[NLRS] ARe: [BC'ers] 5.4 Gig RF mystery -- any ideas?

[Todd Sprinkmann]

  Hi Don,

  Thanks for your reply.

  I do want you to know that this issue doesn't
directly concern me.  It's the ISP's problem, not
mine.  They can do the heavy lifting when it comes
to any sort of exact timing, spectrum analyzer, etc.
FWIW, the ISP is located on the east side of Random
Lake, along Hwy 57, just north of the new Tri-Par
gas station.

  And as for me writing an article for QST about
anything up in the microwaves, oh boy, Don, you
don't know me very well.  I'm saying this with a
full-blown smile because I am pretty much an
appliance operator that just enjoys grid chasing
and contesting on 50 and up.

  I imagine others will weigh in, but my primary
goal here was to see if there's some sort of 5.4
gig based RF that the ISP is unaware of.  But
I'm not going to do anything beyond put the
question out here, and then relay to the ISP any
possible ideas.

   At any rate, thanks again, and I'll be curious
to see what others think.

   73,
   Todd  KC9BQA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Buska" <dbuska at wi.rr.com>
To: "Todd Sprinkmann" <sprinkies at excel.net>
Cc: "Badgercontesters at Mailman. Qth. Net" 
<badgercontesters at mailman.qth.net>; "Nlrs at Mailman. Qth. Net" 
<nlrs at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2007 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: [BC'ers] 5.4 Gig RF mystery -- any ideas?


> Hi Todd,
>
> This should be fun - real detective work for the BC group!
>
> Some ideas:
>
> 1)  Every Friday at 10:30PM.  Some form of end-of-week data 
> collection?  The length of on-time may be dependent on how much data 
> there is to transmit.
>
> 2)  How exact is the 10:30 start time?  Is it 10:30:00 or 10:30:17.... 
> ?  This will also provide us with some detail as to the precision of 
> the equipment (or if it's computer/time sync control) on the emitter 
> side.
>
> 3)  I would move to a spectrum analyzer next to get the exact 
> frequency of emission and it will also provide details of any 
> modulation.  Thus you would determine if there is intelligence 
> contained in the signal or if it's just  some emitter that just 
> happens to go off once per week.  This would probably require some 
> form of 5GHz preamp and antenna attached to the spectrum analyzer.
> The nice thing is you know when to look and for how long you have to 
> analyze.  Document your work as this would make a really good QST 
> article.
>
> 73
>
> Don N9OO
>
> Todd Sprinkmann wrote:
>>   Good morning,
>>
>>   I live about 40-45 miles north and a little west of Milwaukee and I
>> got a call from my wireless ISP this morning.  They've been getting
>> clobbered by full-scale RF that wipes out their 5.4 gig backhauls 
>> over
>> about a 20 mile radius.  There's a specific pattern to it, that I'll 
>> explain.  .
>>
>>   They called me because they know I'm a ham and they thought maybe
>> this was somehow ham-related.  Once I heard what the pattern was, I
>> told them I'm 99.9% sure it's not ham.  Even if it were somehow, I 
>> don't
>> know of anyone up this way that runs 5 gigs.  And it wouldn't be a 
>> steady
>> carrier pinning their meters.  So with an unsolved mystery, I thought 
>> I'd
>> toss it out here and see if anyone has any ideas.
>>
>>   The pattern is this:  For the last 2 to 2 1/2 months, every Friday 
>> night
>> @ 10:30 sharp their signal meters go full-scale and it knocks their
>> service off.  Again, this all wireless.  This is farm country out 
>> here,
>> largely out of the range of DSL and so forth.  So the fellow told me
>> that at least 4 spots are affected by this, and again, it's in about 
>> a
>> 20-mile radius.  We were both very mystified as to what would be
>> so strong that it would overwhelm a large area, especially given
>> two degree beamwidths with their receiving dishes.  The actual
>> geographical area is southern Sheboygan county and northern
>> Washington county, if that has any significance.
>>
>>   The RF lasts usually about 10 minutes and then it disappears.
>> But the guy did say that lately, it's been staying on longer 
>> sometimes.
>> But it's always Friday night, and it always starts @ 10:30pm.
>>
>>   Any thoughts or comments?
>>
>>   73,
>>   Todd   KC9BQA  EN63ao
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>
>
>
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