[Elecraft] RFI issues

[Andreas Wachter]

Yes, I did run the K3 off of a battery and pulled the main AC breaker. Didn’t make any difference. Thus my suspicion that the RFI is related to the 208 kW ERP TV station (and/or 63 kW EPR FM station) which are within 1.6 miles and in direct line of sight.

73, Andreas K6AKW 

> On Feb 18, 2020, at 10:00 AM, Hank <hbjr at optilink.us> wrote:
> 
> 
> Have you tried pulling your main AC breaker and running your K3 on a car battery?  That way, you are sure that nothing in your house (switching power supplies, poor mechanical joints, etc.) is creating the noise.  
> 
> 
> I was able to convince my nearest neighbors to shut down their AC panels also after my house seemed "clean".  
> 
> 
> I finally found 2 bad crimped power line connections down the street from my and a home made fence charge at a goat farm about 300yds behind my house through the woods.  Another ham and the local power company came and helped.  The power company did their work and it cleared up several S units, but something was still there.  Riding around with a scanner tuned to 1800kHz (AM mode) with no antenna connected yielded the goat fence.  The power company came out with a listening device to verify my findings.  I offered to buy the farmer a fence charger from the hardware store, but he went ahead and did it on his own - it really helped having the power company there!!
> 
> I still have a neighbor with a noisy plasma TV - an MFJ-1026 with a longwire out the window nulls it out quite well when the TV in on.  Eventually the TV will die (I'm hoping).
> 
> Good luck!
> Hank
> K4HYJ
> 
>  
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Andreas Wachter via Elecraft (elecraft at mailman.qth.net)
> Date: 02/18/20 12:39
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [Elecraft] RFI issues
> 
> I live about 1.6 miles from some tall antenna towers broadcasting digital TV (KBCB) at 208 kW ERP on channel 19 (500 - 506 MHz) and on FM (KWPZ-FM) at 63 kW ERP on 106.5MHz - according to FCC info on KBCB and KWPZ-FM. Ever since I moved to this QTH a few months ago, I am unable to use my K3: solid S9+ noise on all bands using a makeshift dipole strung up on some trees outside my house. I’ve tried to locate the source of the RFI within my home but so far have been unable to locate any RFI emanating from within my home. Could it be that the TV/FM stations antenna towers, which are within direct line of sight from my house, might be responsible for the RFI?
> 
> 73, Andreas
> 
> K6AKW
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