[Elecraft] RF Noise in the Neighborhood

[HarrytheHam]

Went through this myself. S7 to S9 noise appeared out of nowhere and
persistent almost 24 hours a day.  I hunted for the source with no luck. 
Then it dawned on me the noise commenced while PECO (utility), Comcast and
Verizon were doing "upgrades" in the neighborhood.  All utilities are
underground.  PECO was convinced it wasn't them, but they sent someone out
to check...No joy.  However, when the upgrades were done (including the
installation of new underground power lines and dog house transformers) the
noise went away....Well kind of.  The powerline noise was masking another
noise source that was trashing everything from 80 up to 10m. This noise was
about S5-7, but would cycle on an off....on for about 40 seconds, off for
about 20 seconds then back on.  At first I thought it was some appliance on
a timer, but that didn't make much sense.  Not a furnace either.  Eventually
tracked it down to my neighbor's sodium vapor flood lights. These lights are
notorious for generating interference when they are on their last legs.  Had
the rig on and observed his light flickering (noise present), going off
(noise gone) and then coming back on (noise returned). Neighbor would not
replace it until it eventually craped out. In the meantime, I used a
Timewave ANC-4 and made a noise antenna (after some experimentation) that
reduced the noise to about S1.

Check the ARRL website as well as the eHAM Elmer forums.  There is a link to
a site with a dozen or more noise recordings that may be useful helping you
narrow down the possible cause.

Harry WE1X
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