[Elecraft] K3: Are the birdies really birdies

[Don Wilhelm]

  Mike,

OK, you are finding good information about the source of the "birdies" 
(which are not really birdies, but real signals).
If you can locate your antenna away from the router and ethernet cables, 
your problem will diminish.  My computer network is confined to the 
inside of a stucco covered house with its steel mesh coating, so I 
(sort-of) live in a shielded box.  The antennas are located at least 80 
feet from the house, so I hear few of those troublesome radiation 
effects from the computer netowrk devices.  The downside is that I 
cannot connect my laptop to the network access point if I am more than 
25 feet from the house.

So, if you can, locate the antennas as far away from the noise source as 
possible, and if that is not possible, use ferrites and other shielding 
means to lower the radiation into your receiving antenna.

This is not a K3 (K2, K2, YaseuKenCom) problem, but it is a situation 
that must be dealt with if one is to continue to enjoy the benefits of 
networking and internet access provided by routers and switches and 
access points, they all generate RF that our sensitive receiver can hear.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 11/16/2010 6:02 PM, Mike K2MK wrote:
> 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