[160m] Re: Topband: ADSL 160 meter RFI problems

[Garry Shapiro]

Modems and routers are capable of both responding negatively to RF and 
generating RFI to our stations. You give a good example of the 
former--here is one for the latter.

Many moons ago, I noted the appearance of strong, broad interference on 
160--an obnoxious addition to the omnipresent  but constantly changing 
mix of buzzes, rattles, dimmer radiation, loose grounds, cable leakage 
/ad nauseam/ that defines the topband environment for many of us. I 
converted a surplus LORAN square loop from the flea market to 1.83 MHz, 
created a Rube Goldberg mounting to car roof-mount racks, and cruised 
the neighborhood--and found nothing.

Frustrated, I pulled back into my driveway--and the noise was strong. 
The loop had a great null, and it unambiguously pointed at---my shack! 
The culprit was a Linksys BEFSR14 router--the Blue Box that was very 
popular a few years ago, but is unshielded. (This was the hardwire 
version, not the wireless version.) I called Linksys--by then part of 
Cisco--and was connected to an overseas "support" moron, who insisted 
that there had been no RFI issues with the router.

With no other ideas to try, I reported this to Topband, and received a 
response from a List member (whose callsign escapes me) instructing me 
to "Google 'Linksys+RFI'", which I did. I got /ten pages/ of links 
documenting countless complaints of RFI from 160m to 70cm, including 
three formal complaints to FCC. The router went into the junk box, 
replaced by a Netgear unit in a metal box. I need not comment further 
about the value of "support" from Linksys, which is, sadly, the norm 
today from many companies.

Garry, NI6T

Tom Rauch wrote:
> I had ADSL installed last month because I was having 
> problems receiving and sending mail via my remote mail host. 
> BellSouth is actually where the problem was at for email. 
> :-)
>
> Anyway despite having a very clean installation (shielded 
> buried phone lines) and antennas several hundred feet away 
> from the ADSL system and phone lines.... 160 would just kill 
> the DSL modem. Even a dipole 300 feet high and 400 feet away 
> that had little RF in any of the lines would knock the modem 
> off line. I even built a very good 160 notch filter and 
> could not cure it.
>
> The original modem was a Netopia 2210-02 modem. It's a tiny 
> little silver modem.
>
> ATT sent me a 2701HG-B Gateway as a no charge exchange and 
> all the problems vanished. Even beaming straight into the 
> building where the modem is or using a dipole right outside 
> the building doesn't cause any connection problems. (I still 
> have the 160 notch filter I built in line.)
>
> 73 Tom
>
>  
>
> _______________________________________________
> Topband mailing list
> Topband at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/topband
>
>