tee and seal it with coax seal tape.

Lastly, my friend is very close to getting his General license. Once he does, he’ll be able to transmit on all the HF frequencies, and he’ll be able to use PSK-31 as he’s been wanting to. The only problem is that his new laptop only has a single combined headphone and microphone jack. His audio coupler for the must have separate jacks. So a 3.5mm combined jack to mic/headphone jack adapter was needed and sourced. Now he’s that much closer to getting on the air!