[OKDXA] An RFI Story...

[Kim Elmore]

I lived in Longmont, CO, until 1995. I was in a nice, middle-class 
neighborhood of modest houses on modest lots. I had a 50 ft tower with a 
tribander and 2 el 40 m beam on it along with a dipole for the 12, 17 
and 30 m bands and an inverted V for 80 m. By far, most of my operation 
was and is CW. This is pretty much the antenna system I have now.

During that time, we suffered a neighbor behind us that had RFI troubles 
with a touch lamp when I transmitted. Touch lamps were all rage around 
that time and almost as sensitive to RF as a good receiver. The neighbor 
had told me about it; I explained the problem and I offered to look at 
it, but he wasn't interested in taking me up on my offer.?? One evening, 
he showed up at my door with a burley companion to express his 
displeasure with how I affected his touch lamp. Recognizing that he was 
playing an intimidation game, I patiently explained, again, the nature 
of the problem. I showed him my station and handed him a little RFI 
pamphlet from the ARRL and went over the points made in it. He wasn't 
happy, but he and his friend left after about 30 min.

By this time, I certainly wasn't happy with his game nor was I happy 
with the fact that he wasn't interested in fixing the issue, only of 
bullying me into abandoning my hobby. I was having none of that. The way 
my house and shack were arrayed, I could look out the window across my 
yard and see his upstairs living room where the offending touch lamp was 
along with his TV. Likewise, he could see if I was in my shack.

Fast forward to an early Saturday Autumn afternoon: he's watching what 
is almost certainly a college football game. I fire everything up and, 
to see if anything has changed about his beloved touch lamp, touched my 
key. Immediately, his touch lamp came on. I could see him jump up and go 
to the balcony to look across at my house. I ducked down so I couldn't 
be seen. He stared for a while, and them went back to his game. While 
hiding, I hatched a plan...

I setup my keyer so as to send "RFI TEST DE N5OP" repeatedly every 30 s. 
If I hurried, I could get out the back door in about 10 s. I programmed 
the message to start with a 10 s delay and repeat indefinitely. I needed 
to mow the lawn, anyway, so I readied my mower, went back inside, 
started the keyer and ran out the back door, started the mower and began 
leisurely mowing my back yard. His touch lamp begin flickering... He 
jumped up and headed to his balcony to check out what was going on at my 
house.

Lo! and Behold! I'm innocently mowing my lawn! He stares at me and at my 
house. Yet, I'm OUTSIDE, mowing my lawn. He stares a bit more, walks 
inside, watches his lamp go nuts for a bit, then unplugs it. N5OP: 1, 
Neighbor: 0

After the weather turned cold, I dropped by my house to pick up 
something or other with a friend who was also a new ham. It was dark 
outside, and a weekend night. The house was also dark and I left it that 
way. My neighbor was clearly watching a sports event on his TV. His 
touch lamp was on in a corner of his room. I turn to my friend and said 
"Watch this!" Leaving the lights off, I turned on the rig, and touched 
the key.

"One ping only."

This touch lamp, I'd learned, had four sequential states: off, low, 
medium, high. Sure enough the touch lamp changed intensity. We could 
clearly see him turn his head, look at it, then spring up to look across 
at my house. It was dark as a tomb and as silent as the grave-- my whole 
house was dark. He looked for a bit, went inside and adjusted his lamp 
back to its initial state (low, I think). He sat back down and started 
watching the game. I touched my key.

Again he went to his balcony to check out my place, which remained dark 
as a tomb. So, he adjusts his lamp again. My friend is now laughing 
pretty hard. A few seconds after the neighbor settles into his recliner, 
I again touch my key. He no longer checks to see if there's anything to 
see at my house but goes straight to the lamp, checks it over and again 
adjusts it. As soon as he sits down, I touch the key again. By this time 
my friend has developed quite a side stitch from laughing so hard and 
could barely stand. The neighbor gets up again and adjusts the lamp. As 
soon as he gets into his chair, I touch my key. He gets up again and 
this time turns the lamp off. As soon as he turns his back, I touch my 
key and it dutifully comes back on.

My neighbor is clearly agitated by this time. He turns it off and stares 
at it. I touch my key. He cycles through the states and leaves it on a 
different setting. I touch my key...

This repeats perhaps twice more. The last time, I let him sit back down 
and get comfy in his recliner before I touch my key. This sends him into 
a literal frenzy! He jumps up, grabs the lamp with both hands and shakes 
it as if strangling a snake. He then rips the plug out of the wall and 
hurls it down a hallway.

Game, set, match.

The lamp was never seen again and I never heard another peep out of him.

73,

Kim N5OP

-- 

Kim Elmore, Ph.D. (Adj. Assoc. Prof., OU School of Meteorology, CCM, PP 
SEL/MEL/Glider, N5OP, 2nd Class Radiotelegraph, GROL)

/"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in 
practice, there is." //??? Attributed to many people; it???s so true that it 
doesn???t matter who said it./