[Elecraft] K3: Are the birdies really birdies

[Mike K2MK]

There's a very interesting item in December's QST "The Doctor is In" feature
(page 48 right column). Receiver birdies turned out to be caused by a noisy
router. I have learned to live with 10 meter birdies on my K3. But lately
I've been active on 12 meters and there is an S5 birdie at about 24900KHz.
So after reading the article I started unplugging cables on my wireless
router (which is in another room from my K3). Whoa, what's this? Birdies
come and go as I unplug the router power line or unplug the CAT 5 cable
going to the shack. Ditto in the shack. If I unplug the CAT 5 from the wall
or from the PC the birdie on 12 meters disappeared. Moving on to 10 meters I
discovered that all of the prominent birdies also disappeared. I haven't
done a thorough investigation but I suspect they might all be gone.

Of course that was only step one. I still need an internet connection on my
shack PC so I'm currently experimenting. Snap-on ferrite cores had no
effect. Moving the shack CAT 5 cable away from other radio related cables is
having a positive effect. Next I'm going to try a shielded CAT 5 cable from
the wall to the shack PC. But of course the cable wiring in the wall to the
router is not shielded so I don't have high hopes of solving it in this way.
But at least I'm on the right track and I'm sure I'll find something that
works eventually.

73,
Mike K2MK
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