Ya, eh ... somebody explain them to me too ...
Also, a Ratshack C band - the original receiver used an atypical LNB design, so I converted it to industry standard and still scan for wild feeds using a Drake combo box.
Also have a 14' fiberglass "flying saucer" I salvaged from the neighbors.
Leaning up against the fence at the back - I plan to use it for a roof for a gazebo under the trees ... kind of a Pantheon look ... but mostly so I don't wake up covered in bird crap ... I HATE it when that happens! <G>
Not shown, a couple 125 foot long wires set perpendicular. I used to run those into a phasing box so I could get something of an omni coverage from them. Those don't see much action anymore since the DX Ultra went up. That sucker can drag the world in quite nicely ... not many signals can hide from it when conditions are right. It's rated up to 80 meter at 1kW for transmit. They're normally set up as conventional horizontal, but I set mine up as an inverted corner "V" to fit the available space. Very flexible design.
PS ... the power pole is handy for catching the occasional lightning strike. That soaked up a boatload of joules a couple years back - enough to fry the transformer anyway. Only damage to the house was to my shorts ... I was sitting on the porch when it happened, enjoying the storm ...
Noise must be a bear with that dipole broadside to that transformer.
You'd think, but it's really not that bad! Certainly better than the long wires I was using. Pure dumb luck, and it's not like the power company's gonna move their poles if I ask em anyway. I think I get more interference and coupling from the braided steel guy wires on the vertical, but I'm getting too old to be chasing up and down replacing nylon lines, and everything matches up nice. Biggest noise issue I have is with what sounds like a bad insulator on an electric fence ... tick, tick, tick, tick ... tried tracking that down a few times without any luck as it's intermittent, mostly weather related. Doesn't help that it could be anywhere within maybe a 20 mile radius.
PS ... for a sense of scale, the vertical antenna is 60 feet to the top of the radiator ...